Do I need more

[Dsjreef]

I have a 90 gallon in wall reef tank with lps and sps. Lps doing well but sps struggling. I currently have a single strip led fixate with alternating white and actinic LEDs. I also have a 4 bulb white and blue t5 ho light over the tank.
I think I need to add more LEDs to get my sps corals to do better. Am I thinking the correct way, or would it be a waste of money. I would like to just add another strip like I already have. I have not taken any par readings.

 

[NC2WA]

total watts of led is what ??

from this description it sounds like u need more leds

 

[Dsjreef]

The led fixture is Wave Length high output led strip. 40 watts

 

[Dsjreef]

LEDs are on from 8am till 8 pm. T5's on from 10 am till 5 pm. Is this too little or to much time?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Time isn't the issue. Coral zooxanthellae (the food for your coral) uses photosynthesis to grow. And the current science I've read says that it only does photosynthesis for 4 to 6 hours and then shuts down. So your photo period is more than long enough in my opinion.

You said you 'think' you need more light. What makes you think that? Are you having any issues you can see?

You said your leds are 40 watts, but how many leds are there? If it's 40 leds at 1 watt each, they are close to worthless unless they are over a shallow tank (12" to 16") and soft corals. If it has 14 to 16 3 watt leds, they are strong enough, but you don't have enough of them. Well made Chinese fixtures with 3 watt leds driven by 120 watts have 48 to 55 leds to cover a 2' x 2' area 24" deep. Your 90g tank is 24" tall and you need 3w leds to get light to penetrate water that deep. You absolutely can judge how strong your lights are by how 'bright they look'. Your eyes don't work that way and they decieve you. You need to find somebody with a PAR meter to really know just what you have. If you want to grow sps corals you need about 150 PAR at the bottom and 200to 250 would be perfect. More than that and you rick damaging corals higher up on the rocks. You have 4 good t5 bulbs and that alone should be close to enough. A 6 bulb fixture would be better if you want to really do sps, but a 4 bulb fixture with sps corals up on the rocks should be OK.

 

[Dsjreef]

Thanks for the advice

 

[jweintraub]

What kind of T5 bulbs are you using? If they're the stock bulbs, I'd highly recommend upgrading to ATI's or Giessmann's. The difference will amaze you.