Newbie help please - LED intensity settings

[Damienfricker]

Hello, I'm new here, had marines quite a few years ago but been away for a long while, have recently just purchased a complete mature set-up, and it came with an LED light system and controller unit, the lady I bought the tank from didn't know how to use them, and she just used to switch them on and off (i.e. all colours 100% on, or completely off!)

My question is, and I have tried to search for the answers, but it seems most people use preset lighting programmes that they upload to their LED's, as a guide, what kind of intensity and timings do people use on their LED's for each colour?

My tank is a 300 litre (36" x 24" x 20") not much livestock at present, just an Emperor Cardinal, and 3 Regal Damsels - some mushrooms, kenya tree, xenia, and a large 12" Elephant Ear Mushroom - and about 60-70KG of rock.

The lights in question did not come with many instructions, and the website seems pants. They are not programmable by any apps or anything like that, they have a little digital timer box, with 6 channels (1 channel for each LED colour) and each channel can be set with 6 different timing schedules per day, 0%-100% intensity, and they will increase based on intensity and times set - i.e. if i set white channel to come on at 12.00 until 1.00 from 0%-60%, they slowly get brighter at a rate of 1% per minute etc. (I guess this is pretty standard for LED systems, but I am all new to this)

white: 6000-6500 K
royal blue: 450-455 nm
blue: 460-465 nm
red: 620-625 nm
purple: 395-405 nm
UV: 365-370 nm

95W

The name of it is an Aquamedic Aquarius 90 - with the matching Aquarius 6 channel controller

I know how to program the controller, setting intensities and times etc., (although I do have a problem with it doing some strange things, but more on that another time)

I currently have them set as follows:

White: 11.30 - 13.30 0% - 50% / 13.30 - 15.30 50% - 50% / 15.30 - 17.30 50% - 0%

Blue: 11.30 - 13.30 0% - 100% / 13.30 - 15.30 100% - 100% / 15.30 - 23.00 100% - 1%
Royal Blue: 11.30 - 13.30 0% - 100% / 13.30 - 15.30 100% - 100% / 15.30 - 23.00 100% - 1%
Purple: 11.30 - 13.30 0% - 100% / 13.30 - 15.30 100% - 100% / 15.30 - 23.00 100% - 1%
UV: 11.30 - 13.30 0% - 100% / 13.30 - 15.30 100% - 100% / 15.30 - 23.00 100% - 1%

Red: 13.30 - 15.30 0% - 100% / 15.30 - 17.30 100% - 0%

I know there's probably a lot wrong there, but this was my starting point!

Any tips, guides, idea's on intensities and timings to have as a better starting point would be much appreciated!

Many Thanks

 

[JumboShrimp]

Just to answer your question in a general way (and I apologize for the generalities),
a) your fish only ‘need’ whatever kind of light you prefer to view them by, and b) those softie corals should be very forgiving/adaptable and pretty hard to kill if your water is good and they have some nice flow. Meaning I think this gives you good latitude to try some lighting settings for a week or two, and change it a bit at a time if you think the corals are unhappy. That’s my 2-cents. Best wishes!

 

[Damienfricker]

HI!

Thanks for the advice, I see your point!

I was really just wondering along the lines of general "rules of thumb", especially if I add some other corals in the near future, what kind of schedules people use, i.e. not to have white on too long / too strong, less/more red, not all blue,royal blue, purple, UV all together at 100%?

But I do see what you mean, I can't do much harm to whats in there by experimenting for a while

 

[Style185]

I run both reefbreedersv2+ and kessil A360x on the same program eco tech ab+..... back in the day there was no ramping for halide or t-5. Now we have endless options as far as controlling each channel. I feel for best results have a 2 hour ramp in the am as well as a ramp dow in the pm but full intensity throughout the day (using best discretion on acclimation so you don't fry anything) I run 25% red, green, and whites while my blues n violets are at 70% but options are endless and sometime too much control is a bad thing imo I like the "set it and forget it" motto lol

 

[Damienfricker]

Thanks Style185, much appreciated. That kinda makes sense, so your whites are never over 25%? It certainly does seem that too much control is making it more complicated than it needs to be, not like just putting your T5's on an on/off timer switch!! I'd like to find a decent schedule and "set it and forget it" as you say haha