Viparspectra 165watt, Anyone using these?

[SteveEreef]

Nice to hear someone else has a similar set up, yea I figured I would to does the tank when it gets packed with corals, what percentage are you running. And do you have any other tips you’ve learned dealing with this set up, how high is your lights from the water and what’s your running time?

I have them approx 15 in above the waterline. I run them at 35 blue 1 white. I get approx 200 PAR midway down.

 

[Boogiedown_Reef]

I have them approx 15 in above the waterline. I run them at 35 blue 1 white. I get approx 200 PAR midway down.

I apréciate the info

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

I also have this light over a 20long frag tank. I would add or second a couple of comments. Coral placement will be very important as the length of this light is 16 inches and the tank is 30 inches. Also since there isn’t much water volume I have had dose two part as the Alk really gets sucked up by the corals even though I use a high Alk salt for water changes. Happy reefing! Looking forward to watching your thread!

I have them approx 15 in above the waterline. I run them at 35 blue 1 white. I get approx 200 PAR midway down.

Do you have a picture of your setup?

 

[SteveEreef]

Do you have a picture of your setup?

Here it is. Not the prettiest but it’s functional. It’s mostly softies and LPS with a pocillapora to the left under the direct light. The only unhappy coral currently is the little torch in front. I think the space invader has been stinging

it so it was moved. Finishing my fight with dinos just a bit of cyno to take care of.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Here it is. Not the prettiest but it’s functional. It’s mostly softies and LPS with a pocillapora to the left under the direct light. The only unhappy coral currently is the little torch in front. I think the space invader has been stinging

it so it was moved. Finishing my fight with dinos just a bit of cyno to take care of.

Nice, I wish I had room for a little Frag tank. I haven't got time really with 3 nano tanks, the wife wouldn't be happy with me.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

I have them approx 15 in above the waterline. I run them at 35 blue 1 white. I get approx 200 PAR midway down.

Hi, I was looking at the settings you have of your light, and as I have removed the lenses (roughly 30% drop in par), If i set mine at those settings I would be just over 140par at the same 5inches into the tank possibly more as my light is 6 inches closer to the water than yours at 9 inches. Does the difference in air make a massive amount of difference in par?

 

[tim132]

They are great lights. Yes real life to the pic are pretty much identical I think in real life it is slightly brighter than the pic and a bit more fluorescent in the greens. My tank is 18" high but water level is about 16.5" my lights are 9" off the water.

This is a fantastic feed Nicholas, though I realise I'm a little late to the party! Think I'll be looking into getting these lights with a secondhand EA 1200s Reef Pro.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

This is a fantastic feed Nicholas, though I realise I'm a little late to the party! Think I'll be looking into getting these lights with a secondhand EA 1200s Reef Pro.

Welcome to the party. Hope people here can help whichever way you choose to go.

 

[tim132]

Welcome to the party. Hope people here can help whichever way you choose to go.

Hopefully I'll be back in touch within the not too distant future, although it's a long road ahead for me starting from scratch.

Some absolutely stunning tanks thought-out this thread and you guys have all shared such valuable information.

 

[alimac122]

Hello! I have a 90g cube. My165w vipar sits 7” above water line, was at 12% blue & 1% white.
Tonight I noticed my echinopora bleaching, and overall all the other corals are doing well (just started adding coral two weeks ago) tonight I changed the settings to 15% blue and 5% white.
is that too much of a jump?

 

[SteveEreef]

Hello! I have a 90g cube. My165w vipar sits 7” above water line, was at 12% blue & 1% white.
Tonight I noticed my echinopora bleaching, and overall all the other corals are doing well (just started adding coral two weeks ago) tonight I changed the settings to 15% blue and 5% white.
is that too much of a jump?

Do you have a PAR reading at where the echinopora is located. Also what is phosphate and nitrate at?

 

[alimac122]

Do you have a PAR reading at where the echinopora is located. Also what is phosphate and nitrate at?

I do not have a PAR, and my LFS does not either.
I run chemipure blue and my nitrates are at a consistent 20ppm. I don’t have a phosphate test kit yet. I have a refugium with sea lettuce.
It’s mid level, medium flow

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

I do not have a PAR, and my LFS does not either.
I run chemipure blue and my nitrates are at a consistent 20ppm. I don’t have a phosphate test kit yet. I have a refugium with sea lettuce.
It’s mid level, medium flow

It could be directly under a spotlight of the light as you are close to the surface, I would definitely check phosphates, and I wouldn't have changed the lighting up if its bleaching. Bleaching is normally too much light. What strength of par does that particular coral require?

 

[alimac122]

On live aquaria it says moderate to high. On light and moderate to heavy for flow. It’s just below my Birdsnest, And that guy is doing phenomenal

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

I'm not sure what to suggest. If we go back basics
1.How old is the tank as you say you have just started adding corals recently.
2. What are all you other parameters that you can test for I.e. temp, salinity, nitrite, alk, mag, calcium.
I'm going to take a guess and say it's a new tank and possibly set up using dry rock so the tank maybe a little unstable for a while, so new additions may not like it as of yet. Ihave never kept that particular coral so cant say for sure what the issue may be.
Could you post a pic of your set up so we can see what you have, someone may be able to help.
If you give us as much info as you can it will help us all try and help you. I would advise against adjusting your lighting if other corals are doing well, as that could cause other problems. Hope we can help.

 

[alimac122]

I'm not sure what to suggest. If we go back basics
1.How old is the tank as you say you have just started adding corals recently.
- I began in March, I used test strips for the first couple months while I slowly bought the proper test kits. I started with majority dry rock and 7lbs live rock from my LFS. I Seeded the tank with multiple bottles of bacteria (MB7, fritz, bio-spira) over a 5 week period with a raw cocktail shrimp and temperature elevated. I have reefcleaners CUC and only purchase fish from my LFS. Fish have been added slowly over the 4 months (no large orders in the tank at a time).
Stock list is:
-lemonpeel angel
-scopas tang
-mochavinci clown
-2x black ice clown
-fairy wrasse
-starry blenny
-pink spot goby
**had a valentini puffer that was picking at my montis and I gave it to a local reefer**

2. What are all you other parameters that you can test for I.e. temp, salinity, nitrite, alk, mag, calcium.

I dose seachem’s Ca And Ions together if Ca is below 400
I have the settings at CH1 on- 11:00 Ch2 on 12:00// CH2 off 9pm CH1 off 10pm
I additionally have a current USA strip that sits in the very front of the tank. It is at 0 red 0 green 50% blue 20% white--dawn and dusk are auto ramp with daylight from 12:00-8:00

The main drive for increasing light is because the LPS seem to being doing very well, especially with the level of nitrates; but the couple SPS I have are not thriving. They seem okay, but not living their full potential.
ALL corals were added 7/13-7/15.

My duncan has already started growing new heads from where it was fragged (buy the local refer i gave the valentini to) so that and the frogspawn are doing very well. I see the maze brain feeding at night so I know that has a good spot, and the valentini took a couple chomps out of it and it has already started to grow over.

my auto feeder has pellets and reef roids mixed in,4x a day on the smallest opening. One of those times being at 5am so corals get a night feed too.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

I'm not sure what to suggest. If we go back basics
1.How old is the tank as you say you have just started adding corals recently.
- I began in March, I used test strips for the first couple months while I slowly bought the proper test kits. I started with majority dry rock and 7lbs live rock from my LFS. I Seeded the tank with multiple bottles of bacteria (MB7, fritz, bio-spira) over a 5 week period with a raw cocktail shrimp and temperature elevated. I have reefcleaners CUC and only purchase fish from my LFS. Fish have been added slowly over the 4 months (no large orders in the tank at a time).
Stock list is:
-lemonpeel angel
-scopas tang
-mochavinci clown
-2x black ice clown
-fairy wrasse
-starry blenny
-pink spot goby
**had a valentini puffer that was picking at my montis and I gave it to a local reefer**

2. What are all you other parameters that you can test for I.e. temp, salinity, nitrite, alk, mag, calcium.

I dose seachem’s Ca And Ions together if Ca is below 400
I have the settings at CH1 on- 11:00 Ch2 on 12:00// CH2 off 9pm CH1 off 10pm
I additionally have a current USA strip that sits in the very front of the tank. It is at 0 red 0 green 50% blue 20% white--dawn and dusk are auto ramp with daylight from 12:00-8:00

The main drive for increasing light is because the LPS seem to being doing very well, especially with the level of nitrates; but the couple SPS I have are not thriving. They seem okay, but not living their full potential.
ALL corals were added 7/13-7/15.

My duncan has already started growing new heads from where it was fragged (buy the local refer i gave the valentini to) so that and the frogspawn are doing very well. I see the maze brain feeding at night so I know that has a good spot, and the valentini took a couple chomps out of it and it has already started to grow over.

my auto feeder has pellets and reef roids mixed in,4x a day on the smallest opening. One of those times being at 5am so corals get a night feed too.

I would suggest getting a phosphate reading if your lfs do water tests if you dont have one. As zero phosphates killed all my sps, also knowing your magnesium, if at the correct level it helps keep all and calcium in check. Seeing as you have the light hung you could raise it a bit then you would increase the spread and reduce the spotlight effect in the top part of the tank, and that would allow you to run the lights slightly brighter.
Also it's hard to tell from the pic but is there cyano on the sand at the front? If so you could be phosphate deficient hence the sps not looking so good. Just my opinion though , I'm no expert by any means. It's just I went through losing all my sps (only montipora digitata) though people on this site they helped me narrow it down to phosphates being my issue as my sps looked vibrant then started going very pale, that caused stn then I ended up losing it before I found the issue.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Just a thought to my current main tank, as I have a lot of green via all my hammer corals I was looking to add a little colour in the form of a nice vibrant coloured mushroom that I have as a small self-fragged one in my bedroom tank. It's not a fast growing/splitting one as I have had nearly a year and has only split 3x now. One is in my sons tank and 2 heads plus the frag in my bedroom one. I'm not actually sure what type of mushroom it is as it was just given to me by a friend. It looks really nice under blues. Should I do it?
Bedroom tank is 13.5 fluval evo, the right hand mushroom is the 1 that has split now.

Then under blues.

Phone doesnt take great shots under just blues and no filter.sorry.

Thoughts please.
Also if anyone knows what type it is, that would be great.

 

[SteveEreef]

Just a thought to my current main tank, as I have a lot of green via all my hammer corals I was looking to add a little colour in the form of a nice vibrant coloured mushroom that I have as a small self-fragged one in my bedroom tank. It's not a fast growing/splitting one as I have had nearly a year and has only split 3x now. One is in my sons tank and 2 heads plus the frag in my bedroom one. I'm not actually sure what type of mushroom it is as it was just given to me by a friend. It looks really nice under blues. Should I do it?
Bedroom tank is 13.5 fluval evo, the right hand mushroom is the 1 that has split now.

Then under blues.

Phone doesnt take great shots under just blues and no filter.sorry.

Thoughts please.
Also if anyone knows what type it is, that would be great.

I don’t know what kind it is, but I think it would look great in the other tank!

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

I don’t know what kind it is, but I think it would look great in the other tank!

Cheers .
it's on it's own disc at the moment so can move it about a bit, I just need to move a couple hammers around to try and see where it has room to grow and break the green up a bit. I'd love to grow them up the rear filter aswel but sods law they won't grow vertically just where they want.