Chinese black box intensity?

Milkmanskid · Jun 26, 2017

I have a 300w black box 12" over my 80 gallon cube 36x24x24. It's been doing a great job over the past several months but I'm concerned about some of the corals growth. Now this could come from a few reasons I know but I'm looking for input on the lighting itself. I run mine darting with low blues at 8am by 11 the whites coming on and blues intensifying at the same time. At 8pm the whites go out and I lower the blues all the way until 11pm. I see some corals that grow really fast and others that barely grow at all. I just want to optimize my lighting length and intensity for the best case scenario. This is a mixed Reef or softies (torch, hammers, lobo, scans, anemone) and a few sps such as encrusting montipora and a birds nest. What's your thoughts?

October Sky · Jun 26, 2017

What is growing, and what is not? Also, how are your water parameters (Ca, Mg, Alk, etc)?

Fr4nkthet4nk · Jun 26, 2017

I have the same problem. My soft coral are growing fast but my sps are not. I will follow this.

Milkmanskid · Jun 26, 2017

Mainly the sps birds nest and encrusting. Seems like they grew and it just stopped. Same with some favia I have. I attached a pic. Birds nest is on the front and center island at the bottom encrusting coral is right below the purple torch.
Ca 425
Mg 1125
Alk 8.4
Salinity 1.025
Phos 0.1
Nitrate 20

Fr4nkthet4nk · Jun 26, 2017

Your Mg is too low. It should be around 1400.

luke33 · Jun 26, 2017

Are you using a 30" mars fixture and what % are you running it at, the most intense setting?

Milkmanskid · Jun 26, 2017

luke33 said:
Are you using a 30" mars fixture and what % are you running it at, the most intense setting?

Yes I am. Gauging % the best I can I'd say whites are at 60% and blues at 80-85% hard to tell because the dials are weird on them.

luke33 · Jun 26, 2017

I would say your giving them enough intensity as those fixtures are extremely intense. How are you measuring your phosphates? Do you remember if you had better growth when your phosphates were lower?

I always try to target less than 5 on nitrates and less than .07 on phos. I would not be concerned with any other parameter you listed.

Milkmanskid · Jun 28, 2017

I honestly didn't test it to much because at the time the tank was still young. Now that it's matured I test it more. I'm using the seachem phosphate test kit. I will keep a close eye on it and see what happens now. The Lps and the zoas grow great. I think you might be on to something with what your saying and that's something I thought about but with these lights I know what has been ok but wanted to know what optimal was so I could rule that out as a factor

luke33 · Jun 28, 2017

If you can afford it pick up a phos hanna checker, otherwise you really won't know what your phosphate's are. Any titration method I've used has been complete garbage.

I was testing a led last night as I have been messing around with a few different one's, mars, wellpar timer, wellpar no timer and at 36" below at 100% I was pulling 240 par(wellpar no timer). I have a 300w mars, I can try to get a reading at those percentages and let you know what I see. I can tell you at 100% both channels, that mars fixture pulls a TON of light.

ifarmer · Jun 29, 2017

I think your tank looks great

Catchemall · Jun 29, 2017

I run my two reef radiance over a 90 gallon "pretty much same thing". I have the whites at 10% and blues ramping up to 45% total span of 12 hours but only at full intensity for short time period. Your mag is low as another member posted. Also with alk that low I'd try to lower phosphate and nitrate levels. but you'll notice growth comes in spurts a lot of times. Your tank looks great. I'd just be patient and focus on health and coloration. Stability is the key tho so I wouldn't change much when your tank looks like that.

Michael Montgomery · Jun 29, 2017

luke33 said:
If you can afford it pick up a phos hanna checker, otherwise you really won't know what your phosphate's are. Any titration method I've used has been complete garbage.

I was testing a led last night as I have been messing around with a few different one's, mars, wellpar timer, wellpar no timer and at 36" below at 100% I was pulling 240 par(wellpar no timer). I have a 300w mars, I can try to get a reading at those percentages and let you know what I see. I can tell you at 100% both channels, that mars fixture pulls a TON of light.

I'd be interested in seeing your test results... I've got a couple Mars Aquas that I just pulled 3/4 of the lenses off to disperse light more. (mostly out of fear for too much intensity) I've also got two more with all the lenses in place just sitting in the garage. I've got a small 37g tank that's doing.."okay".

reeferfoxx · Jun 29, 2017

What brand of salt are you using?

I think your nutrients are fine but if the po4 test kit is off by 0.05+/- with no3 at 20, I would think your alk is a bit low. Having low magnesium could cause alk fluctuations as well. I would ttry and bump alk up to 9-10 to help compensate. Doing this might also lower nutrients so just keep an eye the N and P. If N and P do drop some, allow your alk to drop some. Doing this will help increase growth and coloration.

Fr4nkthet4nk · Jun 29, 2017

Catchemall said:
I run my two reef radiance over a 90 gallon "pretty much same thing". I have the whites at 10% and blues ramping up to 45% total span of 12 hours but only at full intensity for short time period. Your mag is low as another member posted. Also with alk that low I'd try to lower phosphate and nitrate levels. but you'll notice growth comes in spurts a lot of times. Your tank looks great. I'd just be patient and focus on health and coloration. Stability is the key tho so I wouldn't change much when your tank looks like that.

Can i see a pictures of your tank? I have 2 black box too and I am thinking to switch to Kessil A360w. My soft corals grow fast but not my SPS or LPS.

luke33 · Jun 29, 2017

Fr4nkthet4nk said:
Can i see a pictures of your tank? I have 2 black box too and I am thinking to switch to Kessil A360w. My soft corals grow fast but not my SPS or LPS.

If your sps grow slow its not due to the lights. And if you think they grow poorly under the black boxes just wait until you use the kessil's. Kessils are great for lps and softies but are not nearly intense enough for sps, unless you have the sps 12" under them.

luke33 · Jun 29, 2017

Michael Montgomery said:
I'd be interested in seeing your test results... I've got a couple Mars Aquas that I just pulled 3/4 of the lenses off to disperse light more. (mostly out of fear for too much intensity) I've also got two more with all the lenses in place just sitting in the garage. I've got a small 37g tank that's doing.."okay".

I'll send you the link to the thread once I start it.

saltyfilmfolks · Jun 29, 2017

luke33 said:
If your sps grow slow its not due to the lights. And if you think they grow poorly under the black boxes just wait until you use the kessil's. Kessils are great for lps and softies but are not nearly intense enough for sps, unless you have the sps 12" under them.

the 360 has enough for sps. The bb are usually too much for a tank. Growth in stony coral is a combined factor of light levels , alk/ cal availability and water velocity as well as nutrints.
Here's some acros under a lot less light than most would think.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/d...-new-lights-needed.312557/page-2#post-3850451

That said the 360 will deliver about 500 par at 12 in.

Sps also come in high med and lower light requirements.

Fr4nkthet4nk · Jun 29, 2017

saltyfilmfolks said:
the 360 has enough for sps. The bb are usually too much for a tank. Growth in stony coral is a combined factor of light levels , alk/ cal availability and water velocity as well as nutrints.
Here's some acros under a lot less light than most would think.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/d...-new-lights-needed.312557/page-2#post-3850451

That said the 360 will deliver about 500 par at 12 in.

Sps also come in high med and lower light requirements.

Who say that? I want to buy those light.

Milkmanskid · Jun 29, 2017

This is all fantastic information guys and I really appreciate every post. Some of my sps have died due to my own stupid actions. Everything is back stable now so I will continue to look at my parameters. I have been trying to adjust my flow to suit all the corals needs. This has become easier now lol.
My main reason for this post was to see what people typically had their lights of the same brand set at to rule out lighting as a factor for slow growth. I've never grown these corals either so I'm still learning their needs. My first tank was very starter but I've learned a lot since the beginning.