What to expect

[calvo15290]

Okay I have a 65 with a 150 wat mh with 2 18wat t5 and Sunday am getting dm-44 what do I do and should expect

 

[Reefing Madness]

You'll fofgive me for my ignorance here, but what is a DM 44? That one I've not heard of.
But as far as acclimating your tank to LEDs goes, bring your lighting down to a few hours a day, or better if its adjustable, bring them down to 15-20%, and bring them up 5-10% a week until proper lighting levels are reached. Keeping in mind that most do not have their units at 100%, but rather around 60.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Kind putting the cart in front of the horse, aren't you? You should have been asking questions before you ordered the light not after.

Start out with something you think may not be enough light and slowly ramp it up over 4-8 weeks. If you have a PAR meter, start with a sand level reading of 50 and you can end up around 200, if you feel the need to even go that far.

Anyway, it's a well made fixture, but IMHO it's too white. Corals want a lot of blue and a very little bit of red for good health and growth. The white leds are for us, the corals really couldn't care less about white light. So get as much of your total PAR as you can from the blue channel and only run up the white channel until you hit the look you want in your tank. Adding more white does raise the PAR, but it's much less useful to the coral than adding more blue and then whatever small increase you need in white to get your overall look again. If you do it that way, my guess is you will run your white channel at 50% or less compared to the blue channel. That is, blue at 60% so white at 30% or less. Your white leds will really overpower your blue leds.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Now that's not entirely true about the blues and the whites. Softies don't much care for a lot of blue, they would rather have it more in the 12-14k range, some LPS would also. So I would say it all depends on what coral he chooses to have in the tank as to wether or not its good.

 

[calvo15290]

IV done research still am happy I got of of a rayed I'll keep my mh just in case also I have a kinda mixed reef and like the nice blue now

 

[Ron Reefman]

Now that's not entirely true about the blues and the whites. Softies don't much care for a lot of blue, they would rather have it more in the 12-14k range, some LPS would also. So I would say it all depends on what coral he chooses to have in the tank as to wether or not its good.

Sorry but 12K or 14K isn't even a spectrum of light, it's a range of spectrum mixed together to make a version of white light. Corals don't really use light, the zooxanthellae use light to do photosynthesis so the zooxanthellae grow and the coral can harvest it for food. Show me there anybody talks about zooxanthellae needing 12K or 14K in order to do photosynthesis. It may look better, but that doesn't mean it's healthy for the coral. And if you read what I said, I said, "run up the white channel until you hit the look you want in your tank." If you want a 12K or 14K look in your tank, that's great. But adding more white to the tank beyond that point isn't going to do much, if anything, for the coral. Sure the PAR value will go up, but you are adding green, yellow, orange and red that the coral doesn't need. After a little bit of white light to give the shallow water corals some red spectrum, the only color that really provides much benefit to the coral is blue (not exclusively, but very close).

 

[calvo15290]

Sorry but 12K or 14K isn't even a spectrum of light, it's a range of spectrum mixed together to make a version of white light. Corals don't really use light, the zooxanthellae use light to do photosynthesis so the zooxanthellae grow and the coral can harvest it for food. Show me there anybody talks about zooxanthellae needing 12K or 14K in order to do photosynthesis. It may look better, but that doesn't mean it's healthy for the coral. And if you read what I said, I said, "run up the white channel until you hit the look you want in your tank." If you want a 12K or 14K look in your tank, that's great. But adding more white to the tank beyond that point isn't going to do much, if anything, for the coral. Sure the PAR value will go up, but you are adding green, yellow, orange and red that the coral doesn't need. After a little bit of white light to give the shallow water corals some red spectrum, the only color that really provides much benefit to the coral is blue (not exclusively, but very close).

That reminded me of a report I did for English class freshman year I did great on it and also sps like more blue wile others like a little whiteer tanks I like the color of my reef because it's in the mid point of it

 

[Reefing Madness]

That reminded me of a report I did for English class freshman year I did great on it and also sps like more blue wile others like a little whiteer tanks I like the color of my reef because it's in the mid point of it

 

[1.0reef]

Now that's not entirely true about the blues and the whites. Softies don't much care for a lot of blue, they would rather have it more in the 12-14k range, some LPS would also. So I would say it all depends on what coral he chooses to have in the tank as to wether or not its good.

Actually, most photosynthesis happens at 410-450 (430nm and 445-450nm), IIRC a bit at 470-480nm, some at 495nm, and most of the rest inbetween 550+ with a larger peak at 680nm.
Most of the photosynthesis happens at about 420-495nm, most of which is blue/actinic

 

[Reefing Madness]

Feature Article: Lighting the Reef Aquarium - Spectrum or Intensity? ? Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog
Lighting Your Reef Aquarium for Optimal Results

 

[Ron Reefman]

Both are very good articles. But I'll stick with my blue and a little red plan based on other scientific articles that use this: