From all the research and trial and error I've done, I found that a 20K color temp will give great color but moderate growth, and 14K color temp will give really good growth and OK color. I wrote to AI and they say for the Hydras a 2:1 ratio of blues to white will give you a 20K color temp and a 1:1 or 1:0.75 ratio of blues to white will give you a 12K to 14k color temp.
So I setup my profile to do both. I use a 3 hr ramp for sunrise, and a 2 hr ramp for sunset. Peak power on the blues/violet is 8 hrs, and I have the whites and UV peak for 5 hours in the middle to simulate height of the sun mid day. My sunrise ramp and first 1.5 hours is 20K then it slowly transitions to 14K for 5 hours, then transitions back to 20K the last 1.5 hrs and the sunset ramp.
I have 4 26's over a 60" tank set 12" AWL. Here is my full profile to give you a better idea.
Hope this is helpful.
UV has to be increased very slow, I set mine to what is above then put the UV channel in 50% acclimation mode for 3 months to get to that final level. UV helps with the more fluorescent pigments because the corals use them like a sun screen. But they produce them very slowly, and UV has no impact on growth.
This is where I am now. Turned the uv down a little
UV has to be increased very slow, I set mine to what is above then put the UV channel in 50% acclimation mode for 3 months to get to that final level. UV helps with the more fluorescent pigments because the corals use them like a sun screen. But they produce them very slowly, and UV has no impact on growth.
I would also make sure your lights are high enough off the water. As you can see, I have my channels cranked up pretty high, bit at 12" AWL, I get a nice 300-330 PAR at 6" deep, 250-275 at 12", 200-225 at 18", and 150-175 on the sand 24". So not crazy high but everything is pretty happy. And yes, I have a PAR meter.
As other posts mention, what are your params including nutrients? And what kind of flow is in your tank? Could be other factors besides lighting.
The Calcium is fine at 380... But your Alk is pretty high, especially for basically no nutrients. I run a pretty consistent 5 ppm nitrate and my Alk is 8.2, phosphate is not detectable but I add some everyday with the frozen food because I don't rinse it.
Sorry for the acronym... ULNS = Ultra Low Nutrient System
Glad to hear you like the settings I posted. If you are increasing just the white channel, you can use acclimation mode on that one channel and set the percentage reduction so the current output matches what you have now after you do the increase. Then just let it automatically adjust over at least the next 30 days to the higher level. The slower the better to allow the corals to adjust.
I agree, I think a lot of the folks that run at reduced power on LEDs just have them too close. If you look at the Radion Coral Lab, they mount their lights 2 feet above the water.
so went with the AI hanging kit
