AI Prime Light

[StephanieRodriguez]

Hello! Happy Super Bowl Sunday! Quick question. Just set up my light and am enjoying the view. I went ahead and used the easy setup option. Right now I have two corals in there. Any advice as to settings for the light to encourage optimum growth and health for my coral? Thanks!!!

 

[Rob.D]

I have no clue but hopefully with the Superbowl over there will someone available to help....good luck!

 

[esolo16]

What size tank is it and what type of corals are you trying to keep (soft/sps/LPS)?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Rather than settings. Heres some theory. Target the corals you have and would like to have in your tank. Many corals are High light corals many are med and low.

Higher light corals like a brighter and less blue more full spectrum light. Corals usually who prefer lower light prefer more blue, as the deeper you get in the sea the bluer light gets.

Many corals will adapt to the in between but the highs just dont like low and the lows just dont like high.

You light will produce GREAT spectrum and you can adjust its color to imitate deeper and shallower lighting conditions (as you get familiar with the light you will see a correlation there id bet).

So lets talk about intensity. I use a LUX meter to test intensity.($15 on amazon or free app if you dont mind holding your phone over a tank of saltwater.)
With a new light I would measure the intensity in lux at the top of the water at full power. I would suspect you will get 35,000 to 50,000 lux.
At the surface of the ocean(SPS corals) the light is 60 to 80,000+ lux. So if you have 50,000 lux you can very likely grow SPS quite well near the top of the rocks, and everything else down to the sand bed quite well too. Really low light corals may not like it.
If your light at full is only 16 to 25,000 lux of intensity at the top you probably wont be able to grow those high light corals and Id wager many zoas wont do well on the sand bed.

By knowing what lighting conditions you can provide you can now choose corals that match those conditions. Just like your water parameters.
If you use a par meter and use the same technique it will produce the same results. Par calculates intensity and usable spectrum.
Knowing just a little bit about where the coral actually come from really can help in those choices too.

Light acclimation is a real thing so keep that in mind. The LFS probably uses way too little light so you don't want to blast them. So creating a an acclimation mode would be cool and then ramp up to what you had.

Personally I would always set my expensive light to ramp up to its highest point and work from there.Unless you really love low light corals.
The sun&sky is 80,000 to 120,ooo lux and the highest par is 2,000. its likel'y you wont hit those. But your Maxima clam might be happy if you did.

Beautiful tank by the way!
Happy reefing.

 

[Rasengan]

@saltyfilmfolks great post! how does a LUX meter differ from a PAR meter? Looking at the ones on Amazon, it doesn't really seem many of them are waterproof. If you can't get them into the water, you are only then measuring intensity right above the surface, correct?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

@saltyfilmfolks great post! how does a LUX meter differ from a PAR meter? Looking at the ones on Amazon, it doesn't really seem many of them are waterproof. If you can't get them into the water, you are only then measuring intensity right above the surface, correct?

Hi, thank you. A lux meter measures ONLY intensity. A par meter measures intensity of specific wavelengths to calculate the amount of par.
You dont need to put it under water. (i did just order one to put in a bag though mostly to be funny).
You are correct.
Once you know the intensity or par on the top of the water you dont really need to know more than that. As you can guess that farther from the light it will be less intense.
with this technique a par meter can actually be easily scewed if you wear a white shirt blue shirt or have a green wall.(remember its reading color too)at a 180 degree angle.
A lux meter is reading intensity only at about 45 to 90 degrees. Look at melevs how to read Par page and you'll see this.(dark objects don't reflect, white sand does)

If I trust the spectrum of the lamp(led halide t5 flashlight) or can adjust it, then all i need to to know is how much I want/need to grow the targeted corals.

 

[RMS18]

I have 2 primes over a 30 gallon. Took a bit to get mine tuned in but once tuned my growth is amazing. Here is my light schedule. You might want to use acclimation mode than just jump to a high setting. I have a derasa clam on my sand bed that is growing weekly it feels like, zoas throughout along with lps, softies, and nems.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

acclimation mode

+1000000000

 

[StephanieRodriguez]

What size tank is it and what type of corals are you trying to keep (soft/sps/LPS)?

I have soft corals right now, zoa's, mushroom, eventually I want to do some hard corals as well. I have a 40gallon tank

 

[StephanieRodriguez]

I have 2 primes over a 30 gallon. Took a bit to get mine tuned in but once tuned my growth is amazing. Here is my light schedule. You might want to use acclimation mode than just jump to a high setting. I have a derasa clam on my sand bed that is growing weekly it feels like, zoas throughout along with lps, softies, and nems.

I have soft corals and one hard coral, my mistake didn't realize I had to wait longer hopefully it doesn't die on me. What do you think of this setting? I have the acclimation mode on right now for a month.

 

[RMS18]

I have soft corals and one hard coral, my mistake didn't realize I had to wait longer hopefully it doesn't die on me. What do you think of this setting? I have the acclimation mode on right now for a month.

The 1 prime will be fine for it, I shut off my red and green, they do promote algea and primes are very heavy in whites which provide enough red and green. Uv is good, even though it's only 1 led uv can burn corals. Renting a par meter is great if you can so you can have an idea of what your sand bed is at, mid level and top of rocks. Lps can live in a wide range of pars. It's all about acclimating them correctly and having an idea of where it should be placed. Keep an eye on them, corals will tell you if they are not happy but remember it's better to have less light than to much light. Both corals look good, how much longer till the prime is out of acclimation mode?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

And Zoas will take a lot more light than most believe. Many live in tide pools.
Im still learning my LPS's. (not really a fan of most really)

"It's all about acclimating them correctly and having an idea of where it should be placed Keep an eye on them, corals will tell you if they are not happy but remember it's better to have less light than to much light"

True,Even with a meter. A meter just gives a concrete number to work with.

 

[esolo16]

I personally like the default 18k setting. If you want to go that route, you would probably want the intensity pretty high for that size tank. Getting a lux reading from a phone app is a great place to start to give you some kind of idea of what your numbers are looking like. After that, if you don't feel like spending money on a lux/par meter, go based on how your corals look. I also love the acclimation mode so increases in intensity do not do any damage.

 

[esolo16]

To clarify, by the look of the corals, I mean you should gauge any changes based on how your corals are reacting.

 

[StephanieRodriguez]

Thanks for all the advice! So far my corals are looking great, with all your help of course!

 

[KSReefing]

I run my AI primes at 50% everything and 10% cool white. I have zoas, hammers, frogspawn, torch, elegance, acans, toadstools, and a monti and I have had amazing growth.

 

[FL_Reefer]

I run my AI primes at 50% everything and 10% cool white. I have zoas, hammers, frogspawn, torch, elegance, acans, toadstools, and a monti and I have had amazing growth.

Can you post your settings?

 

[KSReefing]

 

[philfree]

On what size tank?
How far above the surface?

 

[esolo16]

I run my AI primes at 50% everything and 10% cool white. I have zoas, hammers, frogspawn, torch, elegance, acans, toadstools, and a monti and I have had amazing growth.

I don't mean to hijack the thread but how are you determining amazing growth? Have you used other leds or t5/mh?

Those questions aren't meant to be rude, I am just still somewhat new to keeping corals and these are the only lights I have owned other then the stock IM leds. So I am genuinely interested in other people's experiences and I have not been able to find too much info on them.