Two SPS Questions for the Experts

[urbaneks]

Dennis - I wish I could offer you some PAR information in regards to SPS but truth be told, I've never measured PAR. However, @dtum from the other forum swears by his LED lighting profile. I think you know him well from aquaticlog.com. He was TOTM in March of last year on the other forum. He runs a very, very, very blue light cycle for the majority of the day with his max par targeted between 230-250. Since I'm just now trying LED for the first time, I've been kicking around the idea of giving his method a try. I pulled the quotes below directly from his TOTM thread.

"Here is a few things I have learned about lighting the tank with Radions: PAR can be extremely low - for about 8 hours I would run only blue channel at a 100% giving me PAR of 220 and another hour of turning on whites to get a more natural look that would give me a chance to examine true coral colours. Having a PAR meter turned out to be indispensable - I was able to ensure proper light coverage and intensity. Once I’ve learned these tricks I was able to keep any high-end acro I wanted, bringing in corals that were grown and coloured under Metal Halides and not losing any color. At the end of the experiment I would consistently get a better color under LEDs than under T5 to everyone’s surprise. Having run this for a year I finally decided to upgrade my main tank lighting to Radions and as of this writing I’ve been running them for over a month with good results."

 

[frugner]

following

 

[DamianOZ]

FWIW - My observation (acropora sp.)
Some coral encrust more than others
I don't believe flow has any bearing on encrusting.
Algae, bacteria and NO3 hinder growth, take a clean rock and a rock from a nutrient rich tank, the clean rock will see greater encrusting growth

Lighting.
Many acropora will turn darker, increase zoanthellae, to compensate for less light.
Amount of light = intensity x duration.
More light = lighter coral
More intense light = more fluorescent pigments
Coral can fade from too much light, i.e. too intense for too long, they can also fade from lack of food, high temperature and other stress factors.

The balance to keeping colourful SPS is to feed as much as you can with out it accumulating, provide enough light to keep them light and intense enough for good colour.

As for PAR, its a good measure to give an indication of set up. Many SPS will grow fine under PAR readings from 100 to 1200+, for most acropora, 250+ is a good place to start. The higher the PAR, the shorter the photo period you'll fine works best for you, assuming nutrient supply is equal.
One tank with 1600+ par, 3.5 hours was about max for me. My current tank 300 - 700 PAR, 7 hours is about right. Both ran lower lighting levels outside of these times to extend viewing time, I like to light for 12 hours, but anywhere from 8 to 14 is fine as long as you consider the total light.

LEDs, T5s, MH...
I fine it an emotional subject for most, everyone seems to defend their lighting type. IME, none compete with MH lighting. However I have grown many acropora under MH, MH/T5s, LEDs, LEDs/T5s, T5s.

 

[Jumbo]

I have to disagree. This is under LED..

+1
My Red planet under LEDs (**** boxes) few months ago. Unfortunately due a temp issue (I think) now is bleached and with stn

 

[BreaknBrad]

A lot of great information being shared. SPS are some crazy animals... I've experienced both encrusters & sprouters lol . I feel every frag, "Marches to the beat of its own drum".

I'm runing 2 XR30w G3 Pros (100% intensity & the schedule is the SPS PHX14 Coral Lab case study) and 1 MP40 in a 75 DT. My current favorite frag is a Pearlberry (at least I think it is) that is taking over my frag rack lol. It's been growing since July 2016.

It's encrusting the frag rack underneath as well...

 

[jamesfc27]

BRS suggest running PAR levels for sps 300 at the surface and 150 on the sand bed.

 

[Heisenberg 78]

Sub'd

 

[edosan]

I have been in the same boat for a long time regarding too much or not enough light. Everywhere I would look there was a different answer. My sps didn't turn around until I stopped by world wide corals. They were running the same radion g4 pros I run. The display is way bigger than mine and their lights were at 45%! The tank is absolutely unreal. They told me they never measure par. I don't think anyone who knows WWC can disagree they know what the heck their doing. I lowered my lights to 45% and my sps(and lps) started to come back. My jedi mind trick for instance started growing out its blue rim within a week. I'm by far a sps expert but I'm sold on less light now.

Would you give us a screen shot on your radions config? [emoji16]
When you say 45% what do you mean?
45% Intensity on day?
or
45% Brightness?

 

[Collin S]

I would like to share some info that I feel will be helpful to the OP.
I have just recently (6ish months ago) added sps (acropora) to my tank and was having the same problems you're having.
My coral that I just added we're starting to lose their awesome coloration and turning brown. At the time I was running a blue program with all blues at 55% and my whites were down around 7-10%.
I was always tweaking my lighting because I found it funny that I received little to no growth at all. I always read here on the forums and from local reefers that sps (acropora) are really slow growers, but after 3-4 months I barely had any of the frags encrust or grow at all. Most just lost color and turned brown but I still had polyp extension.
I read more on light to try and familiarize myself with different Light spectrums. I then realized for optimal growth I needed to bump my white channel up to 30% and start tweaking it as time goes on.
Now after a month of running my whites at 30% I've had more growth on most of my sps (acropora) than I have had in the last 4 months.

 

[KenJ]

Following

 

[mort]

I believed flow was important to promote encrusting and I still think that it is but I visited a coral farm where the flow wasn't particularly strong and saw that corals side by side, of the same species, encrust differently. I think some of this is the way they have been cut and mounted.

 

[lariat8099]

All ears. Following along.

 

[Rory]

I get so confused on lighting... my SPS tank has LEDs (AI Sol). I have no idea how much Blue to Royal Blue to White I should be using. I got the light used and bumped everything up 10% due to my tank being much deeper (40gal column). I wish there was some set number to always use.

 

[Scott.h]

For you guys the run G4 at 45% what does that translate in par?

After watching Dana Riddle's macna 16 video on lighting, I'm really starting to question what is optimum. According to him, growth in Hawaii was best at 9am and 5pm. Corals can (obviously) tollerate more. On the other hand, the aquaculture guy I get my frags from grow at 700 par. It's very conflicting data.

I've also pulled gfo on 2 tanks which has shown improvement in growth and color.

 

[hart24601]

I totally agree about flow and shape variations with sps, but I don't think I have seen anyone talk about flow with PAR on this thread. When talking about PAR we should always be talking about flow as well. Corals give off extra energy as heat and flow around that boundary layer of tissue is what dissipates the heat. One tank might have acro at 800 PAR and reduce that flow by either turning off pumps or putting in another tank and 300 PAR might vary well nuke that coral. It gets even more complex when talking frags vs colonies, but same concept. That 1" frag might have water velocity of 1" per second (just for example) and it looks great at 500PAR. Take that frag and now it's a huge 15" colony and that flow has reduced drastically on the interior branches and that same PAR starts to cause heat and tissue recession. Now the colony might be self shading which drops the light reaching it so it's another variable. PAR is a useful tool, but we can't forget flow either when making comparisons between systems.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Personally, par with LED and par with MH or T5 are two completely different things. I'm seeing better growth and color with LED par around 150-300 range and MH par of 350-500 range. Dispersed lighting vs focused lighting makes a big difference, imo and from what I've seen through threads. I ran LEDs around 500-700 par at the surface and 350-450 for my sps coral. Nothing but bleaching. Ive since turned down intensity to 450 at the surface, and are now seeing postive improvements.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Blue to Royal Blue to White I should be using

color doesn't matter. An 8k MH or 20k will gro what the heck same coral. its the intensity.

Personally, par with LED and par with MH or T5 are two completely different things.

Agree. each light source has different spectral characteristics. add this to nutrient requirements or availability can led to bleaching and browning.

 

[RenoMark]

Great discussion - Thanks

I have AI Hydras and it took a PAR Meter and an evening of playing with the levels to really dial them in. I found that the levels that I thought looked good, were not good PAR at all. I also found I could run my LEDs brighter then I was thinking - acclimation is everything. All my new frags go in a shaded area on the sand then I move them up over a week or so.

I have encrusting with LEDs - to an earlier comment.

I have not done a growth comparison of LEDs vs MH vs T5, but I can say when you consider everything - cost, energy, heat, bulb life, light quality, controllability, fragility, etc. for me LED win big. And now that I have my lights dialed in I am getting good growth & color.

I find that styophoras don't encrust fast or easily. I have several and none do - just an FYI

I find the flow conversation very interesting. I have recently added some Apex WAV pumps to my tank and I have found my frags are encrusting well. This was not a test, they may have encrusted regardless.

I hope this adds to the conversation.

 

[reeferfoxx]

I find that styophoras don't encrust fast or easily. I have several and none do - just an FYI

I kind of cocked my head to this statement. My stylophoras grow like weeds. Typically encrusting first.

 

[RenoMark]

Reeferfoxx, Funny. I have about 4 types of styophoras, all frags in the tank from 2 to 6 months. None have encrusted their bases much. They are growing. All my other SPS (except one that I don't know what it is) have encrusted their bases in the same period. I saw another person in the thread say something similar with styophora. I wonder what the difference is?