Can you run LEDS %100?

[Corolling]

In the past, all other lights were running @ %100, MH, T5, etc. But now, we have LEDs. Some people run theirs at %100. Is it possible to ramp up your leds to %100 over a certain amount of time? Example, I purchased reefi LEDs, Had them running at %60, and had some corals bleach/white out. Of course I had to back off the intensity. I have a mixed tank... SO, is it worth it to try increasing power slowly ? I run higher alk levels.

 

[TheSheff]

In the past, all other lights were running @ %100, MH, T5, etc. But now, we have LEDs. Some people run theirs at %100. Is it possible to ramp up your leds to %100 over a certain amount of time? Example, I purchased reefi LEDs, Had them running at %60, and had some corals bleach/white out. Of course I had to back off the intensity. I have a mixed tank... SO, is it worth it to try increasing power slowly ? I run higher alk levels.

It's important to make sure that the corals get acclimated to one level for a while IMO. I recently increased my intensity by 10% because it had been the same for about 6 months.

 

[Bpb]

This is speaking anecdotally here, But corals seemed to tolerate ultra high light levels from metal halide lighting with relative ease. The specific physiology of why that is I am not sure of. I have a suspicion it is due to the IR produced and the Emerson effect seen in terrestrial plants. Just a hunch nothing more so don’t take this as me saying it is “why”.

T5’s, I don’t know. I ran an ati sunpower and the light intensity was fairly gentle. I wouldn’t ever see over 400 par near the top of the tank so even at full power I wasn’t exactly blasting everything.

But with halides, I had lps receiving 600+ par and doing just fine without any acclimation needed.

Leds are just different. Call it lensing effect, or higher spectral efficiency, or color separation, I don’t know, but something makes corals a little more sensitive to higher intensities. It just makes it more difficult. Not impossible. Just a more lengthy acclimation. Plenty of people on here are hitting their sps with well over 1000 par from led only. It just is a matter of diffusion, acclimation, and keeping everything else stable and healthy. Every bit of intensity can be achieved with leds as we used with halides, you just have a smaller margin of error. Again. I suspect it has something to do with the Emerson effect.

 

[Hooz]

The question here is, why do you want to run them at 100%? If you've tested your tank with a PAR meter and have your lights providing the amount of PAR you need to suit the coral you're keeping, then why raise it? If 60% gets the coral where they need to be, then just run them at 60% and call it a day.

 

[Spare time]

This is speaking anecdotally here, But corals seemed to tolerate ultra high light levels from metal halide lighting with relative ease. The specific physiology of why that is I am not sure of. I have a suspicion it is due to the IR produced and the Emerson effect seen in terrestrial plants. Just a hunch nothing more so don’t take this as me saying it is “why”.

T5’s, I don’t know. I ran an ati sunpower and the light intensity was fairly gentle. I wouldn’t ever see over 400 par near the top of the tank so even at full power I wasn’t exactly blasting everything.

But with halides, I had lps receiving 600+ par and doing just fine without any acclimation needed.

Leds are just different. Call it lensing effect, or higher spectral efficiency, or color separation, I don’t know, but something makes corals a little more sensitive to higher intensities. It just makes it more difficult. Not impossible. Just a more lengthy acclimation. Plenty of people on here are hitting their sps with well over 1000 par from led only. It just is a matter of diffusion, acclimation, and keeping everything else stable and healthy. Every bit of intensity can be achieved with leds as we used with halides, you just have a smaller margin of error. Again. I suspect it has something to do with the Emerson effect.

If I had to guess, I would believe it is because LED's have much more blue to them and thus it takes less to hit photosaturation or too high of an intensity with them compared to most metal halides. It is one reason why I think par is overrated as it doesn't take into acount spectra which makes a huge difference in how excited photosystem II gets.

 

[Spare time]

I don't recommend running them at 100% unless needed.

 

[Corolling]

The question here is, why do you want to run them at 100%? If you've tested your tank with a PAR meter and have your lights providing the amount of PAR you need to suit the coral you're keeping, then why raise it? If 60% gets the coral where they need to be, then just run them at 60% and call it a day.

So the reason why this triggered my showerthought, was because i'm having deaths of some sps, and some are doing just fine. Id love to have my sps growing at its maximum rate, because i'm still at the 1" phase with number of my sps. I've previously had colonys of them, but i killed them.

 

[Hooz]

So the reason why this triggered my showerthought, was because i'm having deaths of some sps, and some are doing just fine. Id love to have my sps growing at its maximum rate, because i'm still at the 1" phase with number of my sps. I've previously had colonys of them, but i killed them.

Have you used a PAR meter to measure your current lighting? That's really the best and only way to know what your lights should be set at.

Once you know where your current lighting is measuring, and what you'd LIKE it to be, you can use an acclimation mode (if your light has one) or manually adjust them gradually. I read something a while ago that I've used successfully over the years... Never raise your light intensity more than 5% per week. So if you need to raise the intensity, say, 20%, do it over a 4 week period,

If the lights are at 60% now and you need to raise them to 80%, that's a 25% total increase, so 5 weeks. Make sense?

 

[xabo]

Was told by a LFS owner in my area that LEDs should be ran at a 100% to achieve the full intended effect.
Never did it though.

 

[hexcolor reef]

So the reason why this triggered my showerthought, was because i'm having deaths of some sps, and some are doing just fine. Id love to have my sps growing at its maximum rate, because i'm still at the 1" phase with number of my sps. I've previously had colonys of them, but i killed them.

Maybe it’s due to water perimeters and not light? Rule of thumb run higher PAR you need higher Alk levels with max water flow

 

[Corolling]

Maybe it’s due to water perimeters and not light? Rule of thumb run higher PAR you need higher Alk levels with max water flow

Yes, could be. I've been scratching my head for a few months... Gotta send in a few icp tests.

 

[zheka757]

So the reason why this triggered my showerthought, was because i'm having deaths of some sps, and some are doing just fine. Id love to have my sps growing at its maximum rate, because i'm still at the 1" phase with number of my sps. I've previously had colonys of them, but i killed them.

Here is my experience with lights and sps, acropora in particular, I also had about 40 frags of sps at one point. Half I had them in 400-600par with heavy flow also. Some liked it some didn't. Some rtn, some had closed PE, some show growth at the base, some didn't, in my opinion what happened is some acropora are just very hard to get used to new systems, being that they're only 1" or less frag.
I mean obviously my system can handle sps, I have 10" colonies of acropora growthing super happy.
Lights wise, I had a huge colony of staghorn that I didn't care about, I put it in a corner of my frag tank where I only had 30 par. I turn brown for a whole year, but did not die! And later I added t5s to that tank, and that colony colored up back nicely, point is low light will not kill a coral, I basically had that sps colony in a shade for a year.