Question about wide angle TIR lenses

[Susan C]

Just switched out the stock reflectors on my gen 1 Radion for wide angle TIR lenses. I have it over a 75 gallon tank 48" X 18" X 20" deep, with only lower-light corals. Zoas, Palys, mushroooms, hammer.

Here's the question - do you think I should lower the intensity from what it has been at since the TIR lenses are brighter? Or raise the intensity since the wide angle lenses lower the PAR and spread the light out more? Or figure these things cancel each other out, and leave it where it is?

I did lower the light from 12" to 11" off the water because it was a little bright on the eyes.

Thank you for any suggestions!

Susan

 

[mfinn]

If it were me I would raise the intensity by about 10%, but just in case I would use a 2 week acclimation mode.

 

[Susan C]

If it were me I would raise the intensity by about 10%, but just in case I would use a 2 week acclimation mode.

Okay, thanks, gradual acclimation is a good idea. I guess I'll just very slowly bump it up, and keep an eye on how the corals are doing...

 

[mfinn]

I probably should have asked, what did you have the intensity set at before the wide angle lens?

 

[Susan C]

I probably should have asked, what did you have the intensity set at before the wide angle lens?

I had it at 35% intensity in Natural Mode, with a 27 foot depth offset.

 

[mfinn]

How long at 35%?


On my 233 softy tank, I have 3 gen 1's with regular lens. I started my acclimation at 45% and using a 4 week acclimation program, ended at 65%.
My tank is 25" deep and the lights are 9" above the water.

 

[Susan C]

I've had it at 35% for a long time, maybe a year, on my old tank. If I went over 35% everything got pale. If you mean how many hours a day, the day starts at 11 am and ends at 10 pm, but in Natural Mode only a part of that is at full intensity. The tank is 20" deep and the light was at 9" off the water on my cube, but now it is up at 11" because I was hoping for more spread on this bigger tank. I was planning on raising the intensity some to account for it being up higher, since the old tank was the same depth. Then I did the lens upgrade and tried to formulate a plan with all of these variables and then my brain exploded!

 

[Mark426]

I measured the PAR my Radion G2 Pro with both lenses. The wide angle lenses reduced the PAR an average 40%. I ran my stock lenses at 55% and increased the output with the wide angles to 75%. Kept the same height at 10". My corals (95% SPS) didnt seem to notice the difference other than slightly better color in the previously shadowed areas. Thinking of increasing the intensity slightly. Happy that I made the switch.

 

[Susan C]

Thank you Mark426. So you went from regular TIR lenses on a G2 Pro to the wide angle lenses? Where I'm getting stumped is that I don't know what the difference in PAR is between the original gen 1 lenses (non-TIR) and the TIR wide angles. I guess I could ask Ecotech?