Bump par values

[Ksmmike]

Hello all,

I should be on the road to Orlando right now but some windbag called Dorian forced me to stay home. I couldn't guarantee that I would find a station with gas in order to get back home before the storm hits. sighs... I had planned on asking someone from Ecotech this today but here goes..

What is the best way to raise par values with your lights? I guess it doesn't really matter the type tho I have Ecotech PW15's. Should I raise the whites (blues are already 100%) or change the kelvin??? I know you change it over time, but I need to raise it about 150 points higher at the top of the tank. thanks

Mike

 

[COreef8]

Hello all,

I should be on the road to Orlando right now but some windbag called Dorian forced me to stay home. I couldn't guarantee that I would find a station with gas in order to get back home before the storm hits. sighs... I had planned on asking someone from Ecotech this today but here goes..

What is the best way to raise par values with your lights? I guess it doesn't really matter the type tho I have Ecotech PW15's. Should I raise the whites (blues are already 100%) or change the kelvin??? I know you change it over time, but I need to raise it about 150 points higher at the top of the tank. thanks

Mike

Hey Ksmmike! What size tank do you have? I just went through the same struggle to get my PAR values up after I found out how low they really were with a PAR meter.

You can definitely raise the PAR by turning each of the channels up but while it might raise your PAR values, it could end up giving you a funky spectrum which may end up being worse for your corals than having lower PAR than you want (or it could encourage nuisance algae growth). Unless your lights are turned way down, 150 PAR is quite a bit to get out of your lights by turning up individual channels.

Your best bet to keep the lights you have and get another 150 PAR is probably to supplement with additional lighting like a T5 hybrid fixture, or some ReefBrite strips. I think at 100%, the AquaticLife T5 hybrid adds about 150 PAR near the top of the tank. Not a terrible solution though since their non dimmable fixtures are relatively cheap.

 

[Ksmmike]

Hey Ksmmike! What size tank do you have? I just went through the same struggle to get my PAR values up after I found out how low they really were with a PAR meter.

You can definitely raise the PAR by turning each of the channels up but while it might raise your PAR values, it could end up giving you a funky spectrum which may end up being worse for your corals than having lower PAR than you want (or it could encourage nuisance algae growth). Unless your lights are turned way down, 150 PAR is quite a bit to get out of your lights by turning up individual channels.

Your best bet to keep the lights you have and get another 150 PAR is probably to supplement with additional lighting like a T5 hybrid fixture, or some ReefBrite strips. I think at 100%, the AquaticLife T5 hybrid adds about 150 PAR near the top of the tank. Not a terrible solution though since their non dimmable fixtures are relatively cheap.

Thanks for the reply. One of my missions at MACNA was to find out about more lighting. sighs.. I'm only 3 hours away from Orlando in normal driving times but there are reports the highways are so clogged that it would take me up to 6 or 7 hours to get there. sighs. I thought about leaving at 5am tomorrow and staying for the day, but again, who knows if I could find gas to get home.

As far as my tank, its 4 foot by 2 by 2 and about 120 gallons not counting the sump. That's about another 40 gallons.
I have 2 of the latest Ecotech 15's on the tank. I was told by Ecotech those 2 would do the job.

I had the all the blues at 100% for 10 hours and the whites went up and down from about 15% to 40% at the highest point and 65% brightness. I rented a par meter from BRS this week and found the par near the top of the rock work was only at 130. I had some acros sitting there for months with little to no growth a few browned or died. Now, I will say that I started with dry rock and Mike P told me at Reef a Palooza a year ago that it would take 2 years for acros to begin to grow in tanks with dry rock. I have a biocube that I started with live rock and things grew within a few months once I put a better light on it. The 120 gallon is about 20 months old and in the past couple of weeks a few acros have begun to start to sprout, even the ones a bit lower at 75-90 par. So I was going t leave it alone, but my curious nature got the better of me.

I was having a terrible time growing acans but they were sitting in par at about 35-50 near the sand bed. I'm guessing that's why they kept dying off, though I have a shrimp that might be my problem. I had a terrible time with cyphastra too but one in par about 50 is starting to grow. I have a hard time with chalices other than Hollywood Stunner, that one is only about a month old frag and is probably 3 times larger already. I bought a starburst monti at the same time and its barely grown but it is growing. Its why I rented the par meter.

If I bump the whites to 75-90% I can get the par to about 225-260 across the top of the tank, but the lower sand bed is from 80-130 and of course a range in between along the rock work. I think I'm good with those numbers. I did consider a T-5 and that's what I wanted to investigate at Macna. sighs.. dang storm.. I know I could drive up and back in one day with no issues if not for everyone leaving this area (Im in Palm Beach County) and if I knew I could find some gas along the highway. I'm still thinking about going for Saturday, but we'll see. thanks again
Mike

 

[COreef8]

Thanks for the reply. One of my missions at MACNA was to find out about more lighting. sighs.. I'm only 3 hours away from Orlando in normal driving times but there are reports the highways are so clogged that it would take me up to 6 or 7 hours to get there. sighs. I thought about leaving at 5am tomorrow and staying for the day, but again, who knows if I could find gas to get home.

As far as my tank, its 4 foot by 2 by 2 and about 120 gallons not counting the sump. That's about another 40 gallons.
I have 2 of the latest Ecotech 15's on the tank. I was told by Ecotech those 2 would do the job.

I had the all the blues at 100% for 10 hours and the whites went up and down from about 15% to 40% at the highest point and 65% brightness. I rented a par meter from BRS this week and found the par near the top of the rock work was only at 130. I had some acros sitting there for months with little to no growth a few browned or died. Now, I will say that I started with dry rock and Mike P told me at Reef a Palooza a year ago that it would take 2 years for acros to begin to grow in tanks with dry rock. I have a biocube that I started with live rock and things grew within a few months once I put a better light on it. The 120 gallon is about 20 months old and in the past couple of weeks a few acros have begun to start to sprout, even the ones a bit lower at 75-90 par. So I was going t leave it alone, but my curious nature got the better of me.

I was having a terrible time growing acans but they were sitting in par at about 35-50 near the sand bed. I'm guessing that's why they kept dying off, though I have a shrimp that might be my problem. I had a terrible time with cyphastra too but one in par about 50 is starting to grow. I have a hard time with chalices other than Hollywood Stunner, that one is only about a month old frag and is probably 3 times larger already. I bought a starburst monti at the same time and its barely grown but it is growing. Its why I rented the par meter.

If I bump the whites to 75-90% I can get the par to about 225-260 across the top of the tank, but the lower sand bed is from 80-130 and of course a range in between along the rock work. I think I'm good with those numbers. I did consider a T-5 and that's what I wanted to investigate at Macna. sighs.. dang storm.. I know I could drive up and back in one day with no issues if not for everyone leaving this area (Im in Palm Beach County) and if I knew I could find some gas along the highway. I'm still thinking about going for Saturday, but we'll see. thanks again
Mike

The acro struggle is real! Especially for those with dry rock. It's awesome starting with a clean slate and not having to worry about pests but it certainly does take much longer for the tank to get established. I know that many people have successfully grown acros in well under 2 years but it's not terrible advice to wait.

I think 2 XR15's may not be quite enough to get to the optimal SPS zone on a 120 gallon tank. Having said that, I know it can be done. I recently saw a beautiful 110 gallon acro tank online that was lit with just 3 AI primes. If you wanted to get up in the 300-400's of useful light, I think you're going to need additional fixtures. Turning up the whites might help raise the PAR, but it may not be helpful to the coral in terms of PUR, or what is actually usable by the coral. Red sea mentions in their lighting videos that they believe adding light outside of the coral's usable spectrum may actually be harmful to the coral, but who knows.

While you could experiment with the spectrum, it would be hard to know if it was helping if you're not already starting with healthy stable corals. I'd suggest going with the safe route: stick to proven spectrums like Ecotech's AB+, and then add either additional radions, or T5's which also have a good track record to get the PAR where you want it.

I thought about going to MACNA too but I decided against it. I live in Tampa and people are already going crazy here cleaning out the grocery stores. I was actually just outside breaking in the generator that I bought a month ago, just in case it changes paths like Irma did. Not looking as good for Palm beach country, be safe out there. Definitely make sure you have a battery backup. Irma knocked our power out for over a week!

 

[Ksmmike]

The acro struggle is real! Especially for those with dry rock. It's awesome starting with a clean slate and not having to worry about pests but it certainly does take much longer for the tank to get established. I know that many people have successfully grown acros in well under 2 years but it's not terrible advice to wait.

I think 2 XR15's may not be quite enough to get to the optimal SPS zone on a 120 gallon tank. Having said that, I know it can be done. I recently saw a beautiful 110 gallon acro tank online that was lit with just 3 AI primes. If you wanted to get up in the 300-400's of useful light, I think you're going to need additional fixtures. Turning up the whites might help raise the PAR, but it may not be helpful to the coral in terms of PUR, or what is actually usable by the coral. Red sea mentions in their lighting videos that they believe adding light outside of the coral's usable spectrum may actually be harmful to the coral, but who knows.

While you could experiment with the spectrum, it would be hard to know if it was helping if you're not already starting with healthy stable corals. I'd suggest going with the safe route: stick to proven spectrums like Ecotech's AB+, and then add either additional radions, or T5's which also have a good track record to get the PAR where you want it.

I thought about going to MACNA too but I decided against it. I live in Tampa and people are already going crazy here cleaning out the grocery stores. I was actually just outside breaking in the generator that I bought a month ago, just in case it changes paths like Irma did. Not looking as good for Palm beach country, be safe out there. Definitely make sure you have a battery backup. Irma knocked our power out for over a week!

Yea, the gas stations were packed here for days and people were wiping out the stores. It looks like the storm is turning some and I was so tempted to head to Macna this morning but I really wanted to hear Sanjay and he would have been done by the time I could have driven there. I'm still upset that I'm missing it. I guess I'll have to wait until Reef A Palooza in April to get my fix.

Thanks for the advice on the lights. I've had a few others tell me the same thing that I really need more light but then again, the acros are beginning to grow. Since I have the par meter for another few days, I'm going to put the AI Prime from my biocube on the 120 tank today and see if I can get the par over 250 where the acros are without bumping up the whites on the Ecotechs. Even if I get one side better lit, I'll be happy since I have an Oregon tort on the one side. The other side of the tank has easier to grow chalices and zoas and a hammer. Another mission at Macna was to pick up a strawberry shortcake frag. Oh well. The LFS's that do carry acros don't have much that's any good. Even the chalices they carry are pretty common, so I have to go to frag swaps to get anything a bit more exotic. Then of course if you order online, you pay a ton in shipping and you're really not sure what you're getting.

My biocube that I started with live rock is full of bristleworms and starfish, so that was the trade off to dry rock. I'm constantly taking bristleworms out of the cube. I don't have any of those issues with the other tank. I'm pretty careful to pull coral off the plugs if possible and dip them. I had a QT tank in the beginning but I stopped using it after I pretty much stocked the tank. Other than the 3 chromis I put in there about a month ago, all the fish are over a year old in there too. So everything else is pretty stable. I change water every 7-10 days and keep the parameters pretty stable.

I added an Apex this past June. I love it even though I'm sure I'm barely using its power right now. It's made it so much easier to control the lights and pumps and turning things off at cleaning time and feeding times. So the latest project was to fine tune the lights and get the par a bit higher on the acros. I was finding it so odd that I wasn't losing acros but I was acans. Go figure. I would have an acan nice an puffy for a couple of months and then fade away within a couple of weeks. Frustrating. So I wanted to check the lights. Anyway, that's my sad tale and I'm sticking to it.

I hope the vendors at Macna could draw a big crowd today.

Mike