Help setting led light

Mitch Ellingson · Mar 30, 2017

I have a 125 gallon tank.
I got the current usa orbit maribe led light with ic loop.
http://current-usa.com/loop/orbit-ic-led-aquarium-light/

I can adjust the percentage for the red, green, blue, white lights.
What's the best percentage to set each of these to get best par value to get corals to grow during day and at night?
The default it's set to my soft coral doesn't seem to like the bright default daylight.

Georb · Mar 30, 2017

Georb · Mar 30, 2017

Sorry for the bad quality. It's a PDF I can email it to you. What I use for a guide line and I add how they react.

Mitch Ellingson · Mar 30, 2017

Yeah I downloaded that guide, but it doesn't tell me what I should set my rgbw light at percentage. I can do 0 to 100% intensity on my rgbw

Georb · Mar 30, 2017

You know after reading so much stuff I realized that when you setup your light you need to sit and see how everything response to the light power and spectrum. Like us every coral is unique in their needs and like different things. I have discovered that this is not a set it and forget it hobby.

Gargamell · Mar 30, 2017

you could search for Ecotech coral lab and base your settings on those programs and adjust for your light

Mitch Ellingson · Mar 30, 2017

Thank you. I am goint to try the LPS SPS setting now, may need to make minor tweaks per article and like Georb said. But right away so far my coral opened up a bit more within 15 minutes!

Gargamell · Mar 30, 2017

Good, it should at least get you a good baseline to start with.

Georb · Mar 30, 2017

All my guys seem to be happy

saltyfilmfolks · Mar 30, 2017

Color is actually somewhat irrelevant. Corals Ave grown quite well for 56k to 25000 kelvin.
Set the color to your eye and make the tank look good.
The importance is in overall intensity and duration.
Decide on the par levels you want to work with. Also rock work needs to be considered.
If the rock is low you may need more intensity to reach it the par desired there.
At full maximum on the orbit 12in from the light the par is approx 550. See specs.
So a rock six in from the light is likeley to be in the 700+ range.

I run a very long photo period but half of it is at a lower intensity or is basicly moon light blue pop. (2hrs am/pm) with low intensity. And then a six hour peak lighting time.

James Johnson · Mar 31, 2017

I know several people that run these lights, unfortunately while they have a lot of features they are slightly lacking in intensity. What is the depth of the tank? You might have to max out the light to get much PAR or add a second fixture. Looks like you have a couple acro frags on the bottom I really doubt that the light will be enough to not brown them out. Only person I have heard of having success with these lights and acros is when they ran 2 fixtures over a shallow 20 long I believe that's 12" deep. You should be able to grow low light corals with them but on a 125g you need to spend more on lighting if your gonna do acros. Something like a radion xr30 pro or a AI hydra 52. Otherwise you will just slowly watch them turn brown due to lack of light. Just my 2 cents

James Johnson · Mar 31, 2017

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/current-usa-orbit-marine-lighting.183510/

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/current-orbit-leds-good-enough.160121/

Jay York · Feb 14, 2019

Georb said:
All my guys seem to be happy

Mitch Ellingson said:
Thank you. I am goint to try the LPS SPS setting now, may need to make minor tweaks per article and like Georb said. But right away so far my coral opened up a bit more within 15 minutes!

Do you remember what your settings were? I have a similar setup and I’m trying to find the right levels for my coral too.

revco33 · Apr 27, 2019

James Johnson said:
I know several people that run these lights, unfortunately while they have a lot of features they are slightly lacking in intensity. What is the depth of the tank? You might have to max out the light to get much PAR or add a second fixture. Looks like you have a couple acro frags on the bottom I really doubt that the light will be enough to not brown them out. Only person I have heard of having success with these lights and acros is when they ran 2 fixtures over a shallow 20 long I believe that's 12" deep. You should be able to grow low light corals with them but on a 125g you need to spend more on lighting if your gonna do acros. Something like a radion xr30 pro or a AI hydra 52. Otherwise you will just slowly watch them turn brown due to lack of light. Just my 2 cents

I got an acro on the sand. It's been growing well. I do have two orbits, but it still grew under one before I got the 2nd light. I raised the orbits up off the water about 8 inches from like 4. Still good. Moving the acro up caused it to brown. Not the light. I moved it back and it was happy again. I did have a blue acro up top that was acclimated for an hour. It died in two days. Literally within 12 hours. acro mid to low with the orbit in 12-14 inch of water. I wish I would have gotten a kessel or Prime light, but whatever. it works