Reef Breeders Photon V2+ BEST SCHEDULE

[ASIN28]

Hey all,
Just curious what those of you using this light what lighting schedule are you on to get the most out of the light? What colors do you push more out of, etc? Post a picture of the chart schedule that you got or pictures of your reef using this light!
I’m going for a mixed reef, so any advice would be appreciated!
Thanks

 

[nereefpat]

@Ron Reefman

 

[Snoopy 67]

red = -0- green maxes @10 white maxes @ 50
cool blue, royal blue &violet are 100

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Good luck! I love my reefbreeders light but programming it is a nightmare. Let's see, here is my peak schedule (only 4 or 5 hrs a day)

Channels
1 12%
2 12%
3 75%
4 18%
5 75%
6 50%

I did have my blues around 50% but just upped them to make the corals look better

 

[Bpb]

My main photoperiod is 8 hours at the following

1: 15%
2: 15%
3: 80%
4: 47%
5: 80%
6: 80%

Two hours before and two hours after is just 3/5/6 at 30%. White red and green off.

I run sbreef sbar actinic blue/violet strips on front and back of the reef breeders that are on 100% for the full 12 hours

During the lower light blue time par averages 150-200 or so

During the bright period par averages 300-400.

I don’t want to mess with them because growth and color is outstanding. Every bit as good as when I ran metal halides.

When I start my tank over I will be running two photon 50 units plus the sbreef bars. I intend to modify the program to have all channels at equal percentages. I just frankly like the look of a 10-12k daylight period more than blue heavy. Even with my whites up at 47% it still looks too blue for me. What specific intensity I use will be dictated by par readings. I’ll continue to shoot for the 200-400 range throughout the tank. Sps dominant

 

[LRT]

@brsinvestigates did a good video and write up on these. I'm running the softy schedule they reccomend. Only thing I've done a little different is raise my Uv channel by 5%.
Should check out there video is very informative.

 

[ASIN28]

Thank you to everyone who replied. I’ll be messing with the light within the days to come. Just been using the default custom but now since I’m getting into the coral aspect of the hobby it’s time to set this light perfect!!

 

[Bpb]

Thank you to everyone who replied. I’ll be messing with the light within the days to come. Just been using the default custom but now since I’m getting into the coral aspect of the hobby it’s time to set this light perfect!!

Following the BRS template, or even the stock reef breeders templates will yield comparable results to anything else. Thing is, corals are so adaptable. There won’t be a miracle setting that gives the BEST results. What will cause problems is changing settings often. Best to use a par meter, make it look nice. Get in an appropriate intensity range, and pack away the remote so you aren’t tempted to fiddle. Once they’re set and acclimated....leave it alone. Don’t change it again. And If you do...move each channel by 1% per day until you reach your new goal. Slow slow slow changes if you absolutely have to

 

[danieyella]

@brsinvestigates did a good video and write up on these. I'm running the softy schedule they reccomend. Only thing I've done a little different is raise my Uv channel by 5%.
Should check out there video is very informative.

I didn't realize they finally got around to doing one!

 

[danieyella]

I've been running a slightly modified version of the stock and I feel like my zoas aren't doing as well as they were on the original version I ran. I actually planned on sitting down tomorrow and tweaking it back to the mixed reef schedule that was stock recommended. MIGHT compare the BRS plan and look into heading that direction first....

 

[LRT]

I didn't realize they finally got around to doing one!

They did and I gotta say they probably couldn't have done it any better.
Hats off to em.

 

[LRT]

Following the BRS template, or even the stock reef breeders templates will yield comparable results to anything else. Thing is, corals are so adaptable. There won’t be a miracle setting that gives the BEST results. What will cause problems is changing settings often. Best to use a par meter, make it look nice. Get in an appropriate intensity range, and pack away the remote so you aren’t tempted to fiddle. Once they’re set and acclimated....leave it alone. Don’t change it again. And If you do...move each channel by 1% per day until you reach your new goal. Slow slow slow changes if you absolutely have to

+1

 

[Ron Reefman]

Sorry to be so late to the party.

I currently have 3 tanks running and all have Photon v2 or v2+ fixtures. My DT has 2 fixtures because the tank is 30" front to back and the Photon only does 24" well. By running the back fixture all blue, it makes the tank look like it's even more than 30" front to back. So I run the back fixture as all blue and violet (BTW 420 nm violet is not true UV, however, EverGrow versions of this fixture sold everywhere other than the US, do have some true under 400 nm UV leds).

My DT runs a 4 hour sunrise that is all blue at dawn and adds in some white after 2 hours. I run a 6 hour midday with whites at 30% or 40% (I keep changing it back and forth) and both blues at 90%. Violet gets mixed in for shading and peaks at 60%. Red and green onlt run during the 6 hour midday. Then I do a 5 hour sunset with the last 3 hours being all blue and violet. My DT is mostly corals and anemones that fluoresce, so lots of blue (violet really only gets yellows to fluoresce, blue does the lion's share of making colors fluoresce).

My frag tank runs slightly lower blues at midday because the water is only 10" deep. I use the same white as the DT because I'm going for growth and health in the frag tank but more for looks in the DT.

This is my 40g DT from last year. My new 90g tank with 2 fixtures is still developing.

 

[ASIN28]

Question to further the thread, trying to ask this correctly to easily understand, So when I get the lights to what I want, how many hours of the days should I run them at the PEAK (when all channels are at their max that I set). In other words for example do I slowly increase to my peak by 3:00PM and then immediately drop it for sunset, or should I keep the peak for a continuous amount of hours for example, Sunrise until 9 and then full peak until 9PM?

 

[danieyella]

Question to further the thread, trying to ask this correctly to easily understand, So when I get the lights to what I want, how many hours of the days should I run them at the PEAK (when all channels are at their max that I set). In other words for example do I slowly increase to my peak by 3:00PM and then immediately drop it for sunset, or should I keep the peak for a continuous amount of hours for example, Sunrise until 9 and then full peak until 9PM?

I keep at peak for a few hours, but I'm curious what others do

 

[Bpb]

Anywhere between 4-8 hours for maximum peak seems to be the most common.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Question to further the thread, trying to ask this correctly to easily understand, So when I get the lights to what I want, how many hours of the days should I run them at the PEAK (when all channels are at their max that I set). In other words for example do I slowly increase to my peak by 3:00PM and then immediately drop it for sunset, or should I keep the peak for a continuous amount of hours for example, Sunrise until 9 and then full peak until 9PM?

As @Bpb said. Photosynthesis takes 30 to 60 minutes just to get started. And most zooxanthellae in our corals will do photosynthesis for 3 to 6 hours. I like my sunrise & sunset, so I do a 4 hour sunrise, a 4 hour midday and a 5 hour sunset. I think the last hour of my sunrise and first hour or two of sunset are close enough to midday levels that I'm getting the 6 or 7 hours of peak time I want. The 4 hours of midday are flat, i.e. all the same intensity level.

 

[jorwill]

Dang how do you guys run whites so high. At 16” off the water for a 75g I’m only running blues from 9a-8p at 50% anymore of blues even thinking running whites at 20% and I was hitting almost 250-300 par at the sand. At 50% blues I’m hitting 100-160 on the sand. 0% reds and greens. My color loss running whites is bad too. It browns everything out.

 

[Bpb]

Dang how do you guys run whites so high. At 16” off the water for a 75g I’m only running blues from 9a-8p at 50% anymore of blues even thinking running whites at 20% and I was hitting almost 250-300 par at the sand. At 50% blues I’m hitting 100-160 on the sand. 0% reds and greens. My color loss running whites is bad too. It browns everything out.

Arent 75 gallon tanks only 18” tall though? At the end of the day even at 16” over the water , you’d have less attenuation. Than someone running them 12” off a 24” deep tank.

Couple shots of the frag rack with 80% blues and violets and 47% whites. 12” above water frag rack is 12” deep in the tank. Par is about 250-300 or so on the rack

 

[WvAquatics]

On my 120g I ring blues and violet at 85% whites at 37. Red and green at 8% for 6 hours a day. 2 hour ramp up and down with same proportion. So whites 50% less than blues and violet and 10% red and green.