Dappled Light Theory
- Thread starter Akwarius
- Start date
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PolandSpring
Valuable Member
First off I want to say this is a great thread travis! And secondly, I recently just set up a new shallow frag tank mainly for my zoa's and lps. I went with Radion G1's on this new setup because travis has always said he has had great success with them. The dimensions are 72x24x10. I have my radions about 24'' above the water level and running B 100 RB 100 W 20 G 100 R 80. I use 2x mp10's for my flow. I keep them on low. My zoa's have been in the new tank for about 1-1.5 weeks now and everything is looking 20x better. Before, I had all my zoa's under my 4x24w ATI Sunpower (Blue's on for 8 hours and whites for 2.5 hours). Any zoa that wasn't looking well or I was having trouble with (polyp half opening) has now fully opened and colored up as well under the radions. Another thing I noticed is that under T5's due to the way the light reflects off the reflectors zoa's tend to lose their stem and grow closer to the rock/plug. Under LED's the zoa/paly stretches and reaches upward towards the light (in a healthy way) and I personally think it looks much nicer this way. Furthermore, the z/p's grow more bunched togethor. Under my T5's I had fragged many zoa's and overtime they would spread out and start growing under the plug before the top of the plug was even filled out. In addition, my greens were having trouble showing up. (I was running 2x Blue +, 1x Fiji Purple, 1x Aquablue Special) For instance, my space monsters just looked purple, the green frill was having a hard time coming out as well as on my God Of War and florida Oranges. The green frill was missing. Within just 1 week all my greens came back and are looking great under the radions. Lastly, all my polyps are 3x the size as they were before and Im hoping in a few more weeks they will be even larger! The only zoa's out of the 100 different types I have that looked better under my T5's were my Red Hornets and Utter Chaos and sadly my Rasta Rainbow (which melted). My rasta Rainbow is the only zoa that melted in the new tank so far. Everything else is looking better and any zoa that looked like it was going to melt is now looking perfectly healthy.
Now my only question at what percentage do you run your radions and how is your flow travis? Do you keep it low as well? or do you keep it a little stronger so you can get more riples on the water surface. My mp10's are 3'' from the surface so I get good movement on the top of my water causing a lot of 'shimmer'
To finish up.. I will never put my zoa's back under T5's again. Lovin the Radions! the best part is when its on all blue's and everything pops like crazy!
Now my only question at what percentage do you run your radions and how is your flow travis? Do you keep it low as well? or do you keep it a little stronger so you can get more riples on the water surface. My mp10's are 3'' from the surface so I get good movement on the top of my water causing a lot of 'shimmer'
To finish up.. I will never put my zoa's back under T5's again. Lovin the Radions! the best part is when its on all blue's and everything pops like crazy!
Last edited:
Mrfresh
Valuable Member
A little add on to this well written thread.
Some one asked me about melting there rics and mushrooms in there tank.
This is how I explained it.
Imagine:
You are standing out side on a hot day. No wind blowing.
You become hot very fast bc the light hits you intensely.
Applied to a reef tank.
You corals are sitting under a constant intense amount of light and melt.
Even at the bottom of the tank.
Now back to the hot day
Lets say the wind picks up.
Now ur not as hot bc u have an interfering factor that breaks the intense light.
(Don't get me wrong for people u will still burn no matter how much air is blowing)
Back to a reef.
Once water moves it breaks the lights par.
So a strong flow tank loses a lot of par bc of water surface movement
In my own aquarium:
I have t5s on my tank.
I turned off all pumps and reading went along these lines.
Above water 900+
Just under water 850
6inches down 700
Half way down 550
Sand bottom 420.
With flow on
Just under water 600
6 inches down 400
Half way down 275ish
Sand bottom 150 center
Corners 90!!!!!!
This is a standard 90 gallon tank
Btw zoas do grow in the corner of the tank. They reach and morph but they do live!
I know people will have things to say about this but remember
"If u don't have something nice to say they don't say anything"
Some one asked me about melting there rics and mushrooms in there tank.
This is how I explained it.
Imagine:
You are standing out side on a hot day. No wind blowing.
You become hot very fast bc the light hits you intensely.
Applied to a reef tank.
You corals are sitting under a constant intense amount of light and melt.
Even at the bottom of the tank.
Now back to the hot day
Lets say the wind picks up.
Now ur not as hot bc u have an interfering factor that breaks the intense light.
(Don't get me wrong for people u will still burn no matter how much air is blowing)
Back to a reef.
Once water moves it breaks the lights par.
So a strong flow tank loses a lot of par bc of water surface movement
In my own aquarium:
I have t5s on my tank.
I turned off all pumps and reading went along these lines.
Above water 900+
Just under water 850
6inches down 700
Half way down 550
Sand bottom 420.
With flow on
Just under water 600
6 inches down 400
Half way down 275ish
Sand bottom 150 center
Corners 90!!!!!!
This is a standard 90 gallon tank
Btw zoas do grow in the corner of the tank. They reach and morph but they do live!
I know people will have things to say about this but remember
"If u don't have something nice to say they don't say anything"
OP
OP
Akwarius
2500 Club Member
Great post Mrfresh. I like your sunlight analogy. I would put my own spin on that analogy and suggest that the light diffracting through ocean waves is similar to light passing through a tree canopy. When the air is static, you see a nice dappling on the forest floor, but it doesnt move. However, when the breeze picks up, the branches begin to sway and the leaves flutter, causing the light to dance beautifully across the ground.
Adam, I'm glad to hear youre having better results with the Radions. Im a firm believer in keeping the reds and greens as high as possible. Just know that some zoas will not tolerate too much of the red spectrum, especially if they are deepwater collected and you try to keep them high in the water column. Other zoas that come from shallow pools, like Hawaiian PEs, appreciate the warm end of the spectrum. I would recommend setting the red higher if zoas are kept in a deeper tank, and vise versa. You may also have to back off the reds as needed to minimize nuisance algae. Mine are kept at 50 percent and algae growth isnt a problem. As for the other colors, blues can be kept at a higher percentage, but you may need to reduce the photo period. Im also an odd-ball in that my whites are only at 20 percent. This is from trial and error. When I try to raise the whites, my zoas always react poorly. With my color settings, the Radion is reduced to about half of its potential in terms of output wattage. Even dimmed to this degree, the output is more than sufficient for a 24x24x12 frag tank with a dappling screen!
Adam, I'm glad to hear youre having better results with the Radions. Im a firm believer in keeping the reds and greens as high as possible. Just know that some zoas will not tolerate too much of the red spectrum, especially if they are deepwater collected and you try to keep them high in the water column. Other zoas that come from shallow pools, like Hawaiian PEs, appreciate the warm end of the spectrum. I would recommend setting the red higher if zoas are kept in a deeper tank, and vise versa. You may also have to back off the reds as needed to minimize nuisance algae. Mine are kept at 50 percent and algae growth isnt a problem. As for the other colors, blues can be kept at a higher percentage, but you may need to reduce the photo period. Im also an odd-ball in that my whites are only at 20 percent. This is from trial and error. When I try to raise the whites, my zoas always react poorly. With my color settings, the Radion is reduced to about half of its potential in terms of output wattage. Even dimmed to this degree, the output is more than sufficient for a 24x24x12 frag tank with a dappling screen!
