Anyone wants to help?

[Ahbaloch]

so my tank has been up for 8 months,

All my zoas doing well, mushrooms doing well, and my couple acros too.

Does anyone have a PAR meter that i could borrow for a day? I would greatly appreciate it. I can even send a payment to hold if you want till i send it back. I just need to check my light par.

I am about to order a few acro pack from a couple people so if anyone can help, please let me know

( tank spec)
40 gallon with 25 gallon FT
And 20g sump,

Light is ati for ft
And coral life t5 quad for dt
Thank you in advance

 

[Muttley000]

Many local clubs have one to loan out to members

 

[Ahbaloch]

Dont know any local reefers

 

[Ron Reefman]

Have you looked for a local club?

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/local-reef-club-discussion.516/

Or ask at your local aquarium stores.

I'd loan you mine but shipping it out is crazy. It would cost $300 to replace, so you'd need a $300 security deposit and pay for shipping.

 

[mtraylor]

I'm not trying to stir up a bees nest here, but here is my opinion. In reviewing your display and frag tank. Looks like to me that you have great lighting. Your frags look great, your display looks great. You have coraline algae growing. You are good to go. The corals that you receive, there will be all kinds of advice as to low/medium/high lighting. Place the corals accordingly if you are not able to find a PAR meter. You will be ok.

I have been reefing for a long time and I have never had a PAR meter, and it hasn't degradated my aquarium in anyway. I'm not saying its a useful tool. I would love to have one, but you will be ok without it. Keep it simple for now. You can fine tune things later if you should decided to get one to map out your high and low areas better.

 

[Ahbaloch]

So how do i know what par is where?

And which acro i need to place where?

I'm not trying to stir up a bees nest here, but here is my opinion. In reviewing your display and frag tank. Looks like to me that you have great lighting. Your frags look great, your display looks great. You have coraline algae growing. You are good to go. The corals that you receive, there will be all kinds of advice as to low/medium/high lighting. Place the corals accordingly if you are not able to find a PAR meter. You will be ok.

I have been reefing for a long time and I have never had a PAR meter, and it hasn't degradated my aquarium in anyway. I'm not saying its a useful tool. I would love to have one, but you will be ok without it. Keep it simple for now. You can fine tune things later if you should decided to get one to map out your high and low areas better.

 

[mtraylor]

You will not know the PAR levels without a PAR meter.

What I"m saying is the following. Corals are usually listed in the 3 categories that you see below. To the right I have placed where you will put them. Its really not that hard. Try and keep it simple.
Once the coral colors up within first several weeks you will know if its happy at that point and if it needs moved. I pretty much glue the coral where I think it needs to go and thats about it. Very seldom
have I had to move one due to wrong conditions.

High Lighting - Place coral up high in aquarium upper 1/3 of aquarium.
Medium Lighting - Place coral in middle level of aquarium
Low Lighting - Place coral in sand or lowwer 1/3 of aquarium.

 

[Ahbaloch]

So my ft is 20 Tall,

I am running ati quad (b+,p+,B+,C+)

How high should my light be from the tank?

How many hours should i run? And at what rate?

 

[mtraylor]

Your light placement looks good to me. I dont think you have much to worry about. When I used to run a similar light on my 20gallon holding tank. I would run it anywhere from 8 to 10 hour photo period. Coral loved it and it was a much shallower tank than you have.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Here's an idea to give you an indication of when you are starting to get too much light:

'Canary in a Coalmine'

You could try the 'canary in a coalmine' approach. Get a small frag of a red cap monti or any other inexpensive plating coral, and set it in your tank as high or higher than all the other corals. Start your acclimatization at a low number and raise it every week. You can raise it a bit faster early on, but get much more careful as you get up to higher power levels. When you raise the light intensity too high, the red cap will start to bleach before any other corals. At that point, dial the power back a bit (5% to 10%) and you should be good to go.