Hydra 26 hd lighting help

[Reefermarkcid]

Hey all, I need some help. I have a jbj 45 tank. It's a mixed reef. Here's my coral list:

7 zoanthids

3 frogspawn

1 Pom Pom Xenia

2 lobos

Any advice on a light setup/schedule? Don't want to bleach my corals or have an algae out break but want to make sure I'm using the light at its best. It mounted 12-14 inches from the top of my tank

 

[Mattrg02]

Id set it such that max power isn't more than 25W or so, running for 9hrs. None of those corals need a lot of light.

 

[SDboatguy]

How long you plan to run the fixtures is also a consideration. When I first set my hydras up, I did A LOT of reading in several different forums. SO , I chose to run a long ramp up(4hours) Short peak (5 hour) and same ramp down.Personally I run all channels at 100% EXCEPT white ,which is currently at 70%. I do have a primarily SPS tank however. So you could dim down the whites if you wanted to . I would definitely use the acclimation mode when starting out and / or adding new corals. I usually do 2-4 weeks at 50% and let the hydras do the work, unless I get corals that were grown under "blazing" light. Still, for piece of mind , acclimating with the fixture won't hurt anything. Most importantly - try to find your setting and set and forget. A LOT of people have had poor success due to adjusting their settings to much- give it a week and change then a couple days and change, this is NOT good. Gradual changes (2-4% a week) are much easier on your tank. There is an Ecotek LPS 12"awl schedule out there (coral labs ?) that would work well. Just remember lighting is very similar to water perimeters , Big changes are BAD , so go slow .

 

[Reefermarkcid]

Thanks guys appreciate the support!

 

[Finhead]

I run 2 Hydra 26's and 4 T5 on my 40 gallon shallow, they produce a lot of light. For LPS I would not run it past 50% on any channel, if you want a 14K ish look go with a 3-1 mix of blue and white.

 

[dareal0585]

I have a hydra 26 and 2 T5's on my 40 gal breeder. The light is 12" from the top of the water. I run a 1 hour ramp up time and have the lights set at 26%uv, 11%V, 100%RB, 100%B, 0%G, 0%R, and 20%W. With this schedule the lights only run 26W max. They stay like this for 7 hours and then a 1 hour ramp down. I used to have my light set at 60% across the all the colors and with in a month all of my sps at the top of the tank and lps on the bottom started to bleach out. Went to my LFS and the owner runs the same lights and he helped me with this lighting schedule. After a month all of the color stated to come back and the they are starting to grow like crazy.