I have the gen 1 radions with TIR upgrade and just wanted to see what everyone is running the intensity at. I've been using these lights for at least 2 years on the 20k spectrum, max intensity is 70 percent (2.5 hour window) for 9 hours total. My tank is 30 inches deep. The 2 radions are mounted 7 inches off the water and my reef only goes 3/4 of the way up the tank. I have a mix of acros, chalices, zoas, hammers, favias. Even have some tort frags growing 5 inches off the sand bed. I'm sure the newer gens are even more powerful so I'm curious to see what intensity some of you run your lights at. Have any of you experienced any issues with having the intensity too high?
Radion Intensity??
- Thread starter Reefman24
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mfinn
likes zoanthids
I have 4 gen 1's that were upgraded to gen 3's over a mixed reef. The lights are mounted about 9-1/2" from the water
I use a modified radiant program at 70%.
I use a modified radiant program at 70%.
I have a 600 gal display with 10 Radions spread over it (tank is 12 feet long). I have had trouble with intensity being too high when I go above 55%. Corals seem to fade some. When I set it below 50% the color comes back for my corals. Also, I have had better luck with no white light in the spectrum during the photo period. Only really use royal blue and blue.
Best to use a Par meter to adjust the intensity of your Radion. I had mine too high for my tank and was burning up corals before using the par meter to adjust the lights.
I am pretty sure part of my problem is too much light intensity. But I have been having this brown diatom stuff on the gravel bed so trying to figure out if my tank is too nutrient rich or nutrient poor. I have had a few corals show good growth but most are pretty stagnant. Some have died. All seemed a little faded when the lights were up past 55%. Not sure if I should continue with a bell curve photo period where the lights are at their max setting for only a short time period of the day or if I should have the max setting a little lower and have the lights at that max setting for a longer amount of time. My acros are growing pretty well but I have a maze brain that has good color but seems to be receding very slowly. My water and tank in general looks very clean (essentially no nuisance algae) but I do have this persistent diatom looking brown dusting on my sand bed. Can't figure it out. So I wasn't sure if the corals were not growing or faded slightly due to low nutrients or due to too much light (or both). I have a huge XL 4 Bullet series Precision Marine skimmer and it doesn't seem to get much skimmate unless I set it very wet. It is a complex problem and I may need to post it in another location on the site.
Here is a popular schedule for Radion's
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/121589/Nav Sig900 4-2-14.etg.xml
This is the one a currently use. From the Ecotech user group on facebook.
Rampro6698 how old is the tank? diatom's generally are a new tank problem and go a way over time when the silica they consume lessens.
Using a algae scrubber will reduce nutrients in the water also
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/121589/Nav Sig900 4-2-14.etg.xml
This is the one a currently use. From the Ecotech user group on facebook.
Rampro6698 how old is the tank? diatom's generally are a new tank problem and go a way over time when the silica they consume lessens.
Using a algae scrubber will reduce nutrients in the water also
Waters
"...in perfect isolation, here behind my wall."
I am running two XR30w Pros over a 105 gallon and max out the intensity at 60% running a custom program that is in the 18.5-20k range. It is a mixed reef with the majority being SPS.
That link for the lights only came through as what looks like jumbled line code and it says this at the top: This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below. My tank is about 2.5 years old. The thing is that I have one very small patch of cyano along the undersurface of a montipora coral near the water surface. There are maybe two or three very small areas of bubble algae in the display tank. Other than that I don't have any algae in the main display. So I don't think my nutrients would be too high. I am running Phosgard but I have GFO coming to put in my PO4 reactor. I am running activated carbon. My phosphate measurement with a colorimeter Hanna checker is less than .01 ppm. My nitrates with an Elos liquid test kit is undetectable. So basically I can't figure out if my lack of coral growth is secondary to lighting or nutrients (too much or too little of either or both).
Here is the weird thing about all of this brown dusting stuff on the gravel bed: I used to do a gravel vac whenever I did my 50 gal weekly water changes. When I would do the gravel vac I went pretty deep into the bed and would routinely pull out some dark nasty stuff in some areas, not everywhere but in some areas of the tank. I would gravel vac the entire tank this way. I have a two layer gravel bed. The deep layer is 2-3 inches of sugarfine sand and the top 2 inches is regular aragonite medium grain. So I wonder if I am simply spreading detritus over the sand bed as I gravel vac and thus the brown stuff never goes away. I am simply feeding this growth each time I do a gravel vac. After I do the gravel vac I notice the sand is all pretty and clean but this brown stuff returns within 1 day. I have also noticed that the brown stuff is definitely related to lighting because it is very faint or sometimes not visible when the lights are off but it intensifies as the lights become more bright through the day.
Based on that, I am worried it is a dino problem even though this has never showed the typical appearance of dino. This stuff really looks like diatoms. It has never been red like cyano (even though that can be brown sometimes) and this stuff doesn't just whisp away like cyano. So even though diatoms typically only occur in new tanks that are cycling, could my case be unusual due to the way I have been doing the gravel vac? I feed the fish once or twice a day and they consume the food in less than 4-5 minutes. No food is left on the sand bed. I have started feeding the corals reef roids once per week (target feeding) for the last 4 months. I stopped gravel vacuuming this way about 1-2 months ago. This stuff has lessened but only slightly. I did try leaving the tank lights off for one day and the stuff was definitely more faint. So I know its tied to lighting which makes me worry about dinos. But the tank doesn't have really any other issues (other than some of my corals aren't really growing). I have a huge maze brain coral that seems to be receding slightly but has good color and shows extension when feeding or when lights are off. I have a refugium with a lot of chaeto macro algae that has some minimal cyano and some brown algae in it. There were a few spots on the sand bed of the refugium with the snot bubble look of dinos recently. I turned the refugium lights off for 2 days and the stuff in the refugium lessened. Nothing seems to be progressing or taking over. I am just trying to stay ahead of any problems.
Any other thoughts?
Here is the weird thing about all of this brown dusting stuff on the gravel bed: I used to do a gravel vac whenever I did my 50 gal weekly water changes. When I would do the gravel vac I went pretty deep into the bed and would routinely pull out some dark nasty stuff in some areas, not everywhere but in some areas of the tank. I would gravel vac the entire tank this way. I have a two layer gravel bed. The deep layer is 2-3 inches of sugarfine sand and the top 2 inches is regular aragonite medium grain. So I wonder if I am simply spreading detritus over the sand bed as I gravel vac and thus the brown stuff never goes away. I am simply feeding this growth each time I do a gravel vac. After I do the gravel vac I notice the sand is all pretty and clean but this brown stuff returns within 1 day. I have also noticed that the brown stuff is definitely related to lighting because it is very faint or sometimes not visible when the lights are off but it intensifies as the lights become more bright through the day.
Based on that, I am worried it is a dino problem even though this has never showed the typical appearance of dino. This stuff really looks like diatoms. It has never been red like cyano (even though that can be brown sometimes) and this stuff doesn't just whisp away like cyano. So even though diatoms typically only occur in new tanks that are cycling, could my case be unusual due to the way I have been doing the gravel vac? I feed the fish once or twice a day and they consume the food in less than 4-5 minutes. No food is left on the sand bed. I have started feeding the corals reef roids once per week (target feeding) for the last 4 months. I stopped gravel vacuuming this way about 1-2 months ago. This stuff has lessened but only slightly. I did try leaving the tank lights off for one day and the stuff was definitely more faint. So I know its tied to lighting which makes me worry about dinos. But the tank doesn't have really any other issues (other than some of my corals aren't really growing). I have a huge maze brain coral that seems to be receding slightly but has good color and shows extension when feeding or when lights are off. I have a refugium with a lot of chaeto macro algae that has some minimal cyano and some brown algae in it. There were a few spots on the sand bed of the refugium with the snot bubble look of dinos recently. I turned the refugium lights off for 2 days and the stuff in the refugium lessened. Nothing seems to be progressing or taking over. I am just trying to stay ahead of any problems.
Any other thoughts?
Is there another place I could get this Radion lighting schedule that people are using? My current schedule uses very little green (10-15%) and no red and a small amount (20-30% white). I use almost all blue and royal blue. Photo period is 10 hours and max intensity is at 55% for about 3 hours during the photo period. Basically looks like a bell curve for the lighting schedule.
That dropbox link should work? It will let you download the schedule. Then you just load it using your computer. That's the way Radion schedules are done.
reefwiser,
when I try to import that radio schedule you sent me it says that an xml file is invalid. It needs an etg file? I have imported other radion lighting schedules that I have saved to my desktop. But this one wouldn't work for some reason.
when I try to import that radio schedule you sent me it says that an xml file is invalid. It needs an etg file? I have imported other radion lighting schedules that I have saved to my desktop. But this one wouldn't work for some reason.
