Reefbreeders Photon 32

3791eidde · Nov 9, 2013

I am using the Reefbreeders Photon 32 on a 90 gallon. 36x24x24. My clam and Scoly are loosing color. I am thinking it has to do with my lighting cycly. I found a spreadsheet on their RC forums. That spreadsheet only gives me 100% for an hour. Anyone use this light with clams and scoly able to tell me their light settings?

3791eidde · Nov 10, 2013

Here is what they are set at.

Time	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	11:00	11:30	12:00	12:30	13:00	13:30	14:00	14:30	15:00	15:30	16:00	16:30	17:00	17:30	18:00	18:30	19:00	19:30	20:00
Blue light intensity	0	13	26	38	50	61	71	79	87	92	97	99	100	99	97	92	87	79	71	61	50	38	26	13	0
White light intensity	0	12	23	34	45	55	64	71	78	83	87	89	90	89	87	83	78	71	64	55	45	34	23	12	0

fletch999 · Nov 10, 2013

Did you acclimate them to the led's? Did you just go to the settings you are using now? How long have you had led's? water parameters could have an affect also.

3791eidde · Nov 10, 2013

I had the LEDs for about 4 months. No I didn't acclimate them to the LED. The clam I had when I had T5, The scoly was staraight to LED. Where I bought the Scoly, I think they use LED. (AquaSD)

Cal 420
ALK 7
Phos 0
Nitrate 10
Mag 1400
ph 8.4
Temp 79.9
Salinity 1.025

Ron Reefman · Nov 10, 2013

How deep is your tank and how far down are the clam and the scoly? Where did you get that spreadsheet? Have you ever measured your PAR? I think at 100% blue and 90% white you are doing damage due to the light being too strong. And unless you have a custom led layout, that's probably too much white light. Use as much blue as you need to get close to 150 PAR at the sand and then add in just enough white to get the overall color you want in the tank. Adding more white after that does raise the PAR, but it's far less useful to the corals than if you added more blue and just a little more white. I run mine at 80% blue and 40% white and get a PAR of 200 at 24" deep, an overall tank color of a 12K-14K MH and that's with a custom led layout that has more blue than the Photon32. I tried 100% blue and 80% white for 1 hour a day and started bleaching some sps corals in just a couple of days.

I have 2 OceanRevive OR-IT2080's over my 180g tank and they are basically the same thing as your light (only less expensive, lol). I have sps and lps corals almost at the sand and a big clam on the sand. I used 1000w of MH before I switched to leds a year ago. For 8 months I ran a 4 hour sunrise, 5 hour midday at 80% blue and 40% white and then a 4 hour sunset. But 3-4 months ago I switched to an 8 hour sunrise that is all blue for 3 hours then just a 1 hour midday at 80% and 40% and the an 8 hour sunset with the last 3 hours being all blue. Basically I go up and down 10% per hour. My clam and all my corals seem to be doing just as well now as they were under the old program and they are doing as well or better than they were under the MH.

3791eidde · Nov 10, 2013

My tank is 24 inches deep. The Clam and Scoly are on the sand bed. I got the spreadsheet from the Reefbreeders section on the ReefCentral Forums. I have never measured the par.

Lokipsl · Nov 10, 2013

I measured the par on my photon 24. At 30 percent whites and blues I was 350 par on water surface and 150 on the sandbed of a 12" depth tank. That is with 90 degree optics. Your alk seems a little low. I had low alk for a while and finally started testing and dosing. Alk is at 10 now and some of the corals that lost there color are coming back. Growth on all my corals are better as well

Sahin · Nov 10, 2013

Ron Reefman said:
How deep is your tank and how far down are the clam and the scoly? Where did you get that spreadsheet? Have you ever measured your PAR? I think at 100% blue and 90% white you are doing damage due to the light being too strong. And unless you have a custom led layout, that's probably too much white light. Use as much blue as you need to get close to 150 PAR at the sand and then add in just enough white to get the overall color you want in the tank. Adding more white after that does raise the PAR, but it's far less useful to the corals than if you added more blue and just a little more white. I run mine at 80% blue and 40% white and get a PAR of 200 at 24" deep, an overall tank color of a 12K-14K MH and that's with a custom led layout that has more blue than the Photon32. I tried 100% blue and 80% white for 1 hour a day and started bleaching some sps corals in just a couple of days.

Very good advice there. Whilst I dont have an all LED system (have T5/LED), messing around with my PAR meter and various lighting technologies, the advice given is solid and thats what I would do as well.