New Lighting Questions ViparSpectra 165W

[Jake_Janoski]

I have a 20 gallon standard sized tank and I need help with my blues and whites. I have it hanging 8 inches from the top of my tank. Does anyone know how to setup these lights or what settings I should have? This is a reef tank with a couple of frags including Zoas, Acan, and Star Polyp. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[lapin]

I would go 70% blue and 10% white to start. Too much white and you will have a lot of algae in a new tank. Then see what reaction you get from the corals.

 

[Jake_Janoski]

Hey thanks man I really appreciate it. Can you also tell me how I set the timers and channels.

 

[lapin]

maybe

 

[Jake_Janoski]

Thank you so much I really appreciate all of the help but I have one last question. He has his blues on 20 and you recommended 70 what's the advantage of increasing or decreasing the blue light, what's it do in particular?

 

[piranhaman00]

You would fry your coral at 70% on that tank hanging that close.

I would bring the light up to 14”, this will give the LEDs better blend, start off on lowest of each setting and work up.

These lights are extremely powerful, start low and go very slow increasing. If you keep at 8” height be careful. No matter what start at lowest setting though, you are working with low, med light corals.

Is this a 20 long aquarium? I don’t think there is a standard 20, it’s either high or long. That will change answer, if it’s only 12” deep you might have to raise light.

 

[Jake_Janoski]

No standard 20 gallon size tank.

 

[Jake_Janoski]

sorry lol its high

 

[lapin]

For more setting and height sugestions

Viparspectra 165watt, Anyone using these?

Hi, I'm new to this site and can't find if it has been asked before. So my question is, is anyone else using these viparspectra led lights? I have had one since Xmas, 8" over a 24x18x18 mixed reef, I have worked upto a setting of 65% blue an 20% white, which have worked upto and I have only had...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Uncle99]

I have been using these lights for three years, two over my 65g and one over my frag tank.
These lights are very powerful, at 8”,can push 750-800 par under the fixture.
I would follow the manufactures recommendations at the beginning, and move upwards slowly to @lapin suggestion of 70% blue, 10 (maybe 20%) white.

Definitely move upwards from 8” to 12” or “14 so the colors defuse well.

After two years, I have got mine up to 100% blue and 20% white and they have been that intensity for a year now.

 

[Jake_Janoski]

Nice tank, how high should blues be and how high should whites be in my tank. Also what start and stop time do you have for each channel.

 

[rfgonzo]

As said before the 165 can put out some serious light and par. I would start out low on a 20 gallon. I have 3 over my 210 gallon and par on the sand is 100 to 130 in spots. ch1 is at 85 and ch2 55 and the light are 11 inches off the water.

 

[Caseyoidae]

I run mine 100% blue and 35% white 12” off the water in an 18” deep tank.(3 lights on a small cube) Acros grow pretty well on the bottom and takes them a while to acclimate up top. I’d raise them a bit or run something like 60 blue and 15 white at current height. It’s been said and I agree that with leds its better to set them and forget them rather than tinker with the settings often.
I run blues from 1-1030 and whites from 2-930

 

[Jake_Janoski]

Can you specify 1- 1030 and 2-930 AM or PM. Also I raised my light to 12 inches above the water surface.

 

[Jake_Janoski]

I have blues at 60 and whites at 15, Channel 1 is my blues and I have it set 1AM- 10:30AM and Channel 2 set 2PM- 9:30PM. Is this what you meant or is this the schedule you use?

 

[rfgonzo]

I can't answer for Caseyoidae but i'm going to assume 1pm to 10:30pm and 2pm to 9:30pm this way the blues come on one hour before the whites and go off one hour after the whites.

 

[Jake_Janoski]

Slightly confused... this is the schedule I've had is it okay? Blues on 60% and Whites on 15% hanging 12 inches off the water surface.

 

[rfgonzo]

No, Blue on 1pm then Whites on at 2pm. Both blue and white will run at the same time till 9:30pm then the whites will turn off and only blues running till 10;30pm. So lets say the blues would run two hours longer then whites. EX blues for 10 hours a day and whites 8 hours a day.

 

[Hellybell80]

I use those as well. Have been for about a year now. There ok seems to be doing the job. I've got two more over my 5ft tank with another being added tomorrow.
I have mine on 50% blues and only 1%whites.
11am-6pm whites with blues running 10am- 7pm blues. So that I'm only running the blues for an hour each side of the whites on their own.
At 1% it's quite high par. So be careful at first.
I've measured my whole tank with a par meter with them and got some interesting results.
But in some places can reach a massive amount of PAR.

 

[Jake_Janoski]

Okay fixed it thanks guys super new to this hobby and these lights and trying to get everything right.