Viparspectra 165watt, Anyone using these?
- Thread starter Nicholas Dushynsky
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I can't comment yet but I've heard mostly positive feedback on the Vipar's over the other Black Boxes. I am however looking into supplementing them with either T5's or Actinic LED's. If anyone did that would luv to see what you did.
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Nicholas Dushynsky
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Has anyone got any updates on these lights if still running them? As in what intensity you are running them at I think either I have slightly bleached my frogspawn or they don't like my set up.
Bronc
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Still running mine. My blues are at 100% and my whites are at 1%. I also run 2 Actinic Blue T5s and a ReefBrite Tech Strip 50/50. I have a Frogspawn on the bottom of my tank that loves the light.
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Nicholas Dushynsky
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That's quite a difference as in one @ blues 100% one at 25% but both whites at 1%. I'm running blues @75% and whites 8% and I think my frogspawn and gold hammer have lost a bit of their colour I don't know if this it due to the whites being higher. How do you find growth of algae on the glass running the lights so blue as algae tends to need white (well red and green). I have to clean my glass every 2-3 days.
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Nicholas Dushynsky
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Most recent tank shot.
I just bought two for my 55gallon reef. Replaced some homemade LEDs I've had for about a year and a half. They are great! I'm running the blues at 60% and the Whites at 18%. I used a reef spectrum graph to "guestimate" that the other colors are about one third the intensity of the actinic spectrum. I then backed down the whites due to algae growth on the glass.
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cwk84
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Do you have orange eyes? 55% blue and 10% white is pretty much windex blue.
cwk84
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Wrong. Ane entirely blue spectrum is only for your eyes but corals grow faster under around 6000-1000k. In natural reef environments the water only filters out some of the red and blue spectrum but there is still enough left especially in lagoons. If you completely eliminate the red and green spectrum you won't get good coloration and growth. I presume that you are one of these windex look chasing people. I will never understand you people. Extreme blue lighting gives the impression that corals are colorful even when they aren't. I want to look at my tank and be able to identify all the different colors under crisp lighting. If you need super blue lighting to make your corals pop, you are doing something wrong. If your tank looks super colorful under 10k you don't need blue lights to fake good coloration. Also, not every color will be represented accurately under blue lights. Pinks, for example, look terrible in windex blue tanks but amazing in 10k tanks.
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Nicholas Dushynsky
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I agree with you on this I'm running mine at 80 blue 8 white. My first post I was running @ 65 blue 20 white but I've been messing around with the settings so much I'm trying to get my whites back up slowly to around 15-20 as I think I don't like the windex look I tried at 80 blue and 3 white so as of last week I'm bringing the whites up 5% a week and might even settle on 18 you never know.
My sps are growing well under these settings but my euphyllia seem to be washed out a little and I've lost colour from my frogspawn. Not sure if this is due to the light not being white enough or low alk @6.4 dkh ? Corals are using about 1.2 dkh per day so raising my dosing up to keep it around 7.7dkh. Manual dosing at the mo (complete pain in th A).
But dosing pump turned up this morning but waiting on tubing now, so a couple more days of the manual. I know I need to dose 35ml of alk per day just for consumption that raises 1.2 dkh per day spread over 2 doses it's bloody annoying.
(back on topic now)
I do like running it just blues at night for an hour though.
Can i ask what lighting you are running on your tank please.
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I agree with you on this I'm running mine at 80 blue 8 white. My first post I was running @ 65 blue 20 white but I've been messing around with the settings so much I'm trying to get my whites back up slowly to around 15-20 as I think I don't like the windex look I tried at 80 blue and 3 white so as of last week I'm bringing the whites up 5% a week and might even settle on 18 you never know.
My sps are growing well under these settings but my euphyllia seem to be washed out a little and I've lost colour from my frogspawn. Not sure if this is due to the light not being white enough or low alk @6.4 dkh ? Corals are using about 1.2 dkh per day so raising my dosing up to keep it around 7.7dkh. Manual dosing at the mo (complete pain in th A).
But dosing pump turned up this morning but waiting on tubing now, so a couple more days of the manual. I know I need to dose 35ml of alk per day just for consumption that raises 1.2 dkh per day spread over 2 doses it's bloody annoying.
(back on topic now)
I do like running it just blues at night for an hour though.
Can i ask what lighting you are running on your tank please.
I have a pair going over a 80g frag tank 48in x24in x16in high just wondering 10in off the water will be good for this real shallow tank?
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Nicholas Dushynsky
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Hi yeah will be plenty if not slightly high power for that shallow of a tank mine is 18" high and I (after talking to another user) have turned them down to 35% blue and 5% white for the last week and a half as my frogspawn have bleached. The colour has come back on 2 tips at the moment. I do hope they will recover.
I run mine about 9" above the water line and as my tank is 18" high with an inch of sand and the water about an inch and a half from the top it's less than 16" of water.
I run mine about 9" above the water line and as my tank is 18" high with an inch of sand and the water about an inch and a half from the top it's less than 16" of water.
Wow yea 18in would be great that way I would have some wiggle roomHi yeah will be plenty if not slightly high power for that shallow of a tank mine is 18" high and I (after talking to another user) have turned them down to 35% blue and 5% white for the last week and a half as my frogspawn have bleached. The colour has come back on 2 tips at the moment. I do hope they will recover.
I run mine about 9" above the water line and as my tank is 18" high with an inch of sand and the water about an inch and a half from the top it's less than 16" of water.
very nice!! How high above the tank is it and what settings?
Update on my Tank using a viparspectra with an added Reefbrite strip
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Nicholas Dushynsky
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Lovely looking tank. What are your settings for blues and whites on it.
Update on my Tank using a viparspectra with an added Reefbrite strip
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Nicholas Dushynsky
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You beat me to it
I noticed a lot of people get better or worse results using higher percentages on the brightness. According to Jason Fox higher nutrient tanks can take more light. And when he starts running a cleaner tank, he actually turns his lights down some.
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Nicholas Dushynsky
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I wouldn't even thought about that. I only have 4 fish in my tank so I wouldn't say large bio load but as I have never tested this tank for nitrates or phosphates (naughty I know) I didn't want to go down the route of my nitrates are this and should be that, phosphates are that and should be this as I feel its number chasing. I only test alk,mag,cal,temp and salinity. I get algae on the glass and a little dusting in a lower flow corner so I know it's not clean.
My sps are growing and my hammers and torch are growing. It's just I have lost colour from my frogspawn so I have just lowered the lighting down to see if it helps.
My trouble is I tinker too much with it adjusting white or blue because someone else has had good results with that setup, but that is their setup and no 2 tanks are the same. This I know but I still do it. I think i have bleached my frogspawn as I didn't acclimatise it to my light.
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