SB Reef Lights - What Settings do you Use

[redfishbluefish]

I have been running three LED fixtures over my five foot 90 gallon tank, 21 inches deep, with great success....about 13.5 inches above the waterline.

For the second time, the blues have "cooked" themselves, and I refuse to change them out again, not knowing what the cause is. My guess is running them at 100 percent (The two outer Apollos are not adjustable) (I can't complain....got over five years out of them.)

So I've ordered two new SB Reef Basic lights and a new SB Reef board to go into the Mars Aqua fixture I have (middle fixture)....so basically three new SB lights.

With these fixtures having pots (adjustable potentiometers), I'd like to hear what folks have their SB Reef fixtures set at. I was surprised to see the PAR reading on the following video:



I wasn't expecting PAR that high at relatively low settings.

I've also ordered a LUX meter that I should be receiving today. Lights were ordered this past Wednesday, and still haven't been shipped....anxiously waiting!

 

[Crabs McJones]

@saltyfilmfolks is the sb and lux meter guy

 

[domination2580]

I run mine at about 60% blues, and 20% wire

 

[redfishbluefish]

@saltyfilmfolks is the sb and lux meter guy

Yep! Salty has already posted to my build thread HERE. I'm still having a tough time chewing on this LUX thing and somehow getting PAR....but I'm keeping an open mind. For me LUX has always been brightness. It's like adding up all the oranges and then announcing that the answer is three apples. I'm here to learn, and the 15-16 bucks for the LUX is a $$ lesson I can afford.

 

[jeffp1]

60 blues, 20 whites here. Have to slowly acclimate LPS at this intensity. I am running a 32 inch extreme Wi-Fi on an 85 gal. tank. 150 to 160 par on sandbed at this intensity. I measured this with an Apogee meter.

 

[domination2580]

60 blues, 20 whites here. Have to slowly acclimate LPS at this intensity. I am running a 32 inch extreme Wi-Fi on an 85 gal. tank. 150 to 160 par on sandbed at this intensity. I measured this with an Apogee meter.

Hmm... mine are on a 55 gallon lol

 

[jeffp1]

I have some room on both ends of the tank where I have low lighting. Use this area to acclimate and grow low light corals. My light is 15 inches above tank.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Thanks @jeffp1 and @domination2580 for your input. Your numbers are where I was thinking as well. Even with the above video, where he runs them at 70%B/50%W, I though his PAR numbers were on the high side:

 

[jeffp1]

I cooked several corals before getting a meter. They are strong lights. Good Luck

 

[domination2580]

Now I do like my blue light more. So off you want more white you could for aesthetics. But I like my blues and so do my coral....

 

[redfishbluefish]

I'm a heavy blues person too....not sure if it's because I'm colorblind or what. The Apollos I have are listed as 20K fixtures.

 

[The new fish on the block]

I have the 32 timer on my reefer 350 and I have the settings on the lowest.

 

[domination2580]

I'm a heavy blues person too....not sure if it's because I'm colorblind or what. The Apollos I have are listed as 20K fixtures.

Then you should really like these lights lol

 

[domination2580]

I have the 32 timer on my reefer 350 and I have the settings on the lowest.

Reefer 350... how Manny gallons is that

 

[redfishbluefish]

Reefer 350... how Manny gallons is that

Red Sea 350 is 73 gallons....47" x 20" x 21" LWH

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yep! Salty has already posted to my build thread HERE. I'm still having a tough time chewing on this LUX thing and somehow getting PAR....but I'm keeping an open mind. For me LUX has always been brightness. It's like adding up all the oranges and then announcing that the answer is three apples. I'm here to learn, and the 15-16 bucks for the LUX is a $$ lesson I can afford.

I do have a par meter too.

 

[happyhourhero]

I run my SB over my 5’ Tank @ 70b, 30w

 

[Flippers4pups]

60 blues, 15 whites on my modded Mars. I lost some "shimmer" when I pulled all my lenses a while back, so I placed a couple lenses back on some white diodes and got some shimmer back recently.

 

[Flippers4pups]

One other thing, I did use a lux meter measuring par with @saltyfilmfolks conversion. Getting 200-250 par on most of my high light SPS. Lower in the tank, all other corals are doing exceptionally well. My tank is exploding in growth!

With that, before measuring intensity, in never wanted to run my fixtures at Max for fear of burning them out prematurely. My eye ball initial settings were pretty darn close to where they ended up. Lol

The "eyes" can be, can be I say, like Occam's razor. Lol

 

[tdileo]

100 blue, 20 white for me.