Reefbreeder Photon V2 Settings

[YumaMan]

Disco effect! Staying alive, staying alive!

 

[BluTang85]

Anyone running t5 with there fixture. If so what kind of bracket are u using

 

[Neo Jeo]

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.

I have my blues max at 75 and whites 20 during peak time. Red and green max 15 at peak. Violet max at 35% someone told me corals dont need that much violet. Do you think thats true? Should I turn them up? Im getting ok coral growth.

@Reef Breeders what do you think? Should I raise some of my %s?

This is my chart

 

[Neo Jeo]

I raised my lights from 6” off the water to 8”. I think I should raise my violet . Hard thing is to find what’s best for the lights

 

[Porpoise Hork]

I raised my lights from 6” off the water to 8”. I think I should raise my violet . Hard thing is to find what’s best for the lights

Agreed. The only thing I don't like about these lights is the lack information on dialing them in to get the best color spectrum/par for a given tank. We end up having to mimic other lighting systems as best we can, but don't have the hard evidence that those settings are actually good for these lights.

I ended up raising mine to 13" above the water on my 75g, then put the blues at 70%, red 20%, green 15%, and white 20% with a 2 hour ramp up/down and 7 hour main burn. I easily hit 300-350 par on the top of the rock work, and 125 on the sand bed. So far everything has been going well but I have been having issues with some types of corals. I don't know if it is my light settings or something else.

 

[Neo Jeo]

Agreed. The only thing I don't like about these lights is the lack information on dialing them in to get the best color spectrum/par for a given tank. We end up having to mimic other lighting systems as best we can, but don't have the hard evidence that those settings are actually good for these lights.

I ended up raising mine to 13" above the water on my 75g, then put the blues at 70%, red 20%, green 15%, and white 20% with a 2 hour ramp up/down and 7 hour main burn. I easily hit 300-350 par on the top of the rock work, and 125 on the sand bed. So far everything has been going well but I have been having issues with some types of corals. I don't know if it is my light settings or something else.

Yes, for example I dont like buying a sleep number bed because I dont want to deal with "what's the best setting" I just want a bed that works lol.

My 2 blues are up to 75% and im moving my violet up slowly. My LFS guy said you dont need violet up past 20% becuase most corals dont use it or it can hurt them?? I dont know.... Now my lights are 8" off another more and a ton of light pores out the side.

My only problems right now are with some LPS. I have a torch thats been slowly dieing over a few months and as well a hammer. My thoughts were Im not feeding enough so I have upped that I just hope its not the lights but my other 20 corals are fine.. Maybe its my temp its been running at 75.6 during the cooler months.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

Yes, for example I dont like buying a sleep number bed because I dont want to deal with "what's the best setting" I just want a bed that works lol.

My 2 blues are up to 75% and im moving my violet up slowly. My LFS guy said you dont need violet up past 20% becuase most corals dont use it or it can hurt them?? I dont know.... Now my lights are 8" off another more and a ton of light pores out the side.

My only problems right now are with some LPS. I have a torch thats been slowly dieing over a few months and as well a hammer. My thoughts were Im not feeding enough so I have upped that I just hope its not the lights but my other 20 corals are fine.. Maybe its my temp its been running at 75.6 during the cooler months.

When I ran my light at 8" I was hitting 300+ par with the blues at only 45%, red & green at 11%, and white at 15%. This was at 8" water depth as well. I found that I got much better color blending and less spotlighting when I moved my light up to 13", but it did require increasing the power to each channel to maintain the same par levels. You really might consider raising your light up and see what a difference it makes.

With your tank depending on where you have your corals placed, they are very likely getting far more light than they need. The majority of Euphyllia corals are considered low to medium light and will happily thrive in par ranges from 90-150. If you are running a softie lps tank check your NO3, and Po4 levels. LPS corals do like it a tad dirtier than SPS, so running nitrate at 2-5ppm and phosphates at .003-.010 will provide them all the additional nutrient they need to sustain themselves. As for feeding, torches and hammers are really finicky and don't always take in the food. Usually they will just hold on to it with their mucus coat, and then slough it off when the pumps kick back on, so I never feed mine any more. I just keep them in the 90-120 par range with medium alternating laminar and turbulent flow and they are all happy as can be.

As for the UV, the UV chips on these lights are only 3W so they are not as powerful so even if you set that channel to the same power output as the 5W chips, the actual output is far less. This helps you get that much smaller peak on the color spectrum for UV compared to the 450nm (atinic) and 480nm Royal Blue levels. If you look at the Coral Lab settings you will see they have all three blue channels set to max on the radions they run, but they also mount them much higher off the tank to at least 12-24" off the water line. One thing you can also look at is the BRS video talking about matching the Coral Lab settings on AI Hydras. The Photon V2 uses nearly all the same LED chips as the Hydras. So it would stand to reason if we matched the settings BRS found on the AI lights that matches the color spectrum on the radions then it should be very close for ours as well.

 

[Neo Jeo]

When I ran my light at 8" I was hitting 300+ par with the blues at only 45%, red & green at 11%, and white at 15%. This was at 8" water depth as well. I found that I got much better color blending and less spotlighting when I moved my light up to 13", but it did require increasing the power to each channel to maintain the same par levels. You really might consider raising your light up and see what a difference it makes.

With your tank depending on where you have your corals placed, they are very likely getting far more light than they need. The majority of Euphyllia corals are considered low to medium light and will happily thrive in par ranges from 90-150. If you are running a softie lps tank check your NO3, and Po4 levels. LPS corals do like it a tad dirtier than SPS, so running nitrate at 2-5ppm and phosphates at .003-.010 will provide them all the additional nutrient they need to sustain themselves. As for feeding, torches and hammers are really finicky and don't always take in the food. Usually they will just hold on to it with their mucus coat, and then slough it off when the pumps kick back on, so I never feed mine any more. I just keep them in the 90-120 par range with medium alternating laminar and turbulent flow and they are all happy as can be.

As for the UV, the UV chips on these lights are only 3W so they are not as powerful so even if you set that channel to the same power output as the 5W chips, the actual output is far less. This helps you get that much smaller peak on the color spectrum for UV compared to the 450nm (atinic) and 480nm Royal Blue levels. If you look at the Coral Lab settings you will see they have all three blue channels set to max on the radions they run, but they also mount them much higher off the tank to at least 12-24" off the water line. One thing you can also look at is the BRS video talking about matching the Coral Lab settings on AI Hydras. The Photon V2 uses nearly all the same LED chips as the Hydras. So it would stand to reason if we matched the settings BRS found on the AI lights that matches the color spectrum on the radions then it should be very close for ours as well.

Thank you for the detailed info! I will look to raise my lights. I have a 120g tank and my sps are at the top. Most LPS are middle or bottom. I did just add another power head but my lps still dont open but are growing. I will also turn up my UV.

Do you have your light programing chart that you can share with me? I would like to see how you run yours and the time frames.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

Anytime. Just remember to go slow on increasing the intensity. You will want to only increase it by 5% a week to give the corals time to adjust. And raising the light up will definitely give a better spread over the tank. Here is my most recently updated spreadsheet. This power setting gets me 300+ par at mid tank mounted at 13" above the water on a 75g. So if you do raise your light up and want to keep the same par levels as you have now, you can match what I have set and then make small adjustments as needed until you get it where you like it. Just remember that once you get it set where everything is happy, and have good color pop, leave it alone. Stability is key.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1XMlbR9E67flicu9m0_ilvPWTsQdySGaU

I was thinking about the temp and 75 degrees is rather cool. I run mine at 78 and even that feels rather chilly to me.

Oh.. What are your water parameters at? I have noticed on mine that when I was running my ALK at around 8.0, I wouldn't get nearly as much polyp extension on my LPS as when I ran it closer to 10-11.

 

[Neo Jeo]

Anytime. Just remember to go slow on increasing the intensity. You will want to only increase it by 5% a week to give the corals time to adjust. And raising the light up will definitely give a better spread over the tank. Here is my most recently updated spreadsheet. This power setting gets me 300+ par at mid tank mounted at 13" above the water on a 75g. So if you do raise your light up and want to keep the same par levels as you have now, you can match what I have set and then make small adjustments as needed until you get it where you like it. Just remember that once you get it set where everything is happy, and have good color pop, leave it alone. Stability is key.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1XMlbR9E67flicu9m0_ilvPWTsQdySGaU

I was thinking about the temp and 75 degrees is rather cool. I run mine at 78 and even that feels rather chilly to me.

Oh.. What are your water parameters at? I have noticed on mine that when I was running my ALK at around 8.0, I wouldn't get nearly as much polyp extension on my LPS as when I ran it closer to 10-11.

Thank you for that! Im going to bump my temp to 78. How tall is your 75g?

I been having issues with my doser and my alk is at a 7 but I want it at a 8. Most that I read 8 is a good number and BRS runs it at a 9 so anything higher is more for advanced reefers is what I have been told. Also, there is a thread on here about long term reefers are the temp is around 77 and alk around a 8 for most tanks.

I see you have your max lights on for 7hrs I been around 5 for max. There are so many ways to do it.... Did you match your lights to the Hydras?

 

[Neo Jeo]

i also like more blue so maybe turn down the white?

 

[Bpb]

I mentioned the coral lab setting above because it’s a tried and true program, but beyond that, there is no perfect setting for any LEDs. Hang them high, rent a par meter, target your ideal range for the corals you keep, set them how you like them, and never adjust them further. Adam with @Battlecorals has the best approach. Set them and forget them. Treat them like a metal halide fixture. The best part of LEDs is the low heat factor and (if they work as they should) long shelf life before replacing is needed. The constant adjustability is not a plus, it’s a setback.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

Take it slow on the temp increase as well. Raise it to 78 over a few days if possible so it's a more gradual shift than over a couple hours. My tank is a standard Marineland 75g so I think it's 21" deep. I have run my lights over FW and reef tanks for years on a 7 hour main burn with a two hour ramp up/down, and have always had good success with it. I was rather surprised when I saw that the CoralLab setup has a very similar setting, only they run a single hour ramp. I haven't had a chance to adjust to the Hydras yet since my remote got messed up when my niece was tank sitting for me while we were on vacation and have not ordered a new one. If you match my settings and want it more blue, just drop the whites down to 20 and raise the royal blue to 70. That will give it a distinct blue tint.

 

[Neo Jeo]

Take it slow on the temp increase as well. Raise it to 78 over a few days if possible so it's a more gradual shift than over a couple hours. My tank is a standard Marineland 75g so I think it's 21" deep. I have run my lights over FW and reef tanks for years on a 7 hour main burn with a two hour ramp up/down, and have always had good success with it. I was rather surprised when I saw that the CoralLab setup has a very similar setting, only they run a single hour ramp. I haven't had a chance to adjust to the Hydras yet since my remote got messed up when my niece was tank sitting for me while we were on vacation and have not ordered a new one. If you match my settings and want it more blue, just drop the whites down to 20 and raise the royal blue to 70. That will give it a distinct blue tint.

Thank You, I found someone I can rent a par meeter. Going to do that first then adjust thanks for the help

 

[Neo Jeo]

I had someone come over and give me a par reading. I was at 250-290 foot down. That was at 8" off I moved back down to 6" off and a slight increase. My sand bed was concerning at 90-100 par. What was weird is that the left side of the lights were little less par then the right.

So here are my changes:

Making my max 7hrs total vs 4hrs
Raising my viloet over the next week to the 75%
Lowering my lights down to 6" off the water again due to the sand bed not getting enough par. I think my tank is taller then yours?

 

[Neo Jeo]

This is what I came up with.
What i moved my vliot up my par did not change much. So I dont think a problem going from 55-75 will hurt my corals.

 

[dputt88]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15CtzlR0EEVkX42anFclS8yXkDLs1zAC2MWnb9_v6XTw/edit?usp=sharing

 

[PhantomHalo]

This is what I came up with.
What i moved my vliot up my par did not change much. So I dont think a problem going from 55-75 will hurt my corals.

So I know this is an old thread, but I just picked these lights up. Just curious how these settings have worked out for you so far or if you have any updates?

 

[danieyella]

Following along because I believe this is what I'm going to upgrade to from black boxes

 

[codycolina707]

Following along because I believe this is what I'm going to upgrade to from black boxes

i just switched from mars aqua to a photon and im pretty happy also added a high octane uv and probably gonna add another light bar maybe the blue/uv hybrid as for the upgrade no idea what kind of black boxes but i hated the fact i had about 6 cords just to run 3 mars aqua and my lps seem to be loving the new light