Peak photo period and xr15 programming.

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Ok so I have 2 xr15’s + 4x 39w t5’s. My question is how long should i make my peak power? I was thinking 8 hours total photo period with 6 hours with t5’s?

This is my Current idea for colors as i like the more white. Its built off of AB+ schedule and below is my layout. Its off my phone and hard to see for sure but curious what you think.

everything will be based off of par when i set intensity.

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Lighting is very much personal preference. Here's the curve for my Radions G5 Blues.

Screenshot 2022-04-25 at 6.12.30 PM.jpg

So led color doesnt really matter just par? Coming from the plant world there isnt all the freedom with color as plants typically like white light with a little blue and red.
 
This was really confusing initially for their interface, but the dotted line is the values you set and the solid line is the values it will actually be running at. For some reason it has built in scaling down by default, and it took me months to realize it was automatically halving my lighting settings the first time I set one up.

With that sort of configuration, your peak is only going to be with the T5s on, so your peak is 6 hours and everything else will be low enough by comparison that it won't count for a huge percentage of the total photoperiod (though it may be still be substantial directly under the lights).

While 6h of the t5s sounds reasonable enough to me, 8 hours of any light in my tank is just too short for me able to be to appreciate it as I like to, so while my peak photoperiod is around 7 hours (no t5s, just a single XR30), I have a long ramp up and down on both sides where the tank is lit, but where the photosynthetic activity isn't all that much (and many corals start shrinking up more than an hour from moonlights as a result), with light present for about 12-13 hours and another hour or two of moonlights depending on the automatic moon cycle settings.

Also worth mentioning: unless your T5s are pretty blue, that will look very white for a lot of the day if your XR15s are Pros and not Blues. On the Pro model of the fixtures, much more of the total output power is in the whites than some fixtures, so the settings with the blues at 50% and the whites at 100% is probably going to be a warmer thank 10k Kelvin sort of look on their own.

LED spectrum counts, but a good fixture will cover enough of it not to make gigantic differences in health or growth - much more likely to see differences in coloration, especially in non-fluorescent colors (like on fish or some corals). Remember that the quantity of actual LEDs of each color is chosen by the manufacturer, so at least in theory, setting everything across the board to the same level will give you a pretty good blend. In practice, people don't usually do this and I don't think it looks the best or photographs the best, but having something on for each channel helps cover the bases. I also do a similar thing with my lighting schedule where the spectrum is warmer (more whites/reds/greens) early in the day and then more blue in the evening, so you get to appreciate the variation you get from different looks and so that you are actually running each channel somewhat comparably in total during the day. My vote would be to chose color spectrums that look good to you and use at least most of the channels in some amount, then rely on PAR to get the right output level.
 
This was really confusing initially for their interface, but the dotted line is the values you set and the solid line is the values it will actually be running at. For some reason it has built in scaling down by default, and it took me months to realize it was automatically halving my lighting settings the first time I set one up.

With that sort of configuration, your peak is only going to be with the T5s on, so your peak is 6 hours and everything else will be low enough by comparison that it won't count for a huge percentage of the total photoperiod (though it may be still be substantial directly under the lights).

While 6h of the t5s sounds reasonable enough to me, 8 hours of any light in my tank is just too short for me able to be to appreciate it as I like to, so while my peak photoperiod is around 7 hours (no t5s, just a single XR30), I have a long ramp up and down on both sides where the tank is lit, but where the photosynthetic activity isn't all that much (and many corals start shrinking up more than an hour from moonlights as a result), with light present for about 12-13 hours and another hour or two of moonlights depending on the automatic moon cycle settings.

Also worth mentioning: unless your T5s are pretty blue, that will look very white for a lot of the day if your XR15s are Pros and not Blues. On the Pro model of the fixtures, much more of the total output power is in the whites than some fixtures, so the settings with the blues at 50% and the whites at 100% is probably going to be a warmer thank 10k Kelvin sort of look on their own.

LED spectrum counts, but a good fixture will cover enough of it not to make gigantic differences in health or growth - much more likely to see differences in coloration, especially in non-fluorescent colors (like on fish or some corals). Remember that the quantity of actual LEDs of each color is chosen by the manufacturer, so at least in theory, setting everything across the board to the same level will give you a pretty good blend. In practice, people don't usually do this and I don't think it looks the best or photographs the best, but having something on for each channel helps cover the bases. I also do a similar thing with my lighting schedule where the spectrum is warmer (more whites/reds/greens) early in the day and then more blue in the evening, so you get to appreciate the variation you get from different looks and so that you are actually running each channel somewhat comparably in total during the day. My vote would be to chose color spectrums that look good to you and use at least most of the channels in some amount, then rely on PAR to get the right output level.

thanks for the response. I use ati coral plus and blue plus bulbs so i get a lot of blues from that. The xr15’s are pro’s. I like the more white than bright blues. Its true it probably is mainly 10-15k. I like the light blue/ purple tint but very bright white.

i figured the blues where important which is why i kept them all at 50% while blasting whites. Also had the green and reds slowly grow through the day. So should i do a an hour hour ramp up/down then put the t5’s on for 8 hours?

for a sps and A few lps what par numbers do you think i should aim for?
 
I think the T5s should be on when you want to see them (or at a different time if you don't) and then be on as needed at the peak. Depending on tank size/configuration, the LEDs may cover everything fairly well, so they could probably be run as little as 4h at the 'growth peak' and fill their role, but if you especially like the even look or if the spread of the LEDs doesn't reach the corners where you want corals to be as well, leaving them on longer and then turning down the LEDs could be a fine option.

You've got a fair bit of light, especially if the tank's only 36" wide (so probably 24" or less deep?) so you definitely won't need everything on full blast to be able to grow LPS and SPS in there, so then decide what you want to be doing with the T5s and build the LED schedule around that, since they're the ones that can really be adjustable. It may end up being that the XR15s could be run at like 20-30% at most with a 6-8h photoperiod on the T5s and be able to achieve your goals, but it is worth measuring to be sure and letting the versatility of the LED programming make your spectrum and fading/blending suit your liking.

There are lots of estimates for PAR numbers, but something like 75-125 on the sand bed, and 200ish just under midway up in the tank will let you keep most LPS and SPS with high light requirement stuff in the upper half of the tank. The T5s in particular should give you pretty small shadows overall, so you shouldn't have quite as much of an issue with shading as tanks based off smaller light sources, and you likely won't have too much loss of PAR over near the edges of of the tank. You could also likely go 25% higher or lower for those ballpark estimates and still find good results, it's just going to change what kinds of things you can keep where. I'm sure others can chime in with their preference of PAR values, but you may be able to find some tanks you like the look of with corals you're interested in that give PAR values for their setup and you can just try to aim for those numbers.
 
I think the T5s should be on when you want to see them (or at a different time if you don't) and then be on as needed at the peak. Depending on tank size/configuration, the LEDs may cover everything fairly well, so they could probably be run as little as 4h at the 'growth peak' and fill their role, but if you especially like the even look or if the spread of the LEDs doesn't reach the corners where you want corals to be as well, leaving them on longer and then turning down the LEDs could be a fine option.

You've got a fair bit of light, especially if the tank's only 36" wide (so probably 24" or less deep?) so you definitely won't need everything on full blast to be able to grow LPS and SPS in there, so then decide what you want to be doing with the T5s and build the LED schedule around that, since they're the ones that can really be adjustable. It may end up being that the XR15s could be run at like 20-30% at most with a 6-8h photoperiod on the T5s and be able to achieve your goals, but it is worth measuring to be sure and letting the versatility of the LED programming make your spectrum and fading/blending suit your liking.

There are lots of estimates for PAR numbers, but something like 75-125 on the sand bed, and 200ish just under midway up in the tank will let you keep most LPS and SPS with high light requirement stuff in the upper half of the tank. The T5s in particular should give you pretty small shadows overall, so you shouldn't have quite as much of an issue with shading as tanks based off smaller light sources, and you likely won't have too much loss of PAR over near the edges of of the tank. You could also likely go 25% higher or lower for those ballpark estimates and still find good results, it's just going to change what kinds of things you can keep where. I'm sure others can chime in with their preference of PAR values, but you may be able to find some tanks you like the look of with corals you're interested in that give PAR values for their setup and you can just try to aim for those numbers.

Thanks for the response.

The tank is a 48x18x19. the T5's are meant to reduce shadowing and fill in everything. I figured just starting with the t5's would make it easier in the long run. Running the Led's at 30% or so would be fine with me, i figured the leds were there to achieve the Par ranges that I would be searching for. I ended up using the 36" fixture instead of the 48" fixture because I think it looks a bit better and I should have enough spread as is with the leds. Maybe I will just do the t5's in the middle for 6 hours. that allows an hour of ramp up and an hour of ramp down
 

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