Sps and lighting

jeremybrowntattoos

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I have a 150g mixed reef but my sps are turning brown. I have 3 Kessil 360x mounted 8 inches above the water, 2 hrs ramp up to 75% for 5 hrs, then 2 hrs ramp down so 9hrs total. I’m gonna add another kessil 360x with the same schedule. How can I improve my lighting?

CF7FB058-33DD-45B3-A770-A52D2A216391.jpeg
 

BroccoliFarmer

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Have you taken your par readings? I know this is a useless question because it doesnt solve your problems..but until you know your PAR...no advice CAN be helpful.
 
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jeremybrowntattoos

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Man, I’ve been wanting to do the par reading! I’m looking to rent one. I’ve been watching BRS YouTube and they said 100% intensity , but for how long? I also have a t5 set up that I’m thinking about setting up.
 
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jeremybrowntattoos

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I’ve been trusting the tests of BRS. But I’ve been wanting a par meter. My parameters are good, I’m struggling with the right light I think. I’ve tried to set it and forget it, but it seems there’s a slight lack of light, I know it’s better to have less than more but I’m trying to get it right
 
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jeremybrowntattoos

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I’ve been trusting the tests of BRS. But I’ve been wanting a par meter. My parameters are good, I’m struggling with the right light I think. I’ve tried to set it and forget it, but it seems there’s a slight lack of light, I know it’s better to have less than more but I’m trying to get it right
 

Duffer

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what are your parameters, i know you say they are good but we can help more with them listed.

I have found when a coral browns, its the parameters more than the lighting, where my phosphates are out of whack
 

jcdeng

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Most of the time you need high par with high nutrients, lower par if ULNS. Also, spectrum matters, best color sps I have seen over the years are usually grew under halides and then radions come in second, T5s give good growth but colors is not as vivid.
 
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jeremybrowntattoos

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what are your parameters, i know you say they are good but we can help more with them listed.

I have found when a coral browns, its the parameters more than the lighting, where my phosphates are out of whack
Phos- .02 nitrate 0-nitrite 0 -calcium 400- mag-1400- alk 9 sal .026 temp 78 - I’m gonna check again right now
 

ScottB

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For real SPS I would put 5 360s into an Aquatic Life Hybrid T5 (non-dimmable).

Given your measured residual nutrients, unless you feed 5-8 times a day and export like crazy, you are starving the system and the lights will do nothing.

More food, more fish, more light, and we have not talked about flow yet. Yes, I am kinda guessing as you have not detailed your feeding or fish yet, but it is common for newish members to overlook the value of fish poo.
 

PatW

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I would definitely raise your nitrates to detectable levels.

I agree. Even in an ultra low nutrient system, you need some nutrients. In my tank, my corals even LPS corals seem to do just fine on very low nutrients and fish poop. You can raise nitrates by increasing feeding. Or you can dose nitrates. When I dose nitrates, I use food grade sodium nitrate. I have dosed with reagent grade sodium nitrate and even used the Stump Remover from Lowes which is Potassium Nitrate (and who knows what else).

You could look up your lights and see what they are supposed to put out as far as PAR. I do that with my LED lights and the corals grow just fine on my using those values. I am looking to verify my figures with a PAR meter.
 

jda

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Don't worry about adding nitrate - your acros cannot really use them directly anyway without an extreme energy expenditure. This is message board parroting that is not accurate. If you want to dose something, then dose ammonium since the corals can get nitrogen from that... or just feed a ton. Residual levels on a test kit are fools gold whereas available N and P through feeding are the prize, albeit harder to measure.

Kessils are incredibly low powered with low output and only really decent output in the dead center. I would look at more lighting. I would get those T5s on there or more units... like maybe even double if you want to focus on SPS, but you don't need that if you want more of the other stuff. Take this with a huge grain of salt because I don't care for Kessils over acros, but they are near the bottom of what i would use over my SPS if somebody made me use LEDs - just would prefer the higher powered panels more and don't need the small form factor.
 

VPD

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Hello
What LED lights would you recommend for my SPS-LPS tank (35x35x12)?
326FFED4-F303-44B7-AE7D-901FD4488782.jpeg
(35x35x12)?
 

ScottB

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Hello
What LED lights would you recommend for my SPS-LPS tank (35x35x12)?
326FFED4-F303-44B7-AE7D-901FD4488782.jpeg
(35x35x12)?
ATI Straton would be perfect. Should look very sleek over that tank.

The challenge will be differentiating the PAR levels in a shallow system to keep everyone happy. LPS may need to be placed along the outer edges of the tank.
 

Yodeling

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ATI Straton would be perfect. Should look very sleek over that tank.

The challenge will be differentiating the PAR levels in a shallow system to keep everyone happy. LPS may need to be placed along the outer edges of the tank.

This is what I do in my 8x3 frag tank. Roughly 430 PAR down the middle and then fading to about 220 by the edges. This makes it super easy to position corals based on their needs. What's not so easy is figuring out flow patterns that both SPS and LPS tolerate.
 

ScottB

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This is what I do in my 8x3 frag tank. Roughly 430 PAR down the middle and then fading to about 220 by the edges. This makes it super easy to position corals based on their needs. What's not so easy is figuring out flow patterns that both SPS and LPS tolerate.
Yeah, mixed reef in a frag system has unique issues. I keep LPS on the floor and acros on 4 " racks -- sometimes shaded by the racks depending.
 

VPD

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Straton colors are like T5 lamps, not bright. What other options are there?
 

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