SB reef light par reading

[Llorgon]

Hey, I posted this in my build thread, but it doesn't get much traction so I thought I'd post here too!

I've got a 75 gallon tank running 2 SB reef lights about 10" above the water with glass tops. Not sure of the model, but they are older and came with the tank when I bought it. The guy I bought it from had a mixed reef with SPS. He said he had it set to 60% blue and 20% white. Which is what I have them set at.

I used the seneye reef par meter. So I realize these readings are probably not the most accurate. Nevertheless the reading seem quite low for most of the tank.

Would I just need to bump up the blue and white or are these lights starting to go?

 

[Lonely reefer's]

Good for LPS/softy with those pars

 

[sergifed91]

I lived my sbreef lights. Everything grew like weeds.

 

[Llorgon]

Good for LPS/softy with those pars

I was hoping to have a SPS dominant tank. Might have to play around or look at my light situation.

I lived my sbreef lights. Everything grew like weeds.

I haven't had any complaints with these so far. What settings did you have yours at?

 

[sergifed91]

Blues at 60 whites at 20 percent. I don't use mine any more I switched to ai.

 

[Lonely reefer's]

keep the blue at 60% and adjust white to 50% and retest
My sps > 250 or higher some up to 500 pars under ocean revive & 2 reefbrite XHO
Some sps doesn't like high pars therefore you have to move them around.

 

[oreo54]

Hey, I posted this in my build thread, but it doesn't get much traction so I thought I'd post here too!

I've got a 75 gallon tank running 2 SB reef lights about 10" above the water with glass tops. Not sure of the model, but they are older and came with the tank when I bought it. The guy I bought it from had a mixed reef with SPS. He said he had it set to 60% blue and 20% white. Which is what I have them set at.

I used the seneye reef par meter. So I realize these readings are probably not the most accurate. Nevertheless the reading seem quite low for most of the tank.

Would I just need to bump up the blue and white or are these lights starting to go?

Those numbers look low for 2 lights.
This is for a comparison, Lights (3) at 12" high.. effective depth is 34" from light to substrate..per vid
Your light is effectively at 40% (or a bout 88w) overall, approx. (a sloppy estimate, and 1 ch is slightly bigger).
Video starts at 40%. It is 3 lights but measurements farther right or left should be closer to 2 lights.
It's tricky to estimate based on things like this.
Vid was 2016 so "quality" should be about right.
125 may be 72" or so.. 3 18"(?) lights should be the fit..

Whether this is correct or not for the light itself
or Seneye vs diodes is ???
Some reported issues in measurements with newer Seneyes but I don't remember if it was high or low compared to older models. Not sure where this is at atm.

LED's do "fade" over time but well designed lights should not have too much light lost over say 3-4 years.
Depends on the diodes.

They are what they are now of course. You do have room to increase par say 80% blue 40% white, should be color equiv. but brightness may throw off tone to your eyes. Just adjust color.

If approaching 5 yrs old then it's possible the ac/dc drivers may fail. My "conspiracy gene" believes the larger electrolytic capacitors inside are designed to start to fail in 5 years.

There my monday morning quarterbacking is done.
Sadly there are few "time studies" done on these lights

This is at about 26% total and some 90 degre lenses removed..

SB Reef Light PAR Readings

Almost a year ago I upgraded my ViparSpectra black box LEDs to the custom SB Reef Light boards. Since then I have seen slow but consistent growth in most of my corals. Anyway a friend of mine loaned me his BioTek Marine BTM3000 PAR sensor and decided I'd share my results. This is my initial run...

www.reef2reef.com

One more.. effective height and output is similar BUT a bigger light..

Par for SB reef light

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Llorgon]

Blues at 60 whites at 20 percent. I don't use mine any more I switched to ai.

Ya that's what mine were at. How do you like the AI compared to SB reef?

Those numbers look low for 2 lights.
This is for a comparison, Lights (3) at 12" high.. effective depth is 34" from light to substrate..per vid
Your light is effectively at 40% (or a bout 88w) overall, approx. (a sloppy estimate, and 1 ch is slightly bigger).
Video starts at 40%. It is 3 lights but measurements farther right or left should be closer to 2 lights.
It's tricky to estimate based on things like this.
Vid was 2016 so "quality" should be about right.
125 may be 72" or so.. 3 18"(?) lights should be the fit..

Whether this is correct or not for the light itself
or Seneye vs diodes is ???
Some reported issues in measurements with newer Seneyes but I don't remember if it was high or low compared to older models. Not sure where this is at atm.

LED's do "fade" over time but well designed lights should not have too much light lost over say 3-4 years.
Depends on the diodes.

They are what they are now of course. You do have room to increase par say 80% blue 40% white, should be color equiv. but brightness may throw off tone to your eyes. Just adjust color.

If approaching 5 yrs old then it's possible the ac/dc drivers may fail. My "conspiracy gene" believes the larger electrolytic capacitors inside are designed to start to fail in 5 years.

There my monday morning quarterbacking is done.
Sadly there are few "time studies" done on these lights

This is at about 26% total and some 90 degre lenses removed..

SB Reef Light PAR Readings

Almost a year ago I upgraded my ViparSpectra black box LEDs to the custom SB Reef Light boards. Since then I have seen slow but consistent growth in most of my corals. Anyway a friend of mine loaned me his BioTek Marine BTM3000 PAR sensor and decided I'd share my results. This is my initial run...

www.reef2reef.com

One more.. effective height and output is similar BUT a bigger light..

Par for SB reef light

www.reef2reef.com

I was thinking those numbers were low for 2 lights as well. I had this tank growing a few SPS before I took it down and moved. So I know it can grow them and that was set to the 60% Blue and 20% white. Which is why I was wondering if they were starting to go.

I looked back and I got the tank with the lights in 2018. Not sure how long he had the lights before that. But I don't see this model on their site anymore.

I bumped up the lights to 65% Blue and 20% white. I will try and take some more readings of that. Then I might try the settings he has his in the video and see what I get.

 

[Llorgon]

Bumped my light setting up to 70% blue and 40% white. Getting a little better par readings.

 

[Llorgon]

Looking back on my messages with the original seller of the lights. Seems like he bought the lights in 2017 so they are a few years old.

I don't seem to get close to the same readings as the guy in the video got. Especially on the very back and sides of the tank. The par readings are really low even higher up.

 

[oreo54]

Looking back on my messages with the original seller of the lights. Seems like he bought the lights in 2017 so they are a few years old.

I don't seem to get close to the same readings as the guy in the video got. Especially on the very back and sides of the tank. The par readings are really low even higher up.

Back will be lower if you painted the back of your tank.
If the readings are low up high its likely the diodes have "faded"..
you can compensate by increasing output.. till you run out of room of course.

Contact sbreef. They have replacement boards. Though it cold be the drivers too BUT hard to say.
The Chinese drivers in them aren't the best quality..

If you like playing with electricity you can check the amps on a channel. Should be around 550mA on full.

 

[Llorgon]

I didn't know sb reef had replacement parts. I will send them an email and see what they say. It is quite a bit older. If they can't do anything it might be time to look into a new lighting setup. I do have some money set aside for that if needed.

 

[oreo54]

I didn't know sb reef had replacement parts. I will send them an email and see what they say. It is quite a bit older. If they can't do anything it might be time to look into a new lighting setup. I do have some money set aside for that if needed.

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[Llorgon]

Looks like I would have to cut the housing a bit and put in new glass to get those replacement parts to fit.

While trying to find the model number I did notice the SB reef sticker said copyright 2015. So these might be older than I thought...