What PAR is best for a SPS dominant tank and where do you keep yours? | BRStv Investigates
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Robthorn
Well-Known Member
For me the most important thing is do I like the look of my tank when I walk up to view my corals? I tend to like a brighter looking 400w radium look. If your color looks good to your eye the corals will grow. It may not be perfect but they will grow. As long as its not an old wore out bulb. (6 months for some) I am not at all interested in all blue tanks even though 3 hours before and after my max intensity my lights ramp up and down and end up very blue for about an hour.
If you are dosing 3 part and running led you can boost your lights slowly as long as the colors stay nice and you don't notice a drop in Alk consumption. If you raised your lights and don't notice an increase in daily alk consumption then maybe you have peaked the useable light? Your corals need to be growing in good water before this type of guessed measuring can be useful.
QUOTE="pettoe90, post: 3823715, member: 80894"]What if you don't have a par meter, what other ways would work to know if the light setting is correct?[/QUOTE]
If you are dosing 3 part and running led you can boost your lights slowly as long as the colors stay nice and you don't notice a drop in Alk consumption. If you raised your lights and don't notice an increase in daily alk consumption then maybe you have peaked the useable light? Your corals need to be growing in good water before this type of guessed measuring can be useful.
QUOTE="pettoe90, post: 3823715, member: 80894"]What if you don't have a par meter, what other ways would work to know if the light setting is correct?[/QUOTE]
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Well we hope to share some results and settings with the common lights to that reach these numbers . To some degree that should reduce the dependence on owning a par meter. If you don't own a 60 cube or 120 there will be some amount of interpretation required but still a million times better than reading zero to 100% on the led light which means almost nothing.
I have always thought someone should start a par meter rental service. I think a lot of reefers would pay $30 to rent one for a week. Set up the tank and send it back. All ya need to do is pick up a R2R banner and 10 meters to fund a solid coral addiction
[/QUOTE]
I seem to be having trouble dialing my led in seems like it's really to powerful, I don't have many corals right now, most softies and lps but as soon as I run white channel they seem to shrivel. I've been keeping them on blue channel
Well we hope to share some results and settings with the common lights to that reach these numbers . To some degree that should reduce the dependence on owning a par meter. If you don't own a 60 cube or 120 there will be some amount of interpretation required but still a million times better than reading zero to 100% on the led light which means almost nothing.
I have always thought someone should start a par meter rental service. I think a lot of reefers would pay $30 to rent one for a week. Set up the tank and send it back. All ya need to do is pick up a R2R banner and 10 meters to fund a solid coral addiction
I would rent one
iemsparticus
The Addiction is Real
Seneye would be no good here... to much work to set it up for a week then send it back... and buying 10 LiCors would suck... would Apogees be good enough? Would think so, right?I have always thought someone should start a par meter rental service. I think a lot of reefers would pay $30 to rent one for a week. Set up the tank and send it back. All ya need to do is pick up a R2R banner and 10 meters to fund a solid coral addiction
Robthorn
Well-Known Member
I have had 3 led brand setups so far. Reefledlights, Reefgrow x3 and Radion g4 pro. They all seem to be best for me at 100% blue and maybe at max 50% on the white channels. Most near the 40% spot.
Sanjay has gen 4's as well and when I spoke to him at RAP last month he said he runs all of his colors at 100%. I thought he was maybe joking but he was not.
I have xenia , ricordea euphylias, favia, an acan, red goni, a plate coral and a ton of montis and acros. I thankfully have not seen any negative effects from the white channels unless you crank them too fast maybe the acros lighten a little.
QUOTE="pettoe90, post: 3824602, member: 80894"][/QUOTE]
I seem to be having trouble dialing my led in seems like it's really to powerful, I don't have many corals right now, most softies and lps but as soon as I run white channel they seem to shrivel. I've been keeping them on blue channel[/QUOTE]
Sanjay has gen 4's as well and when I spoke to him at RAP last month he said he runs all of his colors at 100%. I thought he was maybe joking but he was not.
I have xenia , ricordea euphylias, favia, an acan, red goni, a plate coral and a ton of montis and acros. I thankfully have not seen any negative effects from the white channels unless you crank them too fast maybe the acros lighten a little.
QUOTE="pettoe90, post: 3824602, member: 80894"][/QUOTE]
I seem to be having trouble dialing my led in seems like it's really to powerful, I don't have many corals right now, most softies and lps but as soon as I run white channel they seem to shrivel. I've been keeping them on blue channel[/QUOTE]
I have read that the lower the nutrients in the tank, for example a ULNS, the lower the PAR should be and the higher the nutrients corals will tolerate higher PAR values. It would be interesting to see if this can be tested to confirm and to establish a recommend PAR range for ULNS vs high nutrient tanks.
BigJohnny
2500 Club Member
Ryan, outstanding stuff as usual. What you guys are doing is really groundbreaking in the industry. A lot of these topics are discussed/debated on the forums and all the conventions obviously, but the frequency and quality of the videos you guys are releasing will be 100X more effective at reaching more people and helping them have success. It doesn't hurt that you are the best reef supply shop on the net either . Really enjoying the BRS investigates series. Again, great job.
. Really enjoying the BRS investigates series. Again, great job.
BigJohnny
2500 Club Member
Sanjay has a very unique tank in that he has very high alk 12-14dkh and calcium and magnesium, high nutrients, heavy feeding, and blasts his corals with a TON of flow. I would not try to emulate Sanjay as he is a master. Most people will find easier success with lower par, corals do better with less light than too much. I also think part of the reason Sanjay blasts all the other channels because he doesn't like the blue look.
You can learn more about his tank in the thread by mike paletta about "tanks of the masters" or something like that
Robthorn
Well-Known Member
Yeah I have read that. I am from the same school as those guys. I have been doing it a pretty long time as well. I don't try to emulate anyone elses tank I just pick up bits and pieces here and there that I think might work for me. I don't recommend anyone to do anything. I just explain what I do and what others tell me they do.
BigJohnny
2500 Club Member
Yeah I have read that. I am from the same school as those guys. I have been doing it a pretty long time as well. I don't try to emulate anyone elses tank I just pick up bits and pieces here and there that I think might work for me. I don't recommend anyone to do anything. I just explain what I do and what others tell me they do.
Sounds similar to my approach. The ol "sponge sort and dabble"
pdiehm
Valuable Member
@Ryanbrs -
Have done a lot of playing with my Reefbreeders Photon 48 (version 1, 47.5" long). At first I was running 100% blues, 50% whites. I was getting par across my rockwork, in the 330-360 range, with a hotspot on a taller rock in excess of 400. As I understand the video, that's not bad. Problem was...I didn't like how white the tank was. Now, I could add a pair of 48" T5 tubes to get it more blue, but I'd also be pushing well over 400 PAR.
Looking at reefbreeders site, there is a spreadsheet that gives basic kelvin spectrums, and for my light, 100% blue, 5% white is 20k. I love that look, but I was in the 160-180 range, which isn't good enough for SPS. increasing the whites by 5% kept the numbers increasing, but it wasn't until I got to 35% white with 100% blue, that I got roughly a 14k look (not overly white, but a noticeable purple tint), and PAR across my rocks in the 260-300 range. I have the same hotspot rock, but that tops out 330-350. The rocks on each end of my aquascape tested in the 160-200 range, with the middle bottom at 230-250, and about 100 in the corners along the front glass.
Numbers achieved using the Seneye. No corals are in the tank (and probably won't be for a few months as the tank stabilizes). my plan when I start adding the corals is to get a 10 coral frag pack (stylo's, etc), place them where I want them, and lower my light intensity by 20-25% and increase 5% weekly.
Have done a lot of playing with my Reefbreeders Photon 48 (version 1, 47.5" long). At first I was running 100% blues, 50% whites. I was getting par across my rockwork, in the 330-360 range, with a hotspot on a taller rock in excess of 400. As I understand the video, that's not bad. Problem was...I didn't like how white the tank was. Now, I could add a pair of 48" T5 tubes to get it more blue, but I'd also be pushing well over 400 PAR.
Looking at reefbreeders site, there is a spreadsheet that gives basic kelvin spectrums, and for my light, 100% blue, 5% white is 20k. I love that look, but I was in the 160-180 range, which isn't good enough for SPS. increasing the whites by 5% kept the numbers increasing, but it wasn't until I got to 35% white with 100% blue, that I got roughly a 14k look (not overly white, but a noticeable purple tint), and PAR across my rocks in the 260-300 range. I have the same hotspot rock, but that tops out 330-350. The rocks on each end of my aquascape tested in the 160-200 range, with the middle bottom at 230-250, and about 100 in the corners along the front glass.
Numbers achieved using the Seneye. No corals are in the tank (and probably won't be for a few months as the tank stabilizes). my plan when I start adding the corals is to get a 10 coral frag pack (stylo's, etc), place them where I want them, and lower my light intensity by 20-25% and increase 5% weekly.
Ashish Patel
2500 Club Member
I tried the 100% full spectrum for a few weeks and it took some bleaching for me to stop chasing PAR and keep it in the 100-200 range...After my tank is mature and has that bio diversity I will slowly increase the light intensity. Sanjays method seems to go against science buts as stated he has ton's of food and his tank is extremely stable. Moreover, he probably barely puts his hands in the tank; unless of course when he has to chisel those colonies out..
Robthorn
Well-Known Member
Not sure what allows he and others to do what they do.
I am one that likes a lot of light and my corals appear to as well.
I am not trying to make the corals look unnatural with so much color it couldn't happen in nature though.
I am always in my tank feed light and run low alk.
Grief tanks are strange is all I have.
I am one that likes a lot of light and my corals appear to as well.
I am not trying to make the corals look unnatural with so much color it couldn't happen in nature though.
I am always in my tank feed light and run low alk.
Grief tanks are strange is all I have.
I seem to be having trouble dialing my led in seems like it's really to powerful, I don't have many corals right now, most softies and lps but as soon as I run white channel they seem to shrivel. I've been keeping them on blue channel[/QUOTE]
Lux meter.
Ashish Patel
2500 Club Member
I am using radions and after months of constant unnesscary tweaks! I settled on SPS AB+ with the Whites going from 60% to 40% during peak hours. Also ramp up with every color (Full spectrum all on) slowly for 3 hours - at very low intensity of course.
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