How to convert light schedule for SPS from a Mixed Reef???

[Mele__Reef]

Hey ladies and gents!

Can someone chime in and walk me through, on how to convert lighting for a current mixed reef to a semi dominant SPS tank? I don’t have the SPS yet. but would like to add a few frags in the coming weeks. I’m currently running an AI PRIME HD. Thanks in Advance!!


Photoperiod: 9hrs
UV: 100%
V:100%
RY: 100%
B: 60%
G: 2%
R: 2%

 

[Ron Reefman]

Getting specific would be difficult without knowing how big and how deep your tank is with an AI Prime HD fixture. But in general, I think your settings should be OK for sps corals.

Your photo period is 9 hours. As long as 7 or 8 of those are at or nearly at peak intensity, you're good. If you do a long ramp for sunrise and sunset (I do a 3 hour sunrise and a 4 hour sunset) you may want to add some. The zooxanthellae doing the photosynthesis can use close to full intensity light for 5 to 7 hours and then they stop doing photosynthesis.

 

[Mele__Reef]

Getting specific would be difficult without knowing how big and how deep your tank is with an AI Prime HD fixture. But in general, I think your settings should be OK for sps corals.

Your photo period is 9 hours. As long as 7 or 8 of those are at or nearly at peak intensity, you're good. If you do a long ramp for sunrise and sunset (I do a 3 hour sunrise and a 4 hour sunset) you may want to add some. The zooxanthellae doing the photosynthesis can use close to full intensity light for 5 to 7 hours and then they stop doing photosynthesis.

thanks Ron ,my tank dims are 18x18x18 (Red Sea Max Nano 20g.

 

[Ron Reefman]

You should be OK. I switched a 120g tank from a mixed reef to a very sps dominate tank over the course of a couple years and never changed my light setting. However I do tend to run a bit higher PAR than most reefers (at least I think I do). Unfortunately my 1hp chiller had a thermostat failure and stayed on for 8+ hours one night and drove the water temp down below 60 degrees. I had a BIG puddle of condensation on the tile floor when I got up. Many of the sps branching corals were already skeletons, and by the end of the 90 to 95% of the sps corals were dead. Now I'm doing zoas, rock flower anemones and some other corals that fluoresce well instead. Easier to care for and beautiful in the evening under blue leds!

 

[Gareth elliott]

Really depends on what corals “the mix” was and where they were located in the tank. My tank is Somewhat mixed but i keep my euphylia low and all my gorgs are blasted with the same par as my sps. But a tank with a brain coral near the top moving to sps might be different story.

A cheap lux meter in a plastic bag set to max and dividing by 60 will get you in the ball park for par if want to verify

 

[Mele__Reef]

You should be OK. I switched a 120g tank from a mixed reef to a very sps dominate tank over the course of a couple years and never changed my light setting. However I do tend to run a bit higher PAR than most reefers (at least I think I do). Unfortunately my 1hp chiller had a thermostat failure and stayed on for 8+ hours one night and drove the water temp down below 60 degrees. I had a BIG puddle of condensation on the tile floor when I got up. Many of the sps branching corals were already skeletons, and by the end of the 90 to 95% of the sps corals were dead. Now I'm doing zoas, rock flower anemones and some other corals that fluoresce well instead. Easier to care for and beautiful in the evening under blue leds!

That’s terrible. The tank looks great!! Thanks for the feedback. But in time of the sps require or indicate that the par needs to be increased. How do you suggest I acclimate the schedule?

 

[Mele__Reef]

Really depends on what corals “the mix” was and where they were located in the tank. My tank is Somewhat mixed but i keep my euphylia low and all my gorgs are blasted with the same par as my sps. But a tank with a brain coral near the top moving to sps might be different story.

A cheap lux meter in a plastic bag set to max and dividing by 60 will get you in the ball park for par if want to verify

Definitely going to have to move some things down I have zoas and there are scattered throughout the rock work.

 

[Bpb]

You really just want to make sure where the sps will be, that you can provide 250-350 par. You really don’t NEED to change anything otherwise. If your blues and violets are all maxed out and you don’t have enough, it’s time to start increasing red green and white until you hit your par goal for 6-8 hours

 

[Mele__Reef]

You really just want to make sure where the sps will be, that you can provide 250-350 par. You really don’t NEED to change anything otherwise. If your blues and violets are all maxed out and you don’t have enough, it’s time to start increasing red green and white until you hit your par goal for 6-8 hours

Thanks , How soon should I raise the par levels without shocking my zoas and softees? Although I will be moving them down. If needed of course.

 

[Bpb]

1-2% a day should be fine

 

[SDK]

I had SPS growing slowly and doing OK under a single AI Prime in a Nuvo 10, which is 12 x 12 x 12.

I ramped up to the full BRS A+B settings which are a bit higher than yours, and still had to lower the height of the light a bit for acropora. The Millepora did much better under the single Prime.

If you want SPS all over that tank, I would recommend upgrading to an AI Hydra. Alternately, I would just keep SPS higher up and close to the tank center. Again, if you try acros under that light, you may have to sacrifice some spread to get enough PAR where you need it...

 

[Gino Rodriguez]

I had SPS growing slowly and doing OK under a single AI Prime in a Nuvo 10, which is 12 x 12 x 12.

I ramped up to the full BRS A+B settings which are a bit higher than yours, and still had to lower the height of the light a bit for acropora. The Millepora did much better under the single Prime.

If you want SPS all over that tank, I would recommend upgrading to an AI Hydra. Alternately, I would just keep SPS higher up and close to the tank center. Again, if you try acros under that light, you may have to sacrifice some spread to get enough PAR where you need it...

Super helpful I’m running a 10 gal as well and I’m gonna attempt to have 3 acros center or tank as high up on the rock center axis with AB+ and see how it works

 

[SDK]

Glad it was helpful. I had my acro sticks a bit less than 12" below the fixture. Roughly 5" below the surface with the light about 6" off the water.

They did not break any speed records for growth but were otherwise fine. I was also able to keep things like torches and chalices thriving down on the sand with this configuration...