How to find your LED Intensity Sweet Spot??

[Stolireef]

Yep. I'm just working my way through how to adjust LEDs. I've been in this hobby for a long time (first tank was in 1995) but I was always an MH person. My most successful tank was lit by two 400W Radiums and four VHO actinics. Now that I live in the hot desert, I'm learning how to handle LEDs.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yep. I'm just working my way through how to adjust LEDs. I've been in this hobby for a long time (first tank was in 1995) but I was always an MH person. My most successful tank was lit by two 400W Radiums and four VHO actinics. Now that I live in the hot desert, I'm learning how to handle LEDs.

Yea it's funny folks now worry so much about too much light.
You were blasting! Lol.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yep. I'm just working my way through how to adjust LEDs. I've been in this hobby for a long time (first tank was in 1995) but I was always an MH person. My most successful tank was lit by two 400W Radiums and four VHO actinics. Now that I live in the hot desert, I'm learning how to handle LEDs.

Here's a bonus To led

IMO set a peak time and color and intensity

Then cuz we can.

Set a long low ramp up. You can go from pre dawn color to sunrise pink and then morning blue and then peak light. Then do sunset and an hour or so of blue pop.

I call it my summer in Fiji look.

Sounds like greasy kid stuff. But it's called daily light integral. I got it from an old master. Dana Riddle. DLI
Easy Google.

To adjust and find a sweet spot just increase or decrease the max intensity or time of max intensity

 

[sil40sx]

I'm on my second month on 2 x XR15 G4's, started from 50%, then slowly increased 5% every week. Now I have them running at 100% total intensity (white and warm white sliders are on 15%) for 5 hours for a month now. They're on for 12 hours, including ramp up/down times.

IIRC, my tank is 21" deep. My acroporas are about 8-10" below the water level. Softies and alike are on the sandbed. So far, so good.

I know 2 months is a very short time for me to say that I found the sweet spot, but I am confident to say my corals are thriving, because they're growing, PE are very good, maintaining colors, and some have gotten better colors too. No burnt tips, RTN/STN, melted or whatsoever.

On a side note, I added a single t5 last week to supplement the radions. I've seen multiple threads saying hybrid lighting is better than single source.

Edit: my plan was to stop increasing the intensity when I see one of my SPS Got burnt tips or started to have a pale color, or when I see softies doesn't open, but it never happened that's why I maxed out. LOL

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I have two tanks, a75 with 2 SBReef 16" and a 14g with a Kessil A160. I've had this one blue stylo in the 75 for two months and it's been in various stages of looking like crap with no growth. SBReef cooked a purple stylo with too much intensity so I was slowly working them up. They are at 30% and 50% with a few hours ramp. Still saw no growth in my SPS but LPS and rhodactis were doing great. Set up my 14 and moved the SPS over there. Kessil set on a 10hr on/off wall timer at 50% intensity and slightly white on the color knob and this one coral is showing growth in less than a week.

The worst it looked in the 75

The best it looked in the 75

4 days after being under the Kessil.

 

[lou dog420]

I run a led t5 hybrid, 2 kessil 360 W, 2 54 watt ati bulbs, with 3 apex lunar leds on a 100 gallon mixed reef. I prefer to keep my leds maxed out on intensity, and adjust the height of the fixture up. Gives me better coverage and blending.

 

[happyhourhero]

I basically kept going up a few % a week until I noticed some corals starting to pale. I then left it alone for a while and now I find my self bumping up a couple % every month or so just to see what colors I can pull out of sps. If I notice any paling I will go down. I think i am maxed right now to keep everything happy though because some of my lps are starting to not like it being so bright.

 

[kamikazereefer]

I got 3 g4 pro x30
Over my 48x24x22 reef
Im running the ab+ schedule at 75 % so its 50% intensity

I start at 35 % and raise 1% intensity a week now I'm there my pink cady was green due to low light now it's a beautiful color so I will leave there for a 2 month before going up again

 

[donnievaz]

Also, nutrient levels are a weird thing to measure. My tank has undetectable nitrates but I grow Chaeto by the pound. That means there are nutrients but the chaeto is out-competing other nuisance algae. So, can I increase my intensity?

The big question here is which one more readily uptakes the nutrients. I don't know the answer. If the coral can get enough nutrients before the chaeto can strip it out you'll be alright.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

How to find your LED Intensity Sweet Spot??

Like this..

I basically kept going up a few % a week until I noticed some corals starting to pale. I then left it alone for a while and now I find my self bumping up a couple % every month or so just to see what colors I can pull out of sps. If I notice any paling I will go down. I think i am maxed right now to keep everything happy though because some of my lps are starting to not like it being so bright.

 

[DanP-SD]

Here's a bonus To led

IMO set a peak time and color and intensity

Then cuz we can.

Set a long low ramp up. You can go from pre dawn color to sunrise pink and then morning blue and then peak light. Then do sunset and an hour or so of blue pop.

I call it my summer in Fiji look.

Sounds like greasy kid stuff. But it's called daily light integral. I got it from an old master. Dana Riddle. DLI
Easy Google.

To adjust and find a sweet spot just increase or decrease the max intensity or time of max intensity

Interesting approach. Would you mind posting a screenshot of your settings?

My approach, to answer the OP, is totally unscientific. I set the mix by eye. I gradually ramp up intensity until I get good color and growth. If corals burn, I lower intensity. If I get algae, and don't have high nutrients I shorten the photo period.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Would you mind posting a screenshot of your settings?

I have 2 tanks w different lights, and my settings are in crayon.

the 30g is an SBreef light, the 55 is ai sol's AND I kept my current orbit cuz I like the royal blue and it matched the SB color almost perfectly. Both are rudimentary controllers. On a fancy one it would be crazy easy Id think.

I set my ramp by eye and check it with the lux meter. my first and last two hours are really less than 200 par at the top of the tanks, but enough to wake up the coral and fishies.

edit: my first and last hour is much much less than 100 par at the top. less light than the bathroom but still great coral pop

Interesting approach. Would you mind posting a screenshot of your settings?

My approach, to answer the OP, is totally unscientific. I set the mix by eye. I gradually ramp up intensity until I get good color and growth. If corals burn, I lower intensity. If I get algae, and don't have high nutrients I shorten the photo period.

And yup. Just like that.

Oh and you can just come over to the house Dan. I'm by SDSU homeboy.

 

[Kzoo]

It funny i was reading that wwc runs pretty low par settings on there main grow out tank. Its not all about the lights!

 

[Gator1970]

I don't know how much a factor light is. I hate to keep harking back to the "old" days, but back when it was VHO and MH, you would turn the VHO on for 10 to 12 hours, and the MH on for 6 to 8 hours, with no ramping or dimming, or discussion beyond bulb colour temp and wattage. Corals seemed to grow as well now as they did then. Seems like a bit of a rabbit hole when there is so much selection on colours, intensities, etc - I'm not sure that it's as important as the marketing people would like us to believe. fWIW, I have a radion G4 xr30 pro over a 50 gallon tank, and the coral seems to be doing ok. I'm adding some T5 supplements, though, to be sure. I wish for this tank I had gotten a T5/MH combo, but I swallowed the LED kool-aid.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

It funny i was reading that wwc runs pretty low par settings on there main grow out tank. Its not all about the lights!

about 200 to 300+ as i recall in the high light sections of the frag tanks as opposed to the 500 to 1000+ in the days of old.
in a home tank your going to have to deal with higher light on the top if you want light on the bottom. in a 24in deep if you want a 100 on the sand your going to need 4-500+ on the top basicly. if you want a clam on the sand your gonna want 200+ or so. Naturally its 700 to 900 on the top.

 

[1stNoel]

Great question by the OP. I'm sure many of us saw this post and thought..."oh, it's not just me"!

I've burned many corals trying to find that sweet spot. I currently run 3 Kessil AP700s over a 300 gallon tank. I ran a 12-hour schedule with 100% max intensity for 5 hours, but this was a bit much. I was getting PAR readings over 300 at 24" deep, and my low light corals couldn't handle it. I'm currently running a 12-hour schedule with 75% max intensity for 6 hours. All 12 hours are spent between the 6:00 to 9:00 section of the color wheel. Corals are responding well to this.

Another thing I've noticed. We hobbyists keep judging our lights based on how the corals look in comparison to the mature colony shots we see...but what we don't realize is that the nubs...err, frags...we buy look nothing like that mature colony until they've had a chance to grow out (which will be months). In the meantime, we get impatient and then crank up the intensity because acros aren't "coloring up". In the end, if you're corals are growing/encrusting, then leave them be and they'll start coloring up as they mature.

 

[azbigjohn]

Yep. I'm just working my way through how to adjust LEDs. I've been in this hobby for a long time (first tank was in 1995) but I was always an MH person. My most successful tank was lit by two 400W Radiums and four VHO actinics. Now that I live in the hot desert, I'm learning how to handle LEDs.

Nothing significant to add to the minds here, as you know I am slowly starting out a new tank, and playing with my Kessils to try and find the same thing...

Just thought I'd mention nice new avatar, although I miss Stoli...

 

[1stNoel]

It funny i was reading that wwc runs pretty low par settings on there main grow out tank. Its not all about the lights!

Where did you read this? I'd like to read articles like that.

I was just at WWC picking up a frag, and I asked if I could go to the back and see the mother colony (because I like to visualize what it's supposed to look like and, yes, because I just wanted a peak at that amazing tank). I came away with two conclusions:

1. That mother colony..."it was glorious!" Even better in person than what I saw in the picture.
2. My frag is a long way from looking like that. We'll see how many months it takes.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Where did you read this? I'd like to read articles like that.

I was just at WWC picking up a frag, and I asked if I could go to the back and see the mother colony (because I like to visualize what it's supposed to look like and, yes, because I just wanted a peak at that amazing tank). I came away with two conclusions:

1. That mother colony..."it was glorious!" Even better in person than what I saw in the picture.
2. My frag is a long way from looking like that. We'll see how many months it takes.

Ya'll mentioned WWC and it made me remember this:
http://ecotechmarine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/World_Wide_Corals_Coral-lab_03.pdf

"WWC's Radion schedule is unique because it is designed to provide lighting for the duration of business hours. In order to prevent over-lighting due to the extended photoperiod, the overall intensity is set lower than what would be required for a shorter photoperiod. In the Aquaculture Facility, WWC uses AquaIllumination Hydra 52HD units on their SPS run. On their other troughs which are largely soft corals, LPS and deep water SPS, they use T5 ATI Aqua Blue Specials and Blue Plus bulbs at a ratio of 3:1 per fixture. In most cases a Reef Brite HXL strip is used to supplement the T5s. The SPS aquaculture run using AI Hydra lighting receives PAR exposure in the 250-275 range, the LPS and Deep Water corals under the T5 lighting receives 80-140 PAR."

They certainly aren't blasting anything.

its low par for long duration. Ie extended DailyLightIintegral.

 

[Rob Romalino]

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