Current USA LEDs - 20g long... Help!

BBestvin · Jul 9, 2018

I know a lot of people have used these lights, but I can't find many examples of them being used on a 20g long tank. I'm struggling to find the right settings with my unit that I recently put on my tank. I previously had my corals under a mars aqua black box unit, maybe at 30% with the fixture 12" above the water. My orbit sits right on the glass top. Any suggestions for percentages? My Duncan's aren't opening...my frog spawn is puffy but not fully open. Zoas look good. Plate coral on the sand is somewhat closed up. Could I have them turned up too much? Any advice would be appreciated!

Matthew Frost · Jul 10, 2018

BBestvin said:
I know a lot of people have used these lights, but I can't find many examples of them being used on a 20g long tank. I'm struggling to find the right settings with my unit that I recently put on my tank. I previously had my corals under a mars aqua black box unit, maybe at 30% with the fixture 12" above the water. My orbit sits right on the glass top. Any suggestions for percentages? My Duncan's aren't opening...my frog spawn is puffy but not fully open. Zoas look good. Plate coral on the sand is somewhat closed up. Could I have them turned up too much? Any advice would be appreciated!

@sarah24! She has posted a lot of solid info on Current lighting.

samnaz · Jul 10, 2018

I have the current marine orbit pro on a 20L. Blues 100%. Whites 25%. I’ve had great growth over the last couple years.

samnaz · Jul 10, 2018

What do you have them set to? My guess is they are getting too much light if they’re retracting.

mcarroll · Jul 10, 2018

BBestvin said:
I know a lot of people have used these lights, but I can't find many examples of them being used on a 20g long tank. I'm struggling to find the right settings with my unit that I recently put on my tank. I previously had my corals under a mars aqua black box unit, maybe at 30% with the fixture 12" above the water. My orbit sits right on the glass top. Any suggestions for percentages? My Duncan's aren't opening...my frog spawn is puffy but not fully open. Zoas look good. Plate coral on the sand is somewhat closed up. Could I have them turned up too much? Any advice would be appreciated!

Which specific light(s) do you have? Current USA makes a bunch.

(If you can give us a model number it may help.)

If you have the plain "Orbit Marine" then you might have it too low.

If its the "Orbit IC Pro" then you might have it too high since your tank is only a foot tall or whatever.

One way to answer the question directly for yourself is to use a light meter (eg. the LX-1010B I use) to measure the old lights and compare with similar measurements of your new lights.

KMench · Jul 10, 2018

Agree with @mcarroll. What version of the orbits do you have?

Jet915 · Jul 10, 2018

I have mine set at 70 blue and 30 white but I also have 2 T5 bulbs as supplement.

Pntbll687 · Jul 10, 2018

You can get adjustable mounting arms for the light. I'm guessing you have a 24in light, so you'll need two arms.

I had two of the Orbit IC loop lights on a 20 long. They did ok. Blues were 100 and white ramped up to 75.

I thought the lights were underpowered and didn't grow sps well, so I switched back to T5 lights.

Jet915 · Jul 10, 2018

Does anyone use the red or green? Im worried about algae growth so I leave them off but Im assuming there is some red in the white.

BBestvin · Jul 10, 2018

Wow! For some reason I stopped getting notifications for the thread and I decided to check it and wow, there are a ton of responses! Thank you so much already for asking questions and being willing to help. The exact light I have is the current USA orbit Marine LED aquarium fixture with ramp timer Pro. I currently have blues at 55% and whites at 35%. Play coral on Sand bed looks okay Duncan corals look half open, also on Sand bed. Frogspawn, about halfway up the tank is Puffy but not fully open. Pulsing Xenia halfway up the tank look okay but not fully open. Any thoughts?

Pntbll687 · Jul 10, 2018

I had the reds and green at 50-60% in mine. Didn't notice any algae growth other than a patch of gha every once in a while. But that was normal for the tank.

mcarroll · Jul 10, 2018

For the base model Orbit, I'm pretty sure you'll want your settings closer to 100% on both channels, based on what you think looks good.

BBestvin · Jul 10, 2018

mcarroll said:
For the base model Orbit, I'm pretty sure you'll want your settings closer to 100% on both channels, based on what you think looks good.

OK, I can give that a try. Since I've had them low, I bump them 5‰ a day to acclimate a bit more. I did run the lights at full when I got the unit and the corals didn't like that either. Maybe they just needed less time of full light...