Lighting for coral growth.

[Cell]

Oh nevermind I forgot it cleans up links like that.

 

[James5214]

Oh wow I did not know that. I'm definitely going to be looking into that. As said I'm basically shooting in the dark as to what I need my channels to be because I have no idea what my hotspot par is or my outskirts of my tank. Thanks for the link I will be doing research on that.

 

[James5214]

Oh it's 538$. If you resend back in 60 days and isn't broke they refund you your money minus 100$ for restocking fees. So your spending 438$ to test your par.

 

[Daftendire]

So I can not find the sweet spot with my light that my corals like. I have a ai prime 16hd. I have been running my UV V around 64 and RB B around 54 and G R around 5 and CW around 28. Should I hike my blue channels up more and my uv channels down? What gives you guys best coral growth? If anyone has a prime with a preset or have experience with the signature series lights let me know. I have zoas and pipe organ and xenia and a Duncan. It's a 20 long. Light is mounted about 10-11 inches above water line. Thanks

You can hike your blue channels as high as your eyes can tolerate for your setup. If you set the uv and violet channels much higher than what you have now, you will burn through the lenses of those diodes.

I have three 16HDs over a 20l style tank. Each light is 7 inches above the water line and growing zoas and LPS well. No par measurements but I have the levels lower than most and everything is growing fine.

 

[JNalley]

Oh it's 538$. If you resend back in 60 days and isn't broke they refund you your money minus 100$ for restocking fees. So your spending 438$ to test your par.

well, you're only spending $100. They're holding onto $438 as collateral.

But, you can always use the Photone app on your phone. Search "Photone Reef Tank" in google or just "Photone" here on the forums, and you'll get some helpful information. It's accurate to within about 5 PAR once you've got it dialed in right.

 

[JNalley]

You can hike your blue channels as high as your eyes can tolerate for your setup. If you set the uv and violet channels much higher than what you have now, you will burn through the lenses of those diodes.

I have three 16HDs over a 20l style tank. Each light is 7 inches above the water line and growing zoas and LPS well. No par measurements but I have the levels lower than most and everything is growing fine.

If you're ever worried about burning the lenses, buy a 3D Reefing Hood and Diffuser and then remove the lenses. You'll lose about 5-10% PAR from he diffuser, and about another 5% or so from making the light pattern wider, but you can run the UV, Violet, and Royal Blues as high as you want at that point without risk of melting the lenses.

 

[James5214]

I went with the Saxby preset from AI website. He has his blues alot higher than I had and uvs lower than I had. I may drop the level on whites some his whites are at around 27-30

 

[James5214]

You can hike your blue channels as high as your eyes can tolerate for your setup. If you set the uv and violet channels much higher than what you have now, you will burn through the lenses of those diodes.

I have three 16HDs over a 20l style tank. Each light is 7 inches above the water line and growing zoas and LPS well. No par measurements but I have the levels lower than most and everything is growing fine.

And my light is about 10inches above water and I only have 1 ai prime over 20 long

 

[James5214]

May need to drop light fixture down a little?

 

[James5214]

If you're ever worried about burning the lenses, buy a 3D Reefing Hood and Diffuser and then remove the lenses. You'll lose about 5-10% PAR from he diffuser, and about another 5% or so from making the light pattern wider, but you can run the UV, Violet, and Royal Blues as high as you want at that point without risk of melting the lenses.

And what does the UV and violet and royal blue benefit for corals? Just wondering as I'm new and don't know which channel they use the most I know it's blues but the specific one

 

[JNalley]

I went with the Saxby preset from AI website. He has his blues alot higher than I had and uvs lower than I had. I may drop the level on whites some his whites are at around 27-30

Keep in mind that Saxby is using Hydra 26's if memory serves. He has a bunch of them, and Hydra's are more powerful than Primes (even 2 primes is not equivalent to one Hydra as far as PAR/Wattage is concerned). So your mileage may vary

And what does the UV and violet and royal blue benefit for corals? Just wondering as I'm new and don't know which channel they use the most I know it's blues but the specific one

UV is mainly for color pop, it's also misleading because it's only Near UV it's not actual UV. They are using 400 or 405nm chips, and UV is stuff below 400.

Violet, Royal Blue, and Blue are the channels most used by corals for photosynthesis and growth.

 

[Cell]

Oh it's 538$. If you resend back in 60 days and isn't broke they refund you your money minus 100$ for restocking fees. So your spending 438$ to test your par.

You understood it wrong. $100 is a restocking fee. You get your full refund minus the $100 restocking fee once it's returned.

 

[James5214]

So you spending 100$. They refund you 438$

 

[Cell]

$100 for 60 days is a pretty good deal. If you have reefer friends, that's plenty of time to split the cost and measure everyone's tank. Or if you find you aren't happy with your current lights par, it gives time to purchase a new light and map that as well.

 

[Reefngeek]

Having a par meter would be ideal but one thing I learned and adopted from watching WWC videos is, you don't need that much light. Corals will be healthy and grow with less light but will die with too much light. I use the Saxby settings with my AI Prime 16HDs but I lower the intensity to around 38%. For my tanks where I use Kessil A160we, I run them at 40% max. My corals are all healthy and growing. Even the few SPS that I have are all showing great polyp extension. I do think however, that a second AI Prime is required for a 20 gallon long.

 

[damsels are not mean]

What makes you say it's the lighting? Just about any blue or white light will grow coral if it's bright enough.

 

[James5214]

I'm running the Saxby as well but only have 1 ai prime over the 20 long. I adjusted the red and green channels and whites on the Saxby setting.

 

[Morpheosz]

$100 for 60 days is a pretty good deal. If you have reefer friends, that's plenty of time to split the cost and measure everyone's tank. Or if you find you aren't happy with your current lights par, it gives time to purchase a new light and map that as well.

I'd also suggest calling around. We only have 2 decent LFS around here and they both rent them. One is $10/day, they other was $30 for a day or two. If you're in Tampa, I'd be surprised if you couldn't rent one locally.

 

[James5214]

I asked my LFS that's around corner from me they don't have one. I'm going to contact marine warehouse in Tampa they are alot bigger and on a bigger scale. Hopefully they have one. Also I found a fellow reefer in St Pete who has a par meter but charges a fee which idc that doesn't matter to me. I am in contact with him as well