Are my lights to bright?

[Huskymaniac]

I am running Hydra 52's with all blue spectrums at 100 and white at 70. I have a lot of sps coral down low and a Maxima clam in the sand bed so need to maintain 300 par in the sand. I have some acros that are starting to fade in the areas exposed to the light. Specifically the picture of the "joe the coral" shows polyp extension on the areas somewhat shaded. There is no polyp extension in the areas directly exposed to the light. I have been contemplating cutting back the leds by half and suppmenting t5's instead. Would that help this problem?

 

[Diesel]

Cutting back could help, not sure if you should cut back half.
What are you nutrients at?

 

[Huskymaniac]

Phosphates are at 0 but dealing with some algea so I know its really not 0. Nitrates are less than 5 but more than 0.

 

[Diesel]

Ok.
Less than 5 but more than 0.0, I like that.
What kind of algae?
I’m worried you starving your corals.
Why not reduce the blues to 70% and whites to 45% with a peak time on only 5 hrs and 2.5 ramp up as the same in ramping down till off 100%.

 

[Huskymaniac]

Maybe a bit of hair algea. My tank is fishless right now because everyone is in QT so I have been dosing reef energy to add some carbs and aminos to feed everything. Its been causing a minor outbreak. Problem with reducing the lights is I have a maxima clam at the bottom and with my current settings it is getting 300 par. Was thinking i can get the same par using a combo with the t5's and a reduced led but wouldnt get that intense spotlight effect on some corals.

 

[Diesel]

Hybrid lights are awesome.
Yes clams can be in need of a lot of light but don’t get set on that 300 on the sand.
Had a black/white clam on the sand for years till I sold it and got only about 175 par.

 

[Huskymaniac]

Is 500 par from led/t5 virtually the same as 500 par from just led? Just not sure if this will fix my problem and waste some money.

 

[Diesel]

500 par the bottom?
What light was that and if so how high was over your the tank?

 

[Huskymaniac]

No just throwing a number out there. That joe the coral is in about 500 par. I guess my question is qould any par value of led/t5 be less harsh than the same par value of just an led.

 

[Mattrg02]

How do you know the par? I have hydra26hd and thought I had too much par, so I turned it down. Boy was I wrong. I now have blues maxed out and light closer to water and my corals are growing again.

 

[Huskymaniac]

I used a par meter.

 

[Will Wohlers]

No high par from leds seems to be much more harsh then the t5 equivalent. I run a hydra t5 hybrid and love it. I'm getting 5-600 par on top of my rocks and running brs coral lab sps schedule. My whites at peak are 20%. I think you're over lighting them.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

500 par from an led is a lot of light. Why do you feel you need 300 on the sand bed? Many sps will be very happy with par under 200. I have grown acropra in an area getting 100ish par it did well and had good color. Lower blues to 65-70% and whites to 25-40%, keep uv under 15% it can burn corals if too uv is too strong, reds and greens are whatever 0-5%. Move the maxima up on the rock higher, they love tons of light and live on a rock in the wild. If your nutrients are low then keep your alk near NWS 7-8 dkh, this will help prevent burnt tips and bleaching from strong lighting.

 

[ReefFreak@]

What is your alkalinity?
Nitrates- around 5ppm is fine defiantly don't want them completly 0(unless running ulns with high import high export)
Phosphates- 0ppm will defiantly starve corals(0.03 - 0.1 are in the acceptable range)
I wouldn't worry about a little algae in the reef especially if your system is new. Just grab a few snails to keep it a bay. I wouldn't get hung of at 300 par. If your running 300 par at the sand be im guessing your running around 500-600 par in the upper half of the reef, this will stress sps if you have low nutrients with high alk. If you want to continue running high par your going to half to SLOWLY ramp up nutrients and alk to keep everything leveled out. Or you can lower your par and keep lower nutrients and alk. Neither is the right or best way, just different routes to obtain the same goal.

 

[Will Wohlers]

Crank up the blue and uv and lower your whites. Feed heavy and be done with it. Look for brs ab+ full power and run that schedule

 

[biophilia]

Many stony corals reach photo-inhibition in the mid 200-300 PAR range. Some even lower. I was just talking about LED PAR with someone at Neptune Aquatics here in the Bay Area yesterday. I was curious what they run on their systems because they've been around almost 20 years and have by far the nicest SPS frags and display tanks in the Bay. They limit their systems to 180 PAR max (even SPS/clam-dominant tanks) (Kessil AP700 lights) and 150PAR max for soft coral/LPS tanks. This is with NO3 ~20ppm and PO4 ~0.03ppm

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Another sps withering away/hydra hd thread. I wish I had gone with radions instead of hydras.

 

[Huskymaniac]

Another sps withering away/hydra hd thread. I wish I had gone with radions instead of hydras.

I wouldnt say my sps are withering away. They actually all look great and arw growing. Just a few at the top could be looking better. More to do with running lights way to bright to compensate for clams on the lower portion of my tank.

 

[Huskymaniac]

What is your alkalinity?
Nitrates- around 5ppm is fine defiantly don't want them completly 0(unless running ulns with high import high export)
Phosphates- 0ppm will defiantly starve corals(0.03 - 0.1 are in the acceptable range)
I wouldn't worry about a little algae in the reef especially if your system is new. Just grab a few snails to keep it a bay. I wouldn't get hung of at 300 par. If your running 300 par at the sand be im guessing your running around 500-600 par in the upper half of the reef, this will stress sps if you have low nutrients with high alk. If you want to continue running high par your going to half to SLOWLY ramp up nutrients and alk to keep everything leveled out. Or you can lower your par and keep lower nutrients and alk. Neither is the right or best way, just different routes to obtain the same goal.

My alkalinity is at 11.1. I run it higher to compensate for a lower PH on my tank sue to it being in my basement and running a reactor.

 

[Huskymaniac]

Many stony corals reach photo-inhibition in the mid 200-300 PAR range. Some even lower. I was just talking about LED PAR with someone at Neptune Aquatics here in the Bay Area yesterday. I was curious what they run on their systems because they've been around almost 20 years and have by far the nicest SPS frags and display tanks in the Bay. They limit their systems to 180 PAR max (even SPS/clam-dominant tanks) (Kessil AP700 lights) and 150PAR max for soft coral/LPS tanks. This is with NO3 ~20ppm and PO4 ~0.03ppm

This is exactly what I was thinking and was wondering if things would do better if I dialed the led's down and made up the difference with T5's.