Looking for some light advice

Payne Train · May 10, 2020

I have a 4 foot long and 16 1/2 inch deep tank - my QMaven II 6800 sit 12 inches above the water. I plan on having mostly softies, LPS and maybe an SPS or two at some point .
I’ve struggled with figuring out how to run my lights, even after watch a bunch of videos and looking for forums.

This is what I currently have ... any advice ?

This is 12 hours of light - with 2 hours of lower blues in the morning and 4 hours of an evening .

My two mid day slots are almost maxed in blues and about half in white . Those time slots last about 5 1/2 hours .

Spare time · May 10, 2020

It is really up to you. B and D are most important. White is whatever you like it at. Red+green should be low (red signals corals to shield up and protect themselves) but most manufactureres only have a few red LEDs in their fixtures. I am not sure what th par readings are like for the blue channels on that so you may need to look that up or rent a par meter. Your tank is pretty shallow and if you only are focusing on LPS then I am guessing you are fine.

Payne Train · May 11, 2020

I am going to try and find a good par reading to rent at a LFS - we will see
I found a couple videos that take about spectrum but they never say the depth of the tanks that they test - and then they never talk about multiple depths ... only the height above water that they hang the lights

Payne Train · May 11, 2020

I guess my main question - obviously best guess without par readings - is does that seem like a fair amount of light, too much or too little

Spare time · May 11, 2020

This should help! It doesn't say the par per channel (as most don't) but it gives you an idea. I am guessing you are fine but a par meter will help and if you can't do that, you can always ask the manufacturer.

Qmaven Q6

www.zetlight.com

Payne Train · May 14, 2020

So I guess the only other thing I am hopeful for is that running higher intensity lights for 5 1/2 hours and only 50 ish percent for the other 6 1/2 hours is alright for coral ?

So going from low ish par levels in the morning, ramped way up in the middle of the day and ending with 4 hours of low par on blue channels.

Spare time · May 14, 2020

Payne Train said:
So I guess the only other thing I am hopeful for is that running higher intensity lights for 5 1/2 hours and only 50 ish percent for the other 6 1/2 hours is alright for coral ?

So going from low ish par levels in the morning, ramped way up in the middle of the day and ending with 4 hours of low par on blue channels.

I think that is ok. Again I think that the main things to understand how much par of the blue channel you are presenting at the peak.

Btw this is a handy video to watch (the first 16 minutes particularly)