Favorite "Black Box LED Light"

[reeferbuddy215]

Yeah they always say u can kill a coral way faster with to much light then not enough, when I get a new coral or start a new tank I put it at the bottom of my tank and slowly raise it and it will tell u if it's happy or not if it's polyps are out then ur good.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

12 to 16 depending on the dimensions. How deep is the tank?

It's a 75g tank, sorry I should have added that. It's 48x19x22.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

It's a 75g tank, sorry I should have added that. It's 48x19x22.

Try around the 40 to 50% maybe(give or take the ratios.set them by eye and lower to close to those ratios.) How high over the tank? what did you fry them at? ANd yea, Its POWERFULL.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Try around the 40 to 50% maybe(give or take the ratios.set them by eye and lower to close to those ratios.) How high over the tank? what did you fry them at? ANd yea, Its POWERFULL.

The lights are hanging on the provided brackets inside my canopy, I have the brackets turned upside down. They were probably 6-8 inches off the water. I now have them up probably 10", I'll take a tape measurer and make sure in the morning. Power levels were 50% white and 80% blue, they are now at 30% white and 60% blue. The "moon" lights are set to 100%. Photo period starts ramping up at 1000 full sun at 1200 and starts back down at 1800 and off at 2000. The whites come on and turn off an hour after and before the blues.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Ok good info.
I'll give the the usual salty answer. Look into a $14 lux meter like from Amazon to figure out your par. And look at par charts too. A lot of folks for a tank your depth for med light will have about 400 to 500 par at the top of the tank.
With your led and tank depth that's around 25000 to 35000 lux.

It's def still best to think in terms of the par your coral needs or likes. A lot of corals will take a lot more light but minimums are very important imo.

What you have it set to is probably a pretty goood guess to hit those numbers. And ya you did have a lot of to start out with.

I run a very long photo period. But how I do that is to use very low light settings for a long time and a shorter peak time. My peak time is just about 8hrs with a bit of rampnon both ends. BUT my lights are on for another FIVE hours. My moons are on for about an hour staring at only 40% to zero. That's how May dat starts too.
A long slow ramp up to that peak photo period time. Ibset it according to when we're here to see the tank.
My tanks start at 630 and turn off at ten. Yea that last hour is really dim but that's when the corals close up the lps open up to feed and the fish spawn. Dusk.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Ok good info.
I'll give the the usual salty answer. Look into a $14 lux meter like from Amazon to figure out your par. And look at par charts too. A lot of folks for a tank your depth for med light will have about 400 to 500 par at the top of the tank.
With your led and tank depth that's around 25000 to 35000 lux.

It's def still best to think in terms of the par your coral needs or likes. A lot of corals will take a lot more light but minimums are very important imo.

What you have it set to is probably a pretty goood guess to hit those numbers. And ya you did have a lot of to start out with.

I run a very long photo period. But how I do that is to use very low light settings for a long time and a shorter peak time. My peak time is just about 8hrs with a bit of rampnon both ends. BUT my lights are on for another FIVE hours. My moons are on for about an hour staring at only 40% to zero. That's how May dat starts too.
A long slow ramp up to that peak photo period time. Ibset it according to when we're here to see the tank.
My tanks start at 630 and turn off at ten. Yea that last hour is really dim but that's when the corals close up the lps open up to feed and the fish spawn. Dusk.

Thanks for the help. Moving that frag down, backing the lights off and raising them slightly seems to have done the trick. It's all fluffy again, I just hope the color comes back. I've been playing around with the idea of buying the Seneye monitor and par meter... obviously I'm not good at judging how bright my lights actually are.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Thanks for the help. Moving that frag down, backing the lights off and raising them slightly seems to have done the trick. It's all fluffy again, I just hope the color comes back. I've been playing around with the idea of buying the Seneye monitor and par meter... obviously I'm not good at judging how bright my lights actually are.

No body really is. Most just guess. It sound like they do but...... you'll notice most folks will just say 70% and not ask what tank it is and how deep and how high is your rock.

A $16 lux meter is a cheap effective better way to do it. The seneye supposed to be pretty darned good. Decent price at 200.

The coral should color back up for you.

 

[Test led]

Just so everybody knows Mars Aqua 300 watt boxes only come with 12 royal blue leds not 20. After fighting with them, they changed their ad on ebay to reflect this.

 

[Maritimer]

That probably explains the "windex-blue" look that the blues have, compared to the deeper blue I've seen under other lights.

I would note that as the water has cleared in my 220 above, I'm seeing more disco-ball effect than I was in the 65.

~Bruce

 

[Test led]

I ordered twenty royal blue leds,

That probably explains the "windex-blue" look that the blues have, compared to the deeper blue I've seen under other lights.

I would note that as the water has cleared in my 220 above, I'm seeing more disco-ball effect than I was in the 65.

~Bruce

Yeah, I just got done adding 10- 445-450NM royal blue, 8- 430-435NM, 6- 420-425NM, and 4-400-405NM. I think I have the blue spectrum covered now. And it looks a lot better.

 

[Lousybreed]

I don't get why people buy the cheap black box LED's only to modify them. The SB box doesn't need to be modified and it's only 30 bucks more.

 

[Test led]

I don't get why people buy the cheap black box LED's only to modify them. The SB box doesn't need to be modified and it's only 30 bucks more.

Some people like modifying things because it is fun.☺

 

[Bpb]

I don't get why people buy the cheap black box LED's only to modify them. The SB box doesn't need to be modified and it's only 30 bucks more.

I think part of it is like what TestLED said, people like messing with them, but I'm betting MOST of the time it's that people simply don't know about SBReef

 

[germs101]

I'm rockin the Galaxyhydro 165w LEDs from amazon. Purchased at about $300 for 2 units. One power cord, WIFI with app controlled on iphone. Have had great growth on all coral in my mixed reef. Have had the lights for about a year and a half. The units are super cheap right now for some reason.

I have two of those and intended to purchase a third, and now I can't find them anywhere! [emoji20]

 

[germs101]

I'm running two 165 watt ViparSpectra Controllable fixtures over my 150g reef tank. I only paid 220$ out the door with a two year warranty. So far so good I have a GBTA that is doing well under these lights.

Two thumbs up.

How does the program work? Can you ramp it or can you program it to have moonlight, then blue, then whites on?

 

[germs101]

I liked my galaxyhydro while I ran it. SB makes just the light board that you can swap out to get a much better spectrum that works with GH and mars Aqua. I could tell an immediate difference.

I have two Galaxyydros. I need a third light ( have been using t5 and current orbit in the center) and can't find the Galaxyhydros anymore. Do you think if I put a SB light in the middle it would look ok mixed with the Galaxyhydros on either side?

 

[reeferfoxx]

Search for Populargrow 165w WiFi. Its the same as the old galaxyhydro wifi version.

I use the populargrow and have been for over 2 years now.

 

[happyhourhero]

I have two Galaxyydros. I need a third light ( have been using t5 and current orbit in the center) and can't find the Galaxyhydros anymore. Do you think if I put a SB light in the middle it would look ok mixed with the Galaxyhydros on either side?

Yeah it would be ok. The SB will have a more violet hue. If it comes down to it, you can buy retro boards from SB and swap them out on the other 2 GH.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Yeah it would be ok. The SB will have a more violet hue. If it comes down to it, you can buy retro boards from SB and swap them out on the other 2 GH.

I think has the three channel wifi gh. Sb doesnt have retro fit for that.

 

[happyhourhero]

I think has the three channel wifi gh. Sb doesnt have retro fit for that.

Oh ok. Yeah I didn’t back read.