Just did PAR meter tests and found that lights are set way too low

[dtruitt]

Finally got to borrow a par meter to check some numbers. Turns out, everything is getting 1/2 to 2/3 as much par as it needs. This would explain slow growth and a number of issues with poor coloration and STN from base of some SPS.

Should I increase 5% (smallest possible increment with kessil...) every week until numbers are where they should be? Or are corals clearly being underlit to their detriment a good reason to increase light faster?

 

[DaneGer21]

Slowly raise them

 

[BigKid4788]

Finally got to borrow a par meter to check some numbers. Turns out, everything is getting 1/2 to 2/3 as much par as it needs. This would explain slow growth and a number of issues with poor coloration and STN from base of some SPS.

Should I increase 5% (smallest possible increment with kessil...) every week until numbers are where they should be? Or are corals clearly being underlit to their detriment a good reason to increase light faster?

What were your PAR numbers?

 

[dtruitt]

What were your PAR numbers?

Acros getting 90 par, 50 par on sandbed for LPS.

It's a 24" deep tank and the lights are mounted a good distance above the waterline. I started some kessil spotlights around 40% peak brightness since I've heard the narrow lens variant can really melt coral. Left them that way for weeks and was wondering why a birdsnest and a pc rainbow STNd.

 

[mike550]

@dtruitt I had a similar experience when I rented a PAR meter as well. I basically had to almost double my light settings.

To do this I built a 5 week schedule that did two things. First, it changed my light intensity for each channel between my “current” and “target” settings. I was basically targeting the AB+ profile. Second, I also changed my timeline to have 3 hours of “blue”, 4 hours of “white” and 3 more “blue“. I ended up building a spreadsheet to track the time and intensity for the channels.

So long answer to your question. I changed my settings over five weeks using changes once a week.