Reefbreeder Photon V2 Settings

Ive got a 60" long 18" wide 25" tall tank with a Reef Breeder Photon 50-V2 hanging about 6" off the water. Due to my tank hood, I may be able to raise that about an inch if needed.

I'm looking for a good light schedule and haven't been able to find anything that I love. I also have an SPS frag about mid level in the tank that appears to be bleaching. I've currently got my blues (channels 2,3, 5, and 6) maxing out at 50%, my green (channel 2) maxing out at 40%, my whites (channel 4) maxing out at 40%, and the reds off. I started out at 30% on all channels and ramped up to my current settings.

I'd love for some feedback or suggestions. My clam and RBTA seem to be loving the lights but none of my SPS seem to be doing fantastic (water quality is great). Do I need to turn the lights up? Down? Raise my lights? Lower them?

 

I would try raising the lights up as much as you can just to try and get better spread front to back.

These are powerful lights and there is a par chart on reef breeders site for each light, but I believe it is for all channels running at 50% as Adam at battlecorals runs his at 100% and reports almost exactly double the par readings.

I have a 24” v2 over a 24 inch tank at about 14” over the tank. Blues are at about 30-40% and the other channels set (somewhere around 10-15% just to make the color to my liking. I’ve got sps at about 6” below and doing great.
couldnt tell you my par though.

Hope this helps!

 

Mix a color that looks good on the tank. Note the ratio.
Then set the intensity. Most likely blue will be slightly dominant.
Don’t need go over 20-30% at that distance. It’s a powerful light.


Dimmers % aren't always a % of total intensity. Very often at 1% it’s actual 30-40 % of full intensity.
So at a 1:1 ratio on alll colors , you may be giving the tank 400 par at the top of the tank even at 1%.

Set the preferred color peak time at 6hrs. Set a set a two hr ramp up to that peak. Add one hour of blue on either end of that. For the am and pm pop.
If you run into trouble , increase or decrease the peak intensity or time.

If things go well , you can extend the two Ramps on either end.

If you look at a $15 lux meter. You can set the intensity much easer.

 

Thanks for the info!

 

How is the adjusting done on that light? Are there channel ratios/percentages AND an overall strength? Or is it just power per channel and no global strength?

 

Power per channel, no global strength.

 

This is how I have mine set. Still not completely satisfied with it, but it grows corals and looks good.
I also cheat on the time. It only allows a one hour change on the hour, not on the half hour, so if I want my lights to turn off at 10:30 pm, I set the clock on them 30 minutes fast.

 

I’d honestly just try to mimic the coral lab ab+ settings developed for the radion pros since the color layout of the reef breeders is very similar. But since there’s no global power setting just start by cutting those numbers in half.

All blue and violet/uv channels at 50% and the white red and green channels at 12%.

It’s a proven color program that has a ton of positive results to support it. And you can apply it to most LEDs on the market. If you have access to a par meter you can increase or decrease those percentages to target your own ideal range (250-350) on the rock Work

 

Where can I buy a RB Photon V2+ 48" online?

 

https://www.reefbreeders.com/

 

They are just available in backorder.

 

Can someone post pics of SPS doing well under this light?

 

https://battlecorals.com/

Adam uses quite a few of Logan’s fixtures. Gen 1 and 2. Although, I believe he has some other fixtures as well.

 

I've been running a mixed/SPS dominant reef with a photon v2 for a little over a year now. SPS is growing well, but I am struggling to get good colors out of red and pink sticks. Not sure if I have the whites too high, or if it has something to do with the white spectrum in these lights not being ideal for sticks (read about this, dont actually know).

I can post some pictures for you in a bit.

 

Thanks Brandon, nice tank! What settings are you using throughout the day and hours for each?

Todd

 

Thanks! I'm not at home to confirm and can do so later, but I run the lights for about 7-8 hours with a few hours of ramping on both ends. I have the blues and violets at 100 during peak and whites around 25. A few red and pink pieces I had good coloring with before have been appearing sort of dull lately. I was originally correlating the issue to phosphate levels (~.07), but they have always been in this range when the sticks had good color and I had increased my whites from ~15 to 25 a few months back. I plan on dropping the whites a little bit every week to see if they color back up, if not, I may consider a new light or retro fitting some T-5's onto this fixture.

 

Does the 12% red and green not make a "disco" effect in the water???

 

Depends on how low you have them mounted and your surface agitation. All LEDs with individual colors will have some disco effect

 

Mine is placed app. 8" above the water.
But the 12% gives me a disco effect. So I almost turned it off.

But I love the lamp. It looks amazing when you find the correct schedule