Ai Prime 16HD light settings

[Luckyduck]

Hello reefers! I'm trying to duplicate the Ecotech Marine Coral labs AB+ settings on my 16HD AI Prime. I found Dave57's post with the numbers for the 26HD & 52HD and am wondering if it should still be closely the same on the 16HD? I have an hour ramp up and then the percentages all stay constant untill ramp down. Should I adjust the UV to fall throughout the day as the "sun's intensity decreases" or keep it like I have it? My light is over a 25" deep 15 gallon column tank at 11" above the water. Thanks for any help!

 

[Luckyduck]

Not sure how to delete posts or if it's even possible but I got my answer.

 

[Keen4]

Please share your answer I’m having such a hard time with this light and a bta that is not happy.

 

[Keen4]

Ever since I bought this light the bta’s not been happy with adjusting.

 

[Luckyduck]

Ever since I bought this light the bta’s not been happy with adjusting.

Ouch buddy. That poor BTA. I left my settings the same. I'm not sure about bulb tips and their light requirements but you may have to adjust yours for it. Try cutting back to 60%-80% UV at the start intensifying up to the full 116% for maybe 2 hours in the middle of the day for "high noon" then gradually back down to 60%-80% till the sun goes down? It may be something you have to play around with. Maybe try and do some more research on BTA and their lighting requirements. Everything else in the tank doing okay? Water current seem to be sufficient to you? Have you ever target feed the anemone? Do you have any clowns or damsel fish living in it?

 

[Luckyduck]

This is just a guess though or a starting point. Your other corals may not enjoy having the UV cut. It may not be the UV intensity at all. Definitely look around, I'm sure there are some posts on BTAs on Reef2Reef where you can find some valuable information to your inquiry.

 

[Keen4]

I know its a brand new addition to my tank. He was expensive too. Ive looked around and there are so many overwhelming settings- Ill try the UV cut. I just wish someone would tell me exactly what settings to make.

This is just a guess though or a starting point. Your other corals may not enjoy having the UV cut. It may not be the UV intensity at all. Definitely look around, I'm sure there are some posts on BTAs on Reef2Reef where you can find some valuable information to your inquiry.

 

[Luckyduck]

I know its a brand new addition to my tank. He was expensive too. Ive looked around and there are so many overwhelming settings- Ill try the UV cut. I just wish someone would tell me exactly what settings to make.

I bet it was expensive! They have one at my LFS, it's huge but it's $300. I know what you mean but it's going to be hard to find exact setting because there's a number of factors that determine lighting needs and it's not a specific thing. Every tank is unique in its requirements. One would be depth of you aquarium and light height over the tank. Every inhabitant requires something different as well. Some can tolerate more or less, some like zoos will just eventually adapt to the change and do fine. Some won't adapt and will not do well at all. I would focus more on finding what BTAs need as far as lighting intensity instead of an exact lighting spectrum setting.

 

[OrangeCountyReefer]

I had added a prime 16 to my cube tank about 6 months ago and my RBTA went downhill as soon as I did. It inevitably died over the course of 2 months. Was amazing and full up until I changed the light. Rest of the corals loved the new light so I wasn’t gonna keep changing the settings on the light and possibly negatively affect my corals just to save it.

 

[Luckyduck]

I had added a prime 16 to my cube tank about 6 months ago and my RBTA went downhill as soon as I did. It inevitably died over the course of 2 months. Was amazing and full up until I changed the light. Rest of the corals loved the new light so I wasn’t gonna keep changing the settings on the light and possibly negatively affect my corals just to save it.

Thats what I was afraid of may happen with our friend Keen4. Adjusting the light to fix the anemone and ruining it for the rest of the inhabitants. This may not be what you want to hear Keen but maybe you can see of you can take the anemone back and trade it for store credit? I'm sure you have grown attached to it but from what OrangeCountyreefer just said it worries me to mess around with you lighting parameters when the rest of your tank has adjusted to them already. You may end up doing more harm than good.

 

[Keen4]

Ok so I pulled out the Pixie30 to take a chance and hope by some miracle of god that it would turn on. I plugged it in and started playing with the buttons on the remote in frustration an it turned on!!! So I took off this over rated expensive Prime HD light and put my pixie back on! Im starting to see the BTA shorten its tentacles and begin do do little mini bubbles. Lets see how it looks tomorrow. I have it on all high 100% blues, 100% high Royals, UV green red combo 20%. No whites. With this light I didn't get algae. With the Pixie, my algae started coming back.

 

[Waynerock]

Here is what I am using, I have 3 on a reefer 250. Everything is happy SPS up top and LPS and a couple softies down low. It’s been on this setting since December. Just remember you got to have some nutrients in the water for the corals to handle the higher light. It’s very hard to have a true mixed reef and have everyone happy. Get that light on acclimate and take a good month to get there.

 

[Luckyduck]

Here is what I am using, I have 3 on a reefer 250. Everything is happy SPS up top and LPS and a couple softies down low. It’s been on this setting since December. Just remember you got to have some nutrients in the water for the corals to handle the higher light. It’s very hard to have a true mixed reef and have everyone happy. Get that light on acclimate and take a good month to get there.

Nice work man! That's a fantastic tank! Those Scolys and Gonis...gorgeous! My settings are similar to yours except I have a lot more UV & Violet. Other than that the other spectrum percentages are pretty dang close. I have some red in my sunset/dusk as the lights are almost out to kind of simulate a red dawn and have a "high moon" for 2 hours as well. Probably doesn't make a difference with the corals but it's cool to see the moon start reddish as the sun sets and slowly rise to full and dim back out by morning. Also how many watts are you using? The little half circle in the upper right corner didn't have a # in it. Mine is 16 which is surprisingly low but my settings are working for now.

 

[Waynerock]

Nice work man! That's a fantastic tank! Those Scolys and Gonis...gorgeous! My settings are similar to yours except I have a lot more UV & Violet. Other than that the other spectrum percentages are pretty dang close. I have some red in my sunset/dusk as the lights are almost out to kind of simulate a red dawn and have a "high moon" for 2 hours as well. Probably doesn't make a difference with the corals but it's cool to see the moon start reddish as the sun sets and slowly rise to full and dim back out by morning. Also how many watts are you using? The little half circle in the upper right corner didn't have a # in it. Mine is 16 which is surprisingly low but my settings are working for now.

For some reason there isn’t a number. Thanks for the compliment brother

 

[Keen4]

Yea my bta is on its way out- hes completely half way bleached out now. Its so sad how fast this happened. I have no idea how to save it.

 

[Luckyduck]

For some reason there isn’t a number. Thanks for the compliment brother

I'm only in day 18 of my cycle. New tank. Not new to the hobby. I got into it when I was 18 and did it for about 8 years. Had all kinds of cool sh** over the years. Couple species specific/habitat tanks and a few reef tanks. Had seahorses for a while and a tank with a couple Angler Fish. Those guys were really cool. I stopped about 7 years back though but I just decided a month ago I wanted a reef tank again. Small setup; 15 gallon column tank but it's pretty dope and I'm really gonna focus on corals. I want a stunner show tank. Spared no expense. I used to test very infrequently and dos very sporadically. I never ran into any trouble with it but I'm doing the complete opposite this time around I have a ton of different test kits major and minor elements and I went hog-wild buying additives. I have about nine different products from Brightwell Aquatics that I am really excited to test out. I also have the Red Sea AB+ that I'm excited about too. Can't wait till the cycle finishes and I can start filling this tank up!

 

[Luckyduck]

Yea my bta is on its way out- hes completely half way bleached out now. Its so sad how fast this happened. I have no idea how to save it.

That's really unfortunate to hear man. I'm sorry. It's hard to just watch stuff die like that especially when you've tried everything to save it. If it's still kickin in the morning may be worth scooping up and taking it back to your local fish store if you can. Maybe they can nurse it back to health for you. Also a large anemone like that can release a lot of nitrates and ammonia if it dies in your tank so be cautious of that. If you do go to your LFS bring them a sample of your water to test. Check out all of your parameters and see if maybe by chance it's not the light bothering your BTA. Sounds like it most likely is but good to know everything, Phosphates and PH are two I would be curious of. Possibly even iron too. Are you using RO water for top offs?

 

[Keen4]

That's really unfortunate to hear man. I'm sorry. It's hard to just watch stuff die like that especially when you've tried everything to save it. If it's still kickin in the morning may be worth scooping up and taking it back to your local fish store if you can. Maybe they can nurse it back to health for you. Also a large anemone like that can release a lot of nitrates and ammonia if it dies in your tank so be cautious of that. If you do go to your LFS bring them a sample of your water to test. Check out all of your parameters and see if maybe by chance it's not the light bothering your BTA. Sounds like it most likely is but good to know everything, Phosphates and PH are two I would be curious of. Possibly even iron too. Are you using RO water for top offs?

I have a protein skimmer
my phostphates are .25ppm
Ph: 8.2
temp 77degrees
salinity: 1.026
Nitrates: 25ppm
Mg 1290
Dkh: 12.6
Ca: 500

Weekly water changes every Friday night with RODI and Red Sea salt
no supplements

The BTA is looking a little bit better today. Hes got more bubbles and isn't so stretched out. He actually came out more for the light- hes not hiding half way anymore.

 

[Keen4]

I think ill commit to my pixie 30 for now. Since thats what he was used to. Lets see how it does in a month from now.

 

[Luckyduck]

I have a protein skimmer
my phostphates are .25ppm
Ph: 8.2
temp 77degrees
salinity: 1.026
Nitrates: 25ppm
Mg 1290
Dkh: 12.6
Ca: 500

Weekly water changes every Friday night with RODI and Red Sea salt
no supplements

The BTA is looking a little bit better today. Hes got more bubbles and isn't so stretched out. He actually came out more for the light- hes not hiding half way anymore.

I think that's a good idea to commit to one light or the other. The nice thing about the AI Prime is that if need be you can sell it on Ebay for dang close to what you paid for it. People love those lights.

Now let's address your water parameters.

PH and salinity are fine
Temp is a little low but if everything seems to be happy you can leave that be but one degree higher may not hurt.
Calcium is okay but 500 is a touch high. Mine is actually 500 too but I'm shooting for 480. Alkalinity is quite a bit higher than I'd like to see it. I shoot for in between 9 & 10. Magnesium I like to see at about 1350, which will also help to buffer the calcium and alkalinity levels so you don't get run away numbers like that. Phosphates @ .25 are pretty high. I like to keep mine below .10, perfect # would be .05. Nitrates are pretty high too, things will be okay but if you can get those lower that will only help. 5-20ppm is a good area to be in. You have a skimmer so that should be helping to keep those numbers down, since your phosphates and nitrates are both pretty high I would ask about feeding. How often and how much you feed? Feeding is one of the quickest ways to run up levels of phosphates and nitrates. Depending on what you feed if it's frozen you can soak it in a small cup with a little tank water or warm rodi water and drain off the excess water and only feed the food portion. Flake food is usually very high in those components as well and if possible shy away from flake or maybe just not use it so often. The RODI water is good. If you're not adding buffers I'm wondering how your Alkalinity got so high as well calcium being a little high. You may want to use a different salt mix. I use premixed saltwater which I'm not suggesting you do I just use it because I only have a 13.5 gallon system so it's cost effective and time saving to use pre-mixed ocean water. I can do some research for you and find a good salt mix if you were thinking about switching. If you have an established reef you don't need to test for these a lot maybe once a month but it's good to know your Ammonia and Nitrite levels are at Zero or very close to it. Lastly I will say I'm not trying to tell you how to run your tank merely giving some suggestions to perfect your water conditions. Another way to lower phosphates and nitrates is by using Chaetomorpha algae. Chaeto can be grown in a sump or refugium and it photosynthesizes and removes phosphates, iron and nitrates. You do need a small grow light over the Chaeto to aid in photosynthesis. Another way to lower phosphates is to use a filter sock with some phoslock. You should activley measure your phosphates with this method though as you can strip ALL of the phosphates from the water column and that's not what you want to do. Good luck bud, I wish you continued growth. I'm here to help if I can.