AI prime settings for 5 gallon reef tank?

[I<3Reefer]

I have a 5 gallon fluval evo reef tank. A couple softies (toadstool, Ricordea, and gsp) lps (candy cane, acan, Duncan) and spa (Jack-o-lantern leptoseris, monti, and birds nests)

I sprung today for an AI prime today, my corals have been looking a bit faded lately, especially my birds nest which went from a purple hue when I bought the frag, to practically white (but otherwise healthy looking) polyps.

Anyways what’s a good setting for a 5 gallon tank? I have it 9.5 inches above the water, and I left the fluval top on the tank (there’s a 17x2 inch opening in the relatively clear top)

The tank is
19”x11.5x7.5

 

[gonzo620]

I have a frag tank with a prime over it. I like running the AB+ program on it.
UV 119%
Violet 116%
Royal 79%
Blue 80%
Green 4%
Deep Red 4%
Cool White 19%

 

[I<3Reefer]

Right on, wouldn't that much UV fry my 5 gallon?

 

[I<3Reefer]

Well I was using the stock light from fluval prior.... I feel like the amount of UV in your frag tank (40 gallons?) would likely fry my 5g.

Mine is currently

UV 57%
Violet 55%
Royal 30%
blue 39%
Green 29%
Deep red 60%
Cool White 31%

 

[gonzo620]

Actually my frag tank is custom plumbed into the display’s sump. This guy holds about 9 gallons of water. Light sits 10” above the water surface. All contained in the stand of my 180 gallon tank.

I’ve never heard of corals cooking due to UV spectrum specifically. So I can’t comment on that but I have had great success with this configuration.

 

[NS Mike D]

from AI

With a spread of 24" x 24", the AI Prime® HD has a peak PAR of 100µMol at a depth of 24 inches,

the prime (not HD) has slightly lower par, you can check it on their life science section on their website but I couldn't reconcile that to the above statement and I couldn't locate a par mapping for different tank depths


also, as for spectrum balance: from dana riddle:


dana wrote:
Here are some numbers (for good coloration, shoot for PAR of at least 100 and up to 350.) Spectrum should look like this for perhaps 8 hours, with full spectrum (not to exceed ~25% on any channel, but see PAR values) for about 2-3 hours.
UV-A 1.20%
Violet (400-430 nm) 9.90%
Blue (431 - 480 nm) 64.60%
Green-Blue (481 - 490 nm) 10.30%
Blue-Green (491 - 510 nm) 7.60%
Green (511 - 530 nm) 2.20%
Yellow-Green (531 - 570 nm) 2.30%
Yellow (571 - 580 nm)
0.40%
Orange (581 - 600 nm) 0.60%
Red (601 - 700 nm) 0.80%

I sort of use this as a guidline since my Rapid LEDs don't have all these spectrums broken out (I use the whites to round things out)

 

[I<3Reefer]

from AI

With a spread of 24" x 24", the AI Prime® HD has a peak PAR of 100µMol at a depth of 24 inches,

the prime (not HD) has slightly lower par, you can check it on their life science section on their website but I couldn't reconcile that to the above statement and I couldn't locate a par mapping for different tank depths


also, as for spectrum balance: from dana riddle:


dana wrote:
Here are some numbers (for good coloration, shoot for PAR of at least 100 and up to 350.) Spectrum should look like this for perhaps 8 hours, with full spectrum (not to exceed ~25% on any channel, but see PAR values) for about 2-3 hours.
UV-A 1.20%
Violet (400-430 nm) 9.90%
Blue (431 - 480 nm) 64.60%
Green-Blue (481 - 490 nm) 10.30%
Blue-Green (491 - 510 nm) 7.60%
Green (511 - 530 nm) 2.20%
Yellow-Green (531 - 570 nm) 2.30%
Yellow (571 - 580 nm)
0.40%
Orange (581 - 600 nm) 0.60%
RTed (601 - 700 nm) 0.80%

I sort of use this as a guideline since my Rapid LEDs don't have all these spectrums broken out (I use the whites to round things out)

I actually have the HD, sorry I didn't realize they were different.

Are those fractions of a percent? I don't even see that as an option. They're all just 1-100+. Also what does nm stand for?

 

[I<3Reefer]

Actually my frag tank is custom plumbed into the display’s sump. This guy holds about 9 gallons of water. Light sits 10” above the water surface. All contained in the stand of my 180 gallon tank.

I’ve never heard of corals cooking due to UV spectrum specifically. So I can’t comment on that but I have had great success with this configuration.

I thought too much UV-A could cause bleaching due to the zooxanthellae algae not being able to adjust to the intensity.

 

[NS Mike D]

nm is the wavelength of the spectrum.

from the website


The AI Prime® HD utilizes the latest LED technology from leading manufacturers, arranged to provide the best performance.

• 3 - Cree XP-G2 Cool White (> 70 CRI)
• 3 - Cree XT-E Royal Blue
• 3 - Cree XP-E2 Blue
• 1 - Cree Deep Red 660nm
• 1 - Cree XP-E2 Green
• 1 - SemiLED 415nm
• 1 - SemiLED 400nm

 

[NS Mike D]

uv -a is 315- 400 nm

119% does seem high but it only has one LED in that spectrum and it's on the UV cusp (true UV leds are very expensive)

I run my uv/purple at 50% on Rapid LED Coronas on a 29 gal 12" above the tank.

I keep red low since that is the one that algae like

bleaching is usually attributed to total par, however the danger with uv and blue is that they don't appear as bright to us and so without a par meter, or doing the math using manufacturer par maps, it's easy to overdo the light.

the uv and blue is what makes many of the corals color up, and most good leds companies have reduced the number of white leds with more blues mixed in with red and green ( white is actually a mix of RGB) thus giving us the ability to increase the blue while still appearing white to our eyes (take a look at your iphone pics to get a feel for how much blue is actually being emitted)

in any case, according to AI, at 24" above the tank, the primes deliver 100par to 24" to the bottom. IMO, 100 Par at the bottom is more than enough PAR, certainly that is the sweet spot for many LPS like frogspawn and torchs.

at 11.5'' total depth and 9.5 " light hight, I would be cautious about running these more that 50% if you can't get you hands on a PAR meter. And use the acclimation function.

 

[I<3Reefer]

uv -a is 315- 400 nm

119% does seem high but it only has one LED in that spectrum and it's on the UV cusp (true UV leds are very expensive)

I run my uv/purple at 50% on Rapid LED Coronas on a 29 gal 12" above the tank.

I keep red low since that is the one that algae like

bleaching is usually attributed to total par, however the danger with uv and blue is that they don't appear as bright to us and so without a par meter, or doing the math using manufacturer par maps, it's easy to overdo the light.

the uv and blue is what makes many of the corals color up, and most good leds companies have reduced the number of white leds with more blues mixed in with red and green ( white is actually a mix of RGB) thus giving us the ability to increase the blue while still appearing white to our eyes (take a look at your iphone pics to get a feel for how much blue is actually being emitted)

in any case, according to AI, at 24" above the tank, the primes deliver 100par to 24" to the bottom. IMO, 100 Par at the bottom is more than enough PAR, certainly that is the sweet spot for many LPS like frogspawn and torchs.

at 11.5'' total depth and 9.5 " light hight, I would be cautious about running these more that 50% if you can't get you hands on a PAR meter. And use the acclimation function.

Thanks! It may be too late for the acclimation setting (I saw that but figured it was for acclimating new corals, not the tank).

I dropped my settings down to

UV - 39%
Violet - 39%
Royal - 30%
Blue - 22%
Green - 12%
Deep Red - 25% (I didn't realize red caused algae outbreaks, I already have to clean my glass every other day with a magnet cleaner. I had high red initially because it made my Monti's pop)
Cool White - 23%


Hopefully those settings are safer. That drops the wattage from 17 to 13, and the "stock light" from fluval was 10 watts. So I think 17 may have been bad news, but it's only been on for 2 hours yesterday and 9 today, so I think it will be fine.

 

[OmuNegru]

Thanks! It may be too late for the acclimation setting (I saw that but figured it was for acclimating new corals, not the tank).

I dropped my settings down to

UV - 39%
Violet - 39%
Royal - 30%
Blue - 22%
Green - 12%
Deep Red - 25% (I didn't realize red caused algae outbreaks, I already have to clean my glass every other day with a magnet cleaner. I had high red initially because it made my Monti's pop)
Cool White - 23%


Hopefully those settings are safer. That drops the wattage from 17 to 13, and the "stock light" from fluval was 10 watts. So I think 17 may have been bad news, but it's only been on for 2 hours yesterday and 9 today, so I think it will be fine.

How's your 5 gallon doing with the ai prime 16 hd? I have the same tank and light and cannot settle on the right intensities and duration. I only have softies and lps. Any advice?