LED Questions

[Company101]

I built a 180 gallon tank. I then bought LED's from rapid.
40 blues
20 neutral whites
8 limes
4 UV
80° lenses

8 moon lights.

It gets great light. But very little growth. Tank is 2ft deep. And according to Rapids website. My lights are 16" off the water. And I currently have them set at about 30-40 percent and my drivers are turned down to half if I remember right.

And help would be greatly helped.

This is the heat sinks.

Here is my light output.

 

[Company101]

@D_Reep1106

 

[pondman]

I would lower the lights to 12" from water

 

[Company101]

Would I add or change any LED's ?

 

[pondman]

For now just lower them for now what percent are you running you may want to lower that as well

 

[Company101]

Right now my drivers are at 50% if I remember right. And the controller is at 30-40%.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

A lux meter will tell you the actual intensity of the light.
Not the uv, and not par. a good target number is 35 to 40,000 lux. hopefully you have more left on the dimmer as its a deep tank.

Galactica app for Iphone lux light meter by chrunchy bytebox for android. best of 14 i tested. But still wanky. A $15 lux meter on amazon is best.
Watch the UV channel carefully IMO when raising intensity. Lux meters AND par meters dont measure UV. thats what gives us sun burns, corals too.

if you or have friends who are photographers have a footcandle meter (or real lightmeter) it will work too as the numbers are directly mathematically interchangeable.

then you wont need to guess @ percentages on a dial.

 

[Company101]

Where would I hold the meter ? Between the light and water or near the bottom of the tank?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Where would I hold the meter ? Between the light and water or near the bottom of the tank?

right over the surface of the water. you should move it over the surface, youll see small dips and spikes in intensity, but youll get an average from that.
(thats why i dont like the phone thing, splash)
practice in the living room firs youll get a feel for using the meter.

 

[Company101]

Copy that. I am going to order one as we speak.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Copy that. I am going to order one as we speak.

youll be happy you did.
Its handy for acclimation too. new coral or new lights. and balance white/blue ratios as well.

 

[Company101]

I know I am on the right route. But stuff grows. Just really slow. Unless I feed mysis everyday. But that's not very doable

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I know I am on the right route. But stuff grows. Just really slow. Unless I feed mysis everyday. But that's not very doable

yea. Everyone told me I was nuts for using this kind of meter for years. So I under-lit for a long time and lost a lot of corals because of it. Ive been in lighting for 25 years and could not figure out why "they" said this.
Its because "They" are wrong. you need to check the intensity of the light you give to photosynthetic plants and animals. Orchid growers do it, fresh plant guys do it. We use meters to check PH alk etc. why not light.
rant over.
Yea post up when you get your meter or Pm. you'll be surprised at the results of knowing and increasing the amount and type of light you give the animals..

 

[Company101]

Should I turn off and test each color separately? I tested the light when all were on. And is was between 30-40 thousand

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

30 to 40 k is a pretty good intensity. If you measure the white channel only. then the blue Chanel only. that will give you a ratio. Mark those on the dial. You can now in crease or decrease the individual Chanel to raise or lower the color temp.
Example, now it is 14,ooo kelvin increase 10% blue, it is now 16,oookelvin OR lower the blue and it is now 10,00o kelvin Read the intensity of both lights individually and make a note, make a not read both together make a note.
Just like acclimation go slow. I dont know how high or low the corals are from your light . I also do not know what corals you have. some like more full whiter light, some like more blue lower light. So go slow like everything else in the tank. More may not be better. just lige duration. many corals have been shown to do better with a shorter, 10 to 12hr light cycle.
Light is just another parameter to test. if you calcium is low you dont dump the bottle in.


Now however, when you read up on the corals you have a guage. Low is 0 to 20,000 lux, med is 20 to 40000 lux Hi is 50 to 80,oo0 lux.
in the high 50 to 80000 lux range Id worry. Par is a tricky thing too. a 40k bulb can have a very very high par.

if your happy and sure the food, and flow and parameters are all correct, your lighting levels are close(and see who has a PAR meter to double check maybe) a different light may be needed as all leds are not created equal. same is true for foods.
My JBJ nano PRO had high intensity, but low par due to poor color spectrum.

 

[hart24601]

IME growth is all about feeding the coral proper sized food while maintaining water quality. Feed feed feed for growth, light intensity and water chemistry for color providing you have enough light, which it sounds like you do. Once past a minimum threshold of light intensity, feeding will do far more for growth than intensity.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blo...rine-shrimp-drastically-increase-their-growth

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/12/corals2