Radion XR-15 Gen 4 Intensity Discussion -- PLEASE HELP!!!

[onetootreefor]

Ok folks!! Down to business about lighting intensity.

I am really trying to have successful across and never seem to have found why I am not successful.

My parameters are on point, super consistent. I dose what I need...My phosphates and nitrates are minimal....so what could it be???

I follow instructions on my radio xr15 pro (gen4) and people say have it about 40% intensity...maybe up it 10% with a diffuser...I have a diffuser...

I recently borrowed a PAR meter, and while it's just an apogee 200 the par readings are below 100!! super low right?

I cranked up the overall intensity to 100% and I am just now getting to the PAR readings of 250-300 (with the adjustment for the apogee 200 since it can't read LED's very well).

That being said, have I been messing up this whole time? What intensity should be 40-50% for my tank? the "overall" on the left or the actual intensity rating of the color bubble (see screen shot below)...

Are my PAR readings way off? Should I get a different PAR meter? I am more confused now than I have ever been with the way Ecotech rates intensity.

My tank is 16ish" tall and the light sits about 8 inches off the water with an ecotech RMS arm.

Which intensity rating should I pay attention to? Green arrow or orange arrow?

PLEASE HELP!!!!!

 

[Rukk]

I'm no help here really but this has been my experience and I have been trying to get my intensity straight... I have two XR 15 Gen 4s on a 3' tank, tank is 22" deep. I also have the diffusers installed. Ecotech mounts. The lights are a little over a foot apart. I have attempted to run various intensities, most 65+ percent.

Long story short, I bleached some coral and eventually ended up at 55% but I still had the feeling that something wasn't right in the tank. Tank is almost 7 months old. About 3 weeks ago after talking to a guy at the LFS who has two XR 30s over like a 160 at his house (an SPS beauty as well), he tells me I've got the intensity way too high…..and suggests I turn the intensity down to 30% and shorten the duration to 8 hours. So I am trying it been three weeks. Corals look great, no shrinking away and just acting up in general. I have a definite feeling that the Corals are much happier. Some SPS frags I am trying are looking well. Prior efforts with a few SPS frags ended in bleaching/death after various lengths of time. Bleached some LPS as well......The tank inhabitants I get the feeling are happy.

Obviously, I have not arranged to check the actual par in my tank. I would love to do that and I'm considering renting a par meter. Until then, I am going to stay with the lower intensity. Even if it is low, the tank is much happier than when it was at 55%. Though there is no doubt in my mind that the lower intensity appears to be better for my tank/setup, time will tell, it seems crazy to me to have the intensity so low at 30%. Looks like I am going to have to get over that.

However, I and the Wife do not care for the duration being that short for our personal viewing pleasure, but for now, I'm gonna deal with it.

I am just sharing my experience, I am not offering this as advice, I'll leave that to the experienced and knowledgeable here at R2R. Maybe something with my experience may help you.

 

[onetootreefor]

Thanks for the advice.

I have read a lot that xr-30s need to be run much lower than xr-15s so that might be why the guy said your intensity is really high.

My light period is about 10 hours but only 4 hours of peak intensity so I might try reducing it to 8 if that helps.

The BRS video suggests to run xr-15 at 80% for sps dominant tanks to get the 250-350 par range. That is without diffusers and people say to add 10-20% if you have a diffuser installed...

I might also try removing the diffuser if cranking up my intensity doesn’t help.

 

[Larry L]

The BRS video suggests to run xr-15 at 80% for sps dominant tanks to get the 250-350 par range. That is without diffusers and people say to add 10-20% if you have a diffuser installed...

This 80% intensity recommendation doesn't help much unless you also know how deep the tank is, and how high the lights are mounted above the tank (although they are probably using the standard RMS mounts). If your tank is 16" tall then 80% seems high to me, I have two XR15's over a 36" wide, 18" deep tank and run them at 40% max with pretty good SPS success.

 

[SneakyTortuga]

corals need to be acclimated to the light. i currently run my xr30's on a 16" tank at 90% and my 12" frag tank at 80%. if you do raise the intensity do it over a 4-6 week time frame. i would go by how your corals look to decide if you need to raise intensity

 

[Thingsibuild]

At what depth are you getting 300 par at? Are you running ab+ ?
I just checked my par with just blue channels at 100% , xr15 8" off the water middle 18" deep tank 200 par. Top of my rocks 6" to 7" from the top 300 to 350 par. No diffuser. Apogee sq-120 adding 1.33% for underwater correction.

 

[onetootreefor]

At what depth are you getting 300 par at? Are you running ab+ ?
I just checked my par with just blue channels at 100% , xr15 8" off the water middle 18" deep tank 200 par. Top of my rocks 6" to 7" from the top 300 to 350 par. No diffuser. Apogee sq-120 adding 1.33% for underwater correction.

At NO depth am I getting 300 PAR...

Yes, I'm running a modified AB+

about 6 inches below the water I'm getting 175 PAR at 100% overall intensity (See Screenshot) on an Apogee 200 (that's without any correction) (of course I did not leave my intensity there I will slowly acclimate my corals).

I might get 250 PAR near the top of the water, and without a diffuser I might get 300.

 

[Jcat2k]

This 80% intensity recommendation doesn't help much unless you also know how deep the tank is, and how high the lights are mounted above the tank (although they are probably using the standard RMS mounts). If your tank is 16" tall then 80% seems high to me, I have two XR15's over a 36" wide, 18" deep tank and run them at 40% max with pretty good SPS success.

The BRS video shared PAR values at different mounting heights AND at 6, 12, and 18 inches tank depth - pretty useful info.

 

[pecan2phat]

If your inquiring about PAR output alone then I can tell you that your numbers are relatively on par
I measured my Waterbox 40.1 which is a 17.71" cube so pretty close to your 16"ish tall tank and my measurements consist of a XR15 G4 with a diffuser, mounted on a RMS using an Apogee MQ-510 which already factors in the correction. My water surface is roughly 1" below the top of the tank and the RMS puts the fixture at about 8" above the top of the tank.
My fixture settings are SPS PHX14 at 80% intensity.
If I measure 5" below the water line: 241 PAR
If I measure 13" below the water line: 180 PAR

 

[MikeW9788]

I have 3 xr30 gen 4 pros with diffusers on a 180. Running sps ab+ and I've got up to 85% on the main slider that equates to 55% overall intensity. I started around 45% main slider and upped it 5%at a time over a few weeks. Love the diffusers, they really enhance the look and even out the par of these lights. I need to rent the par meter from brs. I'd love to know where I'm at.

 

[pecan2phat]

These are the numbers that I measured a few months ago with an Apogee MQ-510
4 Four XR30 Pro G4 mounted 6.75" above the water line and running SPS PHX14 at 60% intensity on the main slider:
6.5" below water line = 435 PAR
11" below water line = 402 PAR
15" below water line = 397 PAR
19" below water line = 294 PAR

Hope this helps, you can estimate the above numbers less 20%~25% with diffusers.

 

[JMoody]

We have our XR15’s at 75% and have had no luck with SPS. Going to drop the down to 40% and see if it helps. Thanks

 

[JMoody]

On our Red Sea 350, we have (2) XR15's and added a 3rd about a month ago. I noticed our Acans were starting to look a little stressed and both attempt at SPS resulted in failure. We took out intensity down to 40% (have diffusers). Hope to report with good news in a few days.

 

[Rando]

I also had no success with the diffusers.
my 3 XR30 Pro G4 lamps hang about 14 inches per RMS above the water surface. I use the AB + program with a total intensity of 93%. my sps are about at a depth of 14 inches and the par in the depth was just about 270-280 (measured with a MQ-200) with diffusers! without diffuser at about 310. I have already multiplied the result by 1.08. clearly not enough par .. the results did not look really good. I regularly test my water values via ICP and look pretty good.

 

[Ssattar88]

If your inquiring about PAR output alone then I can tell you that your numbers are relatively on par
I measured my Waterbox 40.1 which is a 17.71" cube so pretty close to your 16"ish tall tank and my measurements consist of a XR15 G4 with a diffuser, mounted on a RMS using an Apogee MQ-510 which already factors in the correction. My water surface is roughly 1" below the top of the tank and the RMS puts the fixture at about 8" above the top of the tank.
My fixture settings are SPS PHX14 at 80% intensity.
If I measure 5" below the water line: 241 PAR
If I measure 13" below the water line: 180 PAR

I also have a waterbox and trying to dial In my fixture now and im scared to runn mine that high on ab spectrum because I have a mix or sps and lps

 

[pecan2phat]

You saw the PAR level @ 80% intensity and a diffuser so those numbers will not bleach out SPS or LPS IMO but you can start it off @ 50% and ramp up 5% weekly also.

 

[pecan2phat]

This is using the Coral Lab SPS PHX14 setting with a diffuser on the XR15 unit.
Diffuser will decrease intensity (by 20% to 25%) so keep that in mind.