Red Sea 50 intensity for a 20 gallon high

[CB06]

Hi just got a Red Sea 50 led what would be the best intensity for white and blues for a 20 gallon high with lps and softies?

 

[blaxsun]

WIthout a PAR meter it's "best guess", but you probably want the peak somewhere around 50-65% blue/25-30% white as a starting point.

 

[MIke Wood]

so i have a 40gallon nuvo. i run my blues on my rl90 at 70% and i have my whites at 15% and thats just for color preference. mine is a mixed reef. but the dimensions of my display portion of my tank (minus the aio sump area) is 23x15x18high. and the standard 20g high is 24x12.5x16.75high. so i agree a good starting point for a softy tank is probably 70% blue and then whites to preference.

 

[Who me?]

These numbers seem high. I run a reefled 50 on a waterbox 20 (17x17x17 high)...

Blue maxes at 45%, white 9%. Mixed reef, all corals are fat with great extension and color.

 

[CB06]

These numbers seem high. I run a reefled 50 on a waterbox 20 (17x17x17 high)...

Blue maxes at 45%, white 9%. Mixed reef, all corals are fat with great extension and color.

Ended up using a par meter and am slowly increasing to 50% blue 13% white. Measured it yesterday when it was at 41% blue 10% white and I got about 40 to 50 par at Sand bed and about 75 at the top of the rocks where most of my Euphillyia are going. Think I might continue to go to 50 blues 13 whites

 

[dstockwell]

Sounds like you need to increase, around 100 on bottom 300 on top of water, just my guesstimate.

 

[CB06]

Sounds like you need to increase, around 100 on bottom 300 on top of water, just my guesstimate.

I have mushrooms on the sand bed and a leather about half way up the tank. Not planning on doing sps just lps. Is it still necessary and would the softies handle that much par?

 

[Who me?]

Most of my coral sit between 8 to 13 inches below the water surface.

With 45 blue / 9 white, I'm getting great growth out of the hammers, frogspawn, torches and bubble corals. I have a few SPS about 8 inches under water which grow well too.

I am also running my moonlight channel during the entire light cycle but I doubt that's adding much PAR.

 

[Goodersgold]

I run mine over a 20gal nano, with 65% blue and 17% white, no clouds. 11 hour cycle with a 1 hour ramp either end.
It's a very good light

 

[Enad]

New to the hobby myself - Curious if the white has benefits or negatives past certain points? I know it doesn't affect PAR massively, but does keeping 25% white vs 10% white really make any difference to coral growth/health or is it mainly visual preference at that point?