How long/what intensity do you run your OR lights

[bigroost]

I am curious what photoperiod and intensity everyone runs their lights. I am currently at 60% blue for 12 hours and 30%white for 6 hours. Ocean Revive t247b

The reason I ask is I have no growth. I know there is a lot of things that go into that, but hoping to narrow things down. I have focused on water parameters more so than light since I set the tank up. A friend brought by a par meter we set it up so that it was around 300 top middle and 115 on the sand bed toward the edge, tank is a 40 breeder. After that I just left it alone and tried to move corals to get good extension. I have been really busy with work so I haven't been out much, this is my first tank so I just thought the coral grew really slow. I have been off for spring break and saw a tank I haven't seen in 3 months. I could see the difference in inches of growth. I have everything from a piece of birds nest, a few lps, and several zoas, they all basically look the same as the day I got them, most grow a small bit initially then just sit there. Tank is around 6 months old.

 

[mcarroll]

300 PAR is only about 15,000 lux*....corals will do fine, but I bet you're getting near the subsistence level for some corals. There could be other factors at work - like the amount of fish waste available as food and the overall chemistry of the water - but it would make sense for corals that are slightly light-deprived to be candidates for slower growth.

I don't think it's crucial, but you might consider shrinking your sunrise and set from an hour to around 30 min or an hour.

You also might do better with a whiter blend of light for those corals...I think a lot of them are probably shallow water corals. I like this chart because it gives you an idea of the water color in your targeted environment:

Deeper environments might really have some version of that stereotypical reef blue going on, but shallower coastal water would carry a greener hue....


I'd run the lights at maximum during the peak of the day....try a curve like this:


I've got six set points. I don't know what "the best" is, but I was roughly trying to emulate a tropical (0º latitude) curve like this:



* Get yourself a [HASHTAG]#lux[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#meter[/HASHTAG] app for your smartphone's camera and order a $15 handheld meter for use later.

 

[sawdonkey]

I do blues at 95% from noon to midnight. Whites at 55% from 1pm to 11 pm

 

[bigroost]

I wish I had the ability to ramp up ramp down but my light doesn't have that capability. From what I'm seeing searching around I don't seem to push quite as much light as most people my blues come on at 10am and go off at 10pm, whites from 2 until 8. I haven't tried more light but have been hesitant to do so because everything looks great with blue only but seems to close a bit when the white spectrum kicks in. Whatever I am doing isn't working, maybe I can ease the intensity up to see what happens.

 

[mcarroll]

Whatever I am doing isn't working, maybe I can ease the intensity up to see what happens.

A [HASHTAG]#lux[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#meter[/HASHTAG] app for your smartphone is free - get that now and take some readings. While that's installing, order a handheld lux meter for later on!

Also, you can probably limit your photoperiod to about 5 or 6 hours, since your lights are full-on all the time. That's about the same amount of solar energy as if your lights ramped up/down for 12 hours, if you follow the graphs.

 

[LostInTheDark]

If you search the forums you'll find a lot of people having issues with Ocean Revive lights. Myself included. The blue channel shift spectrum and slowly loose par until they eventually burn out completely. It happens to other Black box designs also. I went through a period of no growth and then dying SPS until I figured out it was the lights. After OR replaced them, growth took off again only to slow down and start the cycle again a year later. I gave up and went T5s and it made a night and day difference on color and growth.

 

[bigroost]

I appreciate the responses, donkey I don't know if I am brave enough to try it quite that high, my corals start to look unhappy at around hour 5 of the whites kicking in. Anybody else care to share their photoperiod and percentages? Also good to know Lost I'll be watching but I don't think that's my problem yet I just don't think I have had it right to begin with.

 

[mcarroll]

my corals start to look unhappy at around hour 5 of the whites kicking in

That's the same one I posted earlier....it's the curve my Maxspect Razor is on, but is for a sunrise/sunset dimmer.

Five hours could be a long time - are your lights on/off only, or do they have sunrise/sunset?

If you just have on/off function, but separate channels for blue and white...then 12 hours is too long for the blue.

Your total lighting scenario (white time + blue time combined) could be as short as 5 hours or so....depending on what intensity you measure on your lights now.

(If you want viewing lights for "after dark" they should be extremely dim....like moonlight. )
(0.3 lux...very dim)

Lux meter app yet? It's $free!! (And still order the $15, delivered, handheld meter for later!)

 

[bigroost]

Also wanted to add, coralline does not grow in my tank. Would that indicate anything about how I am meeting light requirements?

 

[bigroost]

That's the same one I posted earlier....it's the curve my Maxspect Razor is on, but is for a sunrise/sunset dimmer.

Five hours could be a long time - are your lights on/off only, or do they have sunrise/sunset?

If you just have on/off function, but separate channels for blue and white...then 12 hours is too long for the blue.

Your total lighting scenario (white time + blue time combined) could be as short as 5 hours or so....depending on what intensity you measure on your lights now.

(If you want viewing lights for "after dark" they should be extremely dim....like moonlight. )
(0.3 lux...very dim)

Lux meter app yet? It's $free!! (And still order the $15, delivered, handheld meter for later!)

The free app Galactica I think shows around 10k at the water line.

 

[mcarroll]

That's the peak measurement you could find with both lights on at 60/30?

If so, I would try for at least double that - 15,000-20,000 lux (300-400 PAR).

Keep the color set how you like it for during the day, but don't use the blue's as "moonlights" or after hours "viewing lights" unless they are turned down to the minimum setting.

(Which may still be too bright, so use your judgement.)

 

[mcarroll]

Just in case...

The camera should be aimed right at the lights....it doesn't have to face straight up in the position you are measuring if that doesn't generate the peak reading.

 

[ReefLEDLights]

I have my XTC set for a 14 hour photo period with a three hour sunrise and sunset. I adjusted the intensity at high noon to 230 PAR on the sand bed.

This works well for me and my SPS are seeing good growth.

Bill

 

[sawdonkey]

Also wanted to add, coralline does not grow in my tank. Would that indicate anything about how I am meeting light requirements?

Same for me, except on my rocks. Even then, it's a really maroon colored coralline.

 

[Brian Kim]

If you search the forums you'll find a lot of people having issues with Ocean Revive lights. Myself included. The blue channel shift spectrum and slowly loose par until they eventually burn out completely. It happens to other Black box designs also. I went through a period of no growth and then dying SPS until I figured out it was the lights. After OR replaced them, growth took off again only to slow down and start the cycle again a year later. I gave up and went T5s and it made a night and day difference on color and growth.

I believe that problem has been addressed with the newer version of Artic T247 wich is the T247B.
BTW, I run my C1 @70% for 10 hours and C2 @10% for 8 hours, both my sps and lps seems to be happy on my frag tank.

 

[mcarroll]

I adjusted the intensity at high noon to 230 PAR on the sand bed.

I can't get on the site right now to see the specs on the XTC....does that have sunrise/sunset or only on/off function? (You mentioned "high noon".)

And I also wonder what you get at the same time at the water surface - "sea level"?

Thanks!

 

[TonyTank]

Your total lighting scenario (white time + blue time combined) could be as short as 5 hours or so....depending on what intensity you measure on your lights now.

I'm not sure I understand this statement. Your graft shows lighting from 0600 to 1800, 12 hours total, 12 for white, 11.5 for blue? 23.5 total hours?

 

[mcarroll]

Sorry if the chart is not clear....not my forte.

Those are overlapping hours - so a total of about 12 hours (which around the equator doesn't vary much....about 12 hours year around) for the lighting schedule if you're following a sunrise/sunset scenario.

The difference beween the time on the two channels is just to give a nod to the blue that gets filtered out of sunrise and sunset light. Longer lightpath = more atmosphere = more blue scattering = "redder" light reaching the target. (Or so I understand.) Just an experiment....I'd usually have the two channels even by default.

If your lights run on a simple timer at maximum brightness (no sunrise/sunset dimming), your tank is getting equivalent energy faster....so a shorter lighting scedule around 5 or 6 hours can be used.

If you look at the other charts above that show this visually (and if you know more about calculus than me), it has to do with the amount of area under the curve. They show the 5-hour schedule (on/off) and 12-hour schedule (sunrise/sunset) graphs that have equal area under the curve.

 

[TonyTank]

Thank you. That makes complete sense. I use a 12 hour day of a combination of white and red (both just for visual appeal) with blues as higher intensity. Blue at least 3 times the intensity of white; and red just trace amounts.

 

[bigroost]

I wanted to update this, I didn't get a lux meter but I did have a friend kind enough to let me borrow his par meter. The blue channel that runs for 12 hours accounts for ~200 par. The white spectrum which I have cut down to 4.5 hours per day accounts for another ~100 or so. So currently on the top of my rock work I have around 310 par, and around 100 on the far\darkest edges of the tank.

I am mainly throwing that out there because what I read doesn't suggest that 300 par is nearly too much for sps, but I have managed to bleach a monticap and a birdnest under that amount of light.