Par levels?

[SpencerT82]

Hi I just measured my par levels today and I was getting 290 on the tip of my aqua scape and was getting 215 on my sand bed is there any way I can make the spread between levels greater so I have higher par up top and lower par on the bottom? It’s 112 gallons 22 inches deep and I have 3 hydra 32s.

 

[KrisReef]

You might raise the height of the rocks and get higher par closer to the lights.

 

[Bruttall]

Turn off 1 light and retest. You might just be putting to much light into the tank.

 

[Lavey29]

The spectrum also is important as certain colors run deeper then others in water. Additionally your scape is to low. You need higher peaks for corals like SPS. Middle and lower for LPS. Bottom levels for most softs. Then you can lower your light intensity but still have 350 on top. 125 to 250 in middle and 50 to 125 bottom

 

[SpencerT82]

The spectrum also is important as certain colors run deeper then others in water. Additionally your scape is to low. You need higher peaks for corals like SPS. Middle and lower for LPS. Bottom levels for most softs. Then you can lower your light intensity but still have 350 on top. 125 to 250 in middle and 50 to 125 bottom

The tanks been running for 2 years not very consistently. My rocks are separated in half. Would it be too harmful to remove half the scape and rescape that half then leave for a month or two the remove the other half of the old scape and the rescape? Additionally I have about 20 pounds of bio media in the sump

And for the spectrum I have blues and violets and purple at max whites at 25 and 10 for both red and green that’s what I took par measurements at

 

[Lavey29]

The tanks been running for 2 years not very consistently. My rocks are separated in half. Would it be too harmful to remove half the scape and rescape that half then leave for a month or two the remove the other half of the old scape and the rescape? Additionally I have about 20 pounds of bio media in the sump

And for the spectrum I have blues and violets and purple at max whites at 25 and 10 for both red and green that’s what I took par measurements at

Ok, if it's been running that way for 2 years then what are the issues you are experiencing? Are your corals growing well? Obviously there's more then lights involved to be successful. I run a heavy mixed reef tank. My SPS rocks are 6 inches below the surface. I have my LPS and softs mid tank and lower. I have 350 par at the top and 50 to 100 at the bottom. Middle is 175 to 250.

If you mean use all new rock then you are essentially doing a mini tank restart and will experience ugly phases with new rocks.

You can add a few pieces to your existing scape with no issues. I've done this. Your spectrum is fine

 

[Boehmtown]

You can try raising the lights, or raising 2 and have the remaining one at the front aiming at the back glass, or you can cluster 2 of the lights over the top of the rocks and let the sides be the lower par areas. You can add a couple kessils focused at the center of the rocks or just a couple light hungry important corals . Sell one and buy one or two quanta reef bars. Really just gotta mess with it and decide what you want to keep and where. You can also leave it and do a high light mixed reef.