Viparspectra settings!!!

[Spieg]

I removed the lenses except around the edge of the fixture to get better spread. This way I can get closer the the watter.

 

[SueAbu]

I used vipars for 2 years on my sps dominated 180. I had 3 units hung about 12”-14” above the water line and ran them at 55% blue, 25% white. I also used two 60” t5 bulbs and 2 50w diy led RB strip lights. PAR was 800 dead center under the fixture just below the surface of the water. 450-500 6” below the surface, 350ish half way down, and 200 most everywhere on the bottom. Good even spread of light once you got 6-8” under the surface. I have a bare bottom tank with white foam under the tank, so theres lots of reflection to keep par high at the bottom. Alk was stable at 8.5-9dkh.

SPS grew just as fast and colored just as well for me under vipars as they did with 250w radiums, but the trick is to be mindful of nutrients when running that much light… you’re balancing on a beach ball.

They’re great lights. Those 90deg optics can get you into trouble fast, so higher up is better with these fixtures.

How long did you run them, each day? Just got my first pair for my 48" wide, 24" deep tank and I'm doing the acclimation routine. You posted this after I did my last bit of research. Tia

 

[Fernthereefer]

Just to add my experience. 2+ years running the 165w. Have it 13inch high, 8 hours blues, 6 hours whites. Blues 70%, whites 20%. Added two actinic t5h0 yhat run 8hrs/day for rounding the spectrum in uv.

I have a glass top that may promote diffusion.

 

[SueAbu]

You missed the point lol, it went over your head! lol par/pur has never grown coral its just a measurement.

My point was one more time, numbers dont grow anything, and if you use someone elses numbers which most do ignorantly, then you can cook your coral too. Meters often not accurate enough. so you sort of missed what I was getting at


Nope. In nature reefs get many cloudy days even months long and they dont starve for light.


Fact is most reefers put way to much light on there tanks. Coral can only use 5 to 6 peak hours and it has absorbed all it can. If you run a lower intensity a little longer, it will make up for less intensity. You also show little knowledge of how little par most corals actually get in nature. Many coral thrive at 25 feet 50 and 100 and more, they dont get huge par numbers in nature, hence my point again, par does not grow anything. And if you want to blast yours like a SPS tank, have at it. Many have mixed reefs and try to mimic a shallow reef when they have corals that thrive at different levels of light. Finding a balance starts with a stable tank at lower intensity, and one can always increase it.


They actually do a decent job. A point you might not know is these are very powerful lights, this is well known in the reef communities

Came on today searching for info on how long to leave my lights on cycle. Vipar manual only says(and I'm paraphrasing) that reefs would expect the most light at midday. This 5-6 hours is an interesting correlation. Time to study, as well as look for conventional wisdom.

 

[Spieg]

I run my lights 11 hours a day (mostly so I can enjoy looking at it). 11 hours blue and 6 hours white.

 

[outhouse]

Came on today searching for info on how long to leave my lights on cycle. Vipar manual only says(and I'm paraphrasing) that reefs would expect the most light at midday. This 5-6 hours is an interesting correlation. Time to study, as well as look for conventional wisdom.

You can go longer, key is turning these down. Intensity at 10% is growing LPS crazy fast. I run 8 b and 6 w

 

[clevebill71]

Take off the lenses and can lower the lights around to 8 inches above water it will also eliminate hot spots and a even speed if your curious watch the videos from telegrahm on YouTube

 

[Spieg]

Been There Done That. I left the lenses on around the perimeter to reduce light spill.

 

[Semisonyx]

How long did you run them, each day? Just got my first pair for my 48" wide, 24" deep tank and I'm doing the acclimation routine. You posted this after I did my last bit of research. Tia

I ran blues for 8hrs, whites for 6hrs and had diy actinic led bars running for 12 hrs.

 

[Bigdaddy05]

I recently changed from blues 100% and whites 20% then 50% down to 10% gonna see if running them higher all this times really was worse

 

[Hurricane Aquatics]

Interestingly, the Chinese blacknboxes of 2011 - 2013 looked identical to that LED board with no lenses. That's exactly how they came. There were a few of the fixtures that did really well.

Only issue I had out of trying them was the coral colors suffered from the small spectrum. Other than that, they'll do.

 

[Brian Smith]

I recently changed from blues 100% and whites 20% then 50% down to 10% gonna see if running them higher all this times really was worse

Did you do this? Results?

 

[Bigdaddy05]

Did you do this? Results?

I went from 100 blue 20 white to 20 blue 1 white and thought things were good til all my leathers after about 2 weeks stopped opening and looking bad and I lost a bunch of zoas when before the change they were growing crazy good also my clam stopped putting on any new growth even my gsp and xenia looked bad so I turned it back to 80 blue 20 white and already things look better in a day

 

[diver22]

I went from 100 blue 20 white to 20 blue 1 white and thought things were good til all my leathers after about 2 weeks stopped opening and looking bad and I lost a bunch of zoas when before the change they were growing crazy good also my clam stopped putting on any new growth even my gsp and xenia looked bad so I turned it back to 80 blue 20 white and already things look better in a day

Well I don’t think it was the the 20 b and 1 w, you cannot bring down and ramp up led lamps that drastic and expect things to live, remember everything in this hobby is SLOW, you slowly ramp things down and up and see how things react…

 

[Wolf94]

Bonjour

J'ai 3x165w sur un tank de 150cm et 50 de hauteur d'eau.
les rampes sont placées à 20cm de l'eau.

pour le soft, quelle valeur dois-je mettre les blancs et les bleus ?

en France, j'ai lu que les blancs sont à 40 ou 50%, pourquoi c'est si différent ici ?

merci pour les paramètres, je suis perdu.

 

[Arego]

I run 3 SB Reef extreme boxes at 100% blue, 75% white and in addition two coral plus.

The settings could change in any direction any given day, depending what I feel like looking at, it gives the corals a lot of variety and it seems to work pretty well. I don't have anything on a timer except for lights off.

There is a lot of sunlight coming through the left side so it's a bit orange there.

 

[Devin Glascock]

Looking for settings advice on the 30" model (T300) over a 36" tank.

I currently have the light set 13" above the water, with a 16" deep tank. so roughly 28"-29" from light to sand bed.

Current settings
Ch1 (Blues) 30% on for 12 hours (noon until midnight)
Ch2 (White) 1% on for 8 hours. (2pm until 10pm)

I've had the settings like this for the past 2 weeks and some of my Euphyllia (Hammer and Octospawn) are looking sorta bleached. My Octo had nice dark, almost black tentacles with bright yellow tips, now many of the tentacles are almost see through and seem to be losing the darker coloring. My hammer also seems to be losing a bit of color in its tentacles too...

At this point, I'm not sure if I'm giving them too much light, or not enough... At 30% and 1%, I can't believe I'm giving them too much light.... based on reports of others, so I'm wondering if I'm not giving them enough light. Reading the forums, seems most people say Euphyllia are pretty tolerant of light levels and will adjust, so i'm not sure what to do at this point. I don't want to keep tinkering with the lights leading to more stress, but I'm really not sure how I go about getting this right without a PAR meter.

My LFS does not have a PAR meter and actually looked at me like I had 2 heads when I asked if they did....
There are no local clubs around me that have one.... BRS rental seems to be my only option for a PAR meter, but was hoping to avoid that expense.

I really didn't think lighting would be this difficult to figure out.... I sure wish my corals could talk!

Did you ever figure out if the lights were too bright or too low? My torches do the same thing under these lights.

 

[Shrydi]

these lights are strong, dont play the par game. Its just a stupid number. I ran what you did and cooked all my coral for years with no growth and only loss. My tank is 30" deep 210 G tank, and im running 1% B and W with B on 8 hours and W on 6 hours and growth is through the roof again. Turn that crap down.

How high do you have the lights above tank? We have a 160 gallon tank with the 165watt viperspectra light. Most soft coral. Not much growth. Wondering how night we should hang the light and at what settings. Thank you.

 

[jewelerliz2]

Welcome to R2R!!!

I have 2 Viparspectra 165's on my 90 gallon. Lights are 7" above water surface (i do not recommend setting it this low). My blues are at 35% and whites at 4%. I have softies, lps, and sps.

The following link is a really long thread but incredibly helpful. I recommend reading/skimming through the entire thread. You'll find people posting their settings as well as one member who shared their PAR meter results.

Viparspectra 165watt, Anyone using these?

Hi, I'm new to this site and can't find if it has been asked before. So my question is, is anyone else using these viparspectra led lights? I have had one since Xmas, 8" over a 24x18x18 mixed reef, I have worked upto a setting of 65% blue an 20% white, which have worked upto and I have only had...

www.reef2reef.com

How do you make it less that 10% I've been trying to program with the remote