Hey R2R! So I have two AI hydra 26's that came with my red sea E-260 from a few years ago (I've recently set it back up again). I decided to try a new lighting scheme since my other one always seemed to just have okay coral coloration. I decided to use the David Saxby program from AI and started it out using a 75% reduction for acclimation. I am now about halfway into the acclimation period and I have definitely seen some better colors on my LPS and Zoas (I don't have SPS). I decided to rent a PAR meter from BRS since I had read some people's reviews of the Saxby program being too intense because his tank is really deep, and I don't want to fry my corals. As of today the tank par levels read about 80-100 on the sand bed, 130-150 in the middle of the tank, with my tallest rock being at 180, and the surface being at 200-300. This makes me think maybe I should stop here rather than continue to the full intensity. So knowing that I still have half of my acclimation period to go does that mean my PAR levels will increase at the same percentage?
Still trying to understand PAR
- Thread starter SonyaBAZ
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The easiest thing you can do is put the lights on what the full schedule would be like and take a PAR reading. Then change them back to where you are in the acclimation period when you are done. That's what I've done in the past. Map out a new lighting scheme, take a reading of it, then bring it down to whatever change schedule I came up with.
So turned off the acclimation and tested PAR again. Put me at 150 on the sand bed, 200 mid tank and 250 at the top of my rock work, and 300+ at the surface. Decided where I was at is probably a good place to be for my tank. I had my computer tech hubby figure out how to lower the Saxby light profile by 40% and he posted it on this website if anyone is ever in need!
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