Increasing intensity help
- Thread starter swoons
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Dana Riddle
2500 Club Member
How high is the fixture above the water line? How deep is the tank? What kind of corals (soft, stony, zoas, etc.)
leepink23
2500 Club Member
Do you have a lux or par meter? If not I would say go very slow especially with the white. I would probably go 2-3 points up per week possibly every other week, on my radions my white is at 24 with 60% intensity but I started at 10. If you don’t have a meter see if you can borrow one, LEDs can be deceptive!
Ron Reefman
Lets Go Snorkeling!
Reef Squad
Excellence Award
Reef Tank 365
Article Contributor
Tampa Bay Reef Keepers
MAC of SW Florida
The blue spectrum can be just as destructive to corals as the whites if you run them too high. The blue looks less intense to our eyes, but then the coral doesn't have our eyes, do they? A quality PAR meter will tell you the PAR of blue and white spectrum is almost the same.
Here is an idea you might consider if you can't get a PAR meter. Have you ever heard of 'the canary in a coalmine'? If not google it. The idea is here to get a small inexpensive frag of a plating sps like red cap montipora. Set it as high in the tank as any coral you have. As you continue to ramp up your light intensity, eventually you will start to bleach the red cap. As soon as you see that happen, dial back the intensity by about 10% to 20%.
And just to cover it, light is far from the only thing that makes coral grow. Everybody goes to the light first because it's easy to buy and easy to set it and forget it. But water quality, nutrients in the water, water flow, and coral mix and maturity of the tank are all very important as well. Oh, and time! Also know that the bigger a coral is, the more it will grow. It does NOT grow faster, but because there is more growing edge, or branch tips or polyps, it will grow more than a smaller frag with less growing edge or branches. So don't expect too much from frags in a new tank.
Good luck.
Here is an idea you might consider if you can't get a PAR meter. Have you ever heard of 'the canary in a coalmine'? If not google it. The idea is here to get a small inexpensive frag of a plating sps like red cap montipora. Set it as high in the tank as any coral you have. As you continue to ramp up your light intensity, eventually you will start to bleach the red cap. As soon as you see that happen, dial back the intensity by about 10% to 20%.
And just to cover it, light is far from the only thing that makes coral grow. Everybody goes to the light first because it's easy to buy and easy to set it and forget it. But water quality, nutrients in the water, water flow, and coral mix and maturity of the tank are all very important as well. Oh, and time! Also know that the bigger a coral is, the more it will grow. It does NOT grow faster, but because there is more growing edge, or branch tips or polyps, it will grow more than a smaller frag with less growing edge or branches. So don't expect too much from frags in a new tank.
Good luck.
