How much Lux for 15 inch water Shallow Mixed Reef?

[Saintnovakai]

Hey guys. In an effort to tune my Hydras to avoid photosaturation but also coral starvation I've asked this question to a few but the answer is still missing.

How much Lux would you shoot for in a mixed reef with Digitata up top and euphyllia below in an 18" tank where the waterline is 15"?

Any recommendation or experience is useful. Thanks.

 

[acro-ed]

That's a tricky question because lux-meters generally don't measure blue light well and most of us take readings and talk in par/pur or PPFD. You will need to account for the calibration factor based on the "type" of light you are using. Apogee put out a chart to try and correlate lux to ppfd. Hope this helps.

https://www.apogeeinstruments.com/conversion-ppfd-to-lux/

As a very general ballpark number you should be looking for 15000-20000 lux.

Thanks,
Ed

 

[Saintnovakai]

That's a tricky question because lux-meters generally don't measure blue light well and most of us take readings and talk in par/pur or PPFD. You will need to account for the calibration factor based on the "type" of light you are using. Apogee put out a chart to try and correlate lux to ppfd. Hope this helps.

https://www.apogeeinstruments.com/conversion-ppfd-to-lux/

As a very general ballpark number you should be looking for 15000-20000 lux.

Thanks,
Ed

That sounds reasonable. I had a friend calibrate with a par meter but on his tank with my settings. Thing is growth on SPS has slowed since acclimation and I want to take the light aspect out of the equation so I can pinpoint if it's a water quality issue.