UV LED lighting

[Savage Henry]

Hi all,

I have had a couple tank crashes in the last few months due to wave maker power cords breaking, copper poisoning snails and tank crashes. But at the same time, I am starting to wonder if I upped my UV leds too much. I think they could be affecting my hammers, but I can’t say for sure with everything else that’s been happening in my tank.

My question is, for people who have adjustable LED lights that have UV LEDS, do you use them? If so, how much?

I have them in a Reef Factory flare medium light and wasn’t using them at all, but recently started to use them.

 

[Rocks reef]

I use them as they are integrated in my lights.
What setting do you have the UV at currently?
Also, what size is your tank?

 

[rtparty]

The Reef Flare M only has 4 “UV” LEDs and they aren’t even true UV. They aren’t doing any harm IMO

 

[Savage Henry]

I was running UV, indigo, blue and white each at 70% with a total intensity of 64%. Apparently that amounted to 60w.

The tank is Waterbox 60.2, which has a display tank area of about 24” x 20” and a depth of about 22”. This space includes the overflow chamber.

I still don’t really understand this intensity thing with the lights. As in running the LEDs at 70% and then on top of that having an overall intensity of 64%.

Do you think I should be running the LEDs at a higher percentage or running a higher total intensity?

I am the remaining LEDs set on zero.

I wasn’t running the UV at all before and my hammers looked happier. But as I said, a lot of other things have happened.

Ideally I wanted to emulate the results I was getting running a Vertex Illumilux over a small tank. That light:

Vertex Illumilux - 12 LEDs x 3 W
Cree XPE LEDS 750 mA/~2.5 W
Cold white (7000 K)/Royal Blue (450 nm)

So the total wattage was about 40 watts.

Anyway, would welcome any further comments and thanks for those you’ve provided above.

 

[oreo54]

I still don’t really understand this intensity thing with the lights. As in running the LEDs at 70% and then on top of that having an overall intensity of 64%.



Anyway, would welcome any further comments and thanks for those you’ve provided above.

Well my take on global intensity is its just to match the overall output to your "needs".
Like use the channels to get the "look" or balance you want.
Then adjust overall to match your needs.

Simple 2 step process really.
Adjust individual ratios.. then adjust overall intensity.

If I got this right your medium have 4 400nm "UV" leds.
Only leds that would have any real textbook UV.
They are all just mostly "PUR".

Doesn’t UVR Promote Coloration in Corals?​

There is a lot of work to be done in this area, and some interesting coloration shifts have been noted in corals exposed to UVR. But it has not been determined if the coloration is due to UVR or simply an slight increase in PAR (especially violet and blue wavelengths) due to the lamp’s UV shield being removed.

Gleason (1993) suggests green Porites specimens are dominate (over brown- colored corals of the same species) in shallow water however he believed that the green coloration plays no photoprotective role – an observation expounded upon by Mazel et al., 2003. See this website for further comments about UVR, and a couple of photos of colorful stony corals grown under practically non- existent UVR: www.masla.com/reef/uvlighting.html.

Playing With Poison – Ultraviolet Radiation

This article documents the results of an experiment designed to examine the effects of artificially-produced UVR on symbiotic zooxanthellae. We'll also examine inexpensive ways to test your system and, if necessary, corrective measures one can take.

reefs.com

Old and maybe a bit arguable currently.. but hey...
Then again he was actually dealing with lower nm UV and a lot of it.