Would you crank up the lights?

[JCOLE]

I am always nervous to crank up the intensity of my lights. I have (4) Mars Aqua Black Box LED lights on my 150. I have over 60 pieces of SPS. They are growing great but I feel they are growing a little slow. I have the LEDs controlled by VDMs on my Apex so I can set the intensity at what I want though Fusion. I rented an Apogee par meter a year ago and did readings and they seemed high in the 500+ range at the tops of my rock work. I did hear that they aren't that great for LED readings though.

Currently I have the whites at 30% and blues at 80%. As of last week I set it so for an hour between 5:30-6:30 the whites go to 40% and blues at 90%.

I ask because I seen where @trido ran his black boxes at 100% and has great growth. A local reefer near me has a 500 gallon SPS tank with about 10 black boxes and runs both channels at 100% also. His growth is insane.

I want to raise my intensity to try and get better growth but at 40% whites it seems really bright and I am always nervous to push it.

What would you do?

 

[jimc40]

raise the intensity slowly every week till at 100%

 

[jimc40]

I am always nervous to crank up the intensity of my lights. I have (4) Mars Aqua Black Box LED lights on my 150. I have over 60 pieces of SPS. They are growing great but I feel they are growing a little slow. I have the LEDs controlled by VDMs on my Apex so I can set the intensity at what I want though Fusion. I rented an Apogee par meter a year ago and did readings and they seemed high in the 500+ range at the tops of my rock work. I did hear that they aren't that great for LED readings though.

Currently I have the whites at 30% and blues at 80%. As of last week I set it so for an hour between 5:30-6:30 the whites go to 40% and blues at 90%.

I ask because I seen where @trido ran his black boxes at 100% and has great growth. A local reefer near me has a 500 gallon SPS tank with about 10 black boxes and runs both channels at 100% also. His growth is insane.

I want to raise my intensity to try and get better growth but at 40% whites it seems really bright and I am always nervous to push it.

What would you do?

try 2% a week

 

[JCOLE]

raise the intensity slowly every week till at 100%

I feel like I will end up going scorched earth on them though....

 

[JCOLE]

What I will probably do is slowly raise the intensity between 5:30-6pm to 100% and if everything seems fine then I will start to lengthen the time from an hour to 2 and so on.

 

[jimc40]

I feel like I will end up going scorched earth on them though....

I am in the same situation running 3 radion gen 4 pro and t5s at 65% max. when tank is fully stocked and acclimated I will start the slow increase weekly.

 

[Fish4udog]

I agree with jimc40 raise white slowly every week

 

[C. Eymann]

I agree with raising intensity in slow increments, but make sure N&P dont decline, maybe even elevate them a bit, you will see consumption of N&P increase with more intensity, corals usage will increase, as will the algaes/diatoms in the tank.

 

[JCOLE]

I agree with raising intensity in slow increments, but make sure N&P dont decline, maybe even elevate them a bit, you will see consumption of N&P increase with more intensity, corals usage will increase, as will the algaes/diatoms in the tank.

Sounds good. I have it on hand to dose just in case. Just worried that they are going to bleach. Just by looking at the tank I feel I am more in tune and something tells me that it will be to much light.

Who am I kidding though? Just when I feel I am finally in tune the tank decides to throw a monkey wrench my way so the heck with it.

 

[motortrendz]

Have you measured par at all? Itll give you a better idea of where you are and if you wat or need to increase... also nutrient levels matter. I feel like systems with higher nutrients can handle the higher par #'s.

Also side note... I've noticed on my system, I used to run higher nutrients (no3, 6-8; po4 0.10ish) and higher alk 10.5 dkh and my corals were growing insanely fast. Since some changes in my system my Nutrients have dropped significantly, (no3, 2ppm; po4 .04ish) and I lowered alk to balance (7.5dkh) and lowered my lights as well bc I was starting to get some color fade under the lights. After everything balanced out, and although my colors still look good my growth has significantly dropped. Not just visually but I've had to lower my ca/rx output bc of lower consumption as well. Just something I've noticed I'm my system.

 

[Dilan Patel]

I personally run 6 sbreeflights over my 180 gal and have run my lights on both channels for a long time. I grow my fragging colonies on the floor of my tank lol.

 

[SeaDweller]

I agree with raising intensity in slow increments, but make sure N&P dont decline, maybe even elevate them a bit, you will see consumption of N&P increase with more intensity, corals usage will increase, as will the algaes/diatoms in the tank.

This is true.

op, to answer your question, I found it difficult. As i increased my intensities on my photons v2+, it got better and better, then past the optimal point. But how do you know what’s optimal, when things just seem to improve? Because by then, to go back, may be too late.

What I thought was the optimal point ended up being bad. I ran my photons 14” off the water and at 100% blues,violet and 50-55% others. Man everything that was on the lower 2/3 of the tank exploded in growth, up top suffered the most, but that took a few days to weeks+ to manifest the detrimental symptoms for me to dial them back (mainly bleaching). I tried matching the PAR produced from a MH tank, and I thought hanging them high up would allow me to achieve that. I did in the lower 2/3...

needless to say, I lost a few pieces, and most recovered. I now run no higher than 425-450 at the top of my rocks, and like 200 at the sandbed. Things are def growing slowly, but colors are my main focus now.

id be careful if I were you, but I think the Mars units don’t pump out as much as the reefbreeders units, so if all is good right now, I’d leave it be.

 

[trido]

I've always kept my lights at abut 12-16" off the water and my tank is 29" tall. Along with four BB's (now have Radions) I also have stunner strips and T-5s. I did run both channels at 100%. Peak was about 8 hours a day with a total of 13 hours daily. Without a custom spectrum on your boxes, you will hate the tank if you run the whites very high when you're home, but SPS absolutely grow much faster with more white in the spectrum. The trick is to give them white for super fast growth, but not too much to dull the colors and brown them out, or pastel from lack of food. I suggest turning your whites up about 5% every couple weeks until your at about 60% on that channel. I currently run Radion G-4 Pro and run them also at 100%... 14K. I was running 12K which is all channels 100% but a few corals were paling from too much light.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

I am always nervous to crank up the intensity of my lights. I have (4) Mars Aqua Black Box LED lights on my 150. I have over 60 pieces of SPS. They are growing great but I feel they are growing a little slow. I have the LEDs controlled by VDMs on my Apex so I can set the intensity at what I want though Fusion. I rented an Apogee par meter a year ago and did readings and they seemed high in the 500+ range at the tops of my rock work. I did hear that they aren't that great for LED readings though.

Currently I have the whites at 30% and blues at 80%. As of last week I set it so for an hour between 5:30-6:30 the whites go to 40% and blues at 90%.

I ask because I seen where @trido ran his black boxes at 100% and has great growth. A local reefer near me has a 500 gallon SPS tank with about 10 black boxes and runs both channels at 100% also. His growth is insane.

I want to raise my intensity to try and get better growth but at 40% whites it seems really bright and I am always nervous to push it.

What would you do?

Just wanted to say sweet tank. It looks great as is.

if you were 5 minutes closer would love to see it in person ;Happy

 

[svogun]

I would personally look to other parameters first N/P Alk/Ca++ and flow before increasing the light intensity.

 

[JCOLE]

Have you measured par at all? Itll give you a better idea of where you are and if you wat or need to increase... also nutrient levels matter. I feel like systems with higher nutrients can handle the higher par #'s.

Also side note... I've noticed on my system, I used to run higher nutrients (no3, 6-8; po4 0.10ish) and higher alk 10.5 dkh and my corals were growing insanely fast. Since some changes in my system my Nutrients have dropped significantly, (no3, 2ppm; po4 .04ish) and I lowered alk to balance (7.5dkh) and lowered my lights as well bc I was starting to get some color fade under the lights. After everything balanced out, and although my colors still look good my growth has significantly dropped. Not just visually but I've had to lower my ca/rx output bc of lower consumption as well. Just something I've noticed I'm my system.

Yes. I measured par a year ago and know the range where it is at now. However, I do not have a PAR meter now and it will be a guess if I bump it up. I am dosing to get my nutrients up and my system is loving it.

 

[JCOLE]

This is true.

op, to answer your question, I found it difficult. As i increased my intensities on my photons v2+, it got better and better, then past the optimal point. But how do you know what’s optimal, when things just seem to improve? Because by then, to go back, may be too late.

What I thought was the optimal point ended up being bad. I ran my photons 14” off the water and at 100% blues,violet and 50-55% others. Man everything that was on the lower 2/3 of the tank exploded in growth, up top suffered the most, but that took a few days to weeks+ to manifest the detrimental symptoms for me to dial them back (mainly bleaching). I tried matching the PAR produced from a MH tank, and I thought hanging them high up would allow me to achieve that. I did in the lower 2/3...

needless to say, I lost a few pieces, and most recovered. I now run no higher than 425-450 at the top of my rocks, and like 200 at the sandbed. Things are def growing slowly, but colors are my main focus now.

id be careful if I were you, but I think the Mars units don’t pump out as much as the reefbreeders units, so if all is good right now, I’d leave it be.

This is exactly my thought as well. I am concerned to bump it up crossing the threshold and then a couple weeks later corals start to bleach. A little late at that point. The top of my rocks are around the 500 range and low around the 150. Just going to go slow for now.

 

[JCOLE]

I've always kept my lights at abut 12-16" off the water and my tank is 29" tall. Along with four BB's (now have Radions) I also have stunner strips and T-5s. I did run both channels at 100%. Peak was about 8 hours a day with a total of 13 hours daily. Without a custom spectrum on your boxes, you will hate the tank if you run the whites very high when you're home, but SPS absolutely grow much faster with more white in the spectrum. The trick is to give them white for super fast growth, but not too much to dull the colors and brown them out, or pastel from lack of food. I suggest turning your whites up about 5% every couple weeks until your at about 60% on that channel. I currently run Radion G-4 Pro and run them also at 100%... 14K. I was running 12K which is all channels 100% but a few corals were paling from too much light.

I actually love the whiter look instead of the blues so it wouldn't be that bad. That sounds like a great idea. I was thinking not to cross the 50-60% white threshold. I will bump it up slowly over the next couple of weeks and watch the coloration. Thank you for the response! What you have done with BB's in your tank has been an inspiration for my tank.

 

[JCOLE]

Just wanted to say sweet tank. It looks great as is.

if you were 5 minutes closer would love to see it in person ;Happy

Thank you! Oh, come on its not that far! You are welcome anytime. I will even pay half of your Uber.

 

[SeaDweller]

This is exactly my thought as well. I am concerned to bump it up crossing the threshold and then a couple weeks later corals start to bleach. A little late at that point. The top of my rocks are around the 500 range and low around the 150. Just going to go slow for now.

probably a good place to stop, tbh. It's tricky because some pieces will take 500-600 PAR no problem with LEDs and other pieces will hate life, so the happy medium can be difficult to find. A good buddy of mine, and a well respected member here, aims for 400-425 at the top of his rocks, and I can't argue with his number he chose.