Color vs intensity

[AndrewB]

Ok... although I'm not completely new to marine aquariums I am a novice (at best) when lighting. My previous thanks, a decade or more ago, were lit with CFLs. I had a timer and it turned on/off on schedule and that's about it.

Fast forward to 2018. I have been playing too much with picking and sticking to lighting schedule. Mostly because I don't know what is most important when looking to grow corals. I have a mix of LPS, zoas and mushrooms, montipora, and a BTA. My main struggle is between color and intensity of my light. I like the look I get with up to 65% color and 50% intensity. But NO more. Should I turn down intensity to increase my color K? Or is it most important to have intense light but sacrifice the color or my desired "look" of the tank.

Any and all help is appreciated. Thanks

Andrew

I guess it's best to include my light info. I have a kessil 160 mounted about 6" from the surface of a 24"×18"×19h aquarium.

 

[jda]

You should be able to do both. They are not mutually exclusive.

I am not a Kessil guy, but you will get some help on here.

 

[Montiman]

The Kessil logic in the a160 is designed so that color and intensity are independent simply choose the color you want and then adjust the intensity to the level you want. I would not consider changing the color until the intensity was at 100%

 

[Daniel Waters]

Fast forward to 2018. I have been playing too much with picking and sticking to lighting schedule. Mostly because I don't know what is most important when looking to grow corals. I have a mix of LPS, zoas and mushrooms, montipora, and a BTA. My main struggle is between color and intensity of my light. I like the look I get with up to 65% color and 50% intensity. But NO more. Should I turn down intensity to increase my color K? Or is it most important to have intense light but sacrifice the color or my desired "look" of the tank.

I guess it's best to include my light info. I have a kessil 160 mounted about 6" from the surface of a 24"×18"×19h aquarium.

The kessil logic is designed to allow you to pick a color that you like but it will still be healthy for corals. Thus, since this is your tank, you should set the color to what you like. The corals you have are not high light demanding corals, but I can't comment whether your intensity setting is appropriate or not for the corals you are keeping. One Kessil A160 is not a ton of light for that tank size, though, so I think you certainly can increase the intensity if needed if you are only at 50% intensity. Note, though, when you increase the Kessil intensity, you should notice that the color of the tank may change slightly whiter. That's because the Kessil logic is effectively increasing the white LED's to give the higher intensity.

If you're worried about having too high of an intensity, you can certainly run a slightly lower intensity but run a longer photo period. Like I said, though, the corals you mentioned above don't really need a lot of par. The bubble tip anemone can get by with fairly low par values, but they certainly will appreciate as much light as you want to give them (within reason). Your LPS, zoas, and mushrooms will all probably be fine with 75 par or less. Montiporas are on the lower end of light needs as far as SPS go, but I personally can't offer any specific target values for you. Obviously, a par meter is nice to have to get confirmation of what par values you are getting. If I had to guess, I would think your intensity is probably okay for the corals you have (given the mounting height you are using). I would simply watch them and see how they do over time. If you decide you want or need to increase intensity, just be sure you do so gradually and monitor accordingly.

 

[Fir3ant]

Ok... although I'm not completely new to marine aquariums I am a novice (at best) when lighting. My previous thanks, a decade or more ago, were lit with CFLs. I had a timer and it turned on/off on schedule and that's about it.

Fast forward to 2018. I have been playing too much with picking and sticking to lighting schedule. Mostly because I don't know what is most important when looking to grow corals. I have a mix of LPS, zoas and mushrooms, montipora, and a BTA. My main struggle is between color and intensity of my light. I like the look I get with up to 65% color and 50% intensity. But NO more. Should I turn down intensity to increase my color K? Or is it most important to have intense light but sacrifice the color or my desired "look" of the tank.

Any and all help is appreciated. Thanks

Andrew

I guess it's best to include my light info. I have a kessil 160 mounted about 6" from the surface of a 24"×18"×19h aquarium.

How is everything growing now? An what’s your lighting schedule