Reefbreeder Photon V2 Settings

danieyella

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i just switched from mars aqua to a photon and im pretty happy also added a high octane uv and probably gonna add another light bar maybe the blue/uv hybrid as for the upgrade no idea what kind of black boxes but i hated the fact i had about 6 cords just to run 3 mars aqua and my lps seem to be loving the new light

running 2 viparspectras right now, thankfully I have a canopy so the cords aren't really noticeable but I don't like the lack of control I have with them, my corals are all growing and doing alright, I know they can do better.
 

PhantomHalo

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Yeah, I just got 3x 24” photons, 2x60” led light strips from them (high octane and royal). I have a 6’ tank though and the way I have them oriented I’m getting some low spots in the tank. I have them about 9” off the water and thinking I need to raise them up more to get the right spread. Even still I bought 3 more 24” blue/uv light bars to help fill the gaps.
 

SoAg Reefer

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This is how I run mine. Adjusted the whites to my liking off of the AB+ as it was too blue. These lights are very powerful. I use their mount they sell and it’s 10” or so off the water. 450 par at top of my rocks and 250 on the bed. I use rocks as shade to get some areas in the 150 range for lps. Logan at Reefbreeders is awesome if you have questions as well. Great customer service

201EE7D7-32A7-4221-B14D-D640410EDC8C.png EDFE9EF5-875B-441E-9F15-254276739E84.png
 

PhantomHalo

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This is how I run mine. Adjusted the whites to my liking off of the AB+ as it was too blue. These lights are very powerful. I use their mount they sell and it’s 10” or so off the water. 450 par at top of my rocks and 250 on the bed. I use rocks as shade to get some areas in the 150 range for lps. Logan at Reefbreeders is awesome if you have questions as well. Great customer service

201EE7D7-32A7-4221-B14D-D640410EDC8C.png EDFE9EF5-875B-441E-9F15-254276739E84.png
How’s your growth? Do you leave moon lights on during the 2000-0700 period?
 

SoAg Reefer

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I also just bought an AI Prime H
How’s your growth? Do you leave moon lights on during the 2000-0700 period?
no moonlights. The tank is in my office at work so no one is there at night. I feel moonlights are for the viewer without much benefit to the tank inhabitants so I have it dark at night. Only had the light a couple weeks so can’t comment on growth yet but everything from acros to acans to zoas have great PE and color. I wouldn’t recommend running this light without getting a par meter to test though. I had lps in an area that was 400 par on a sand bed hot spot, had no clue, figured my assumptions were better than science, lol
 

PhantomHalo

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I also just bought an AI Prime H

no moonlights. The tank is in my office at work so no one is there at night. I feel moonlights are for the viewer without much benefit to the tank inhabitants so I have it dark at night. Only had the light a couple weeks so can’t comment on growth yet but everything from acros to acans to zoas have great PE and color. I wouldn’t recommend running this light without getting a par meter to test though. I had lps in an area that was 400 par on a sand bed hot spot, had no clue, figured my assumptions were better than science, lol
Fortunately I was able to borrow a par meter from a friend. So, I will definitely be measuring. I had my settings peak at 40% for now, but plan on bumping it up 10% each week until I get to 400 on my top rocks. Right now I am at about 220, but have some serious shading going on. 8” to the right and left and 14” down I am around 110. So I need to raise my lights today to get better spread.
 

ReefGrammie

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I also have the 50" Photon V2 about 8 inches off the waterline, mounted inside my canopy. Below is my current light schedule. I'm still tinkering with the section highlighted in yellow. I had actually turned the white down to about 20-25%, but I didn't like the look as well so I bumped the white back up. I'm considering bumping the blues up to 55% and may lower the green to match the red at about 15%. I'm still light acclimating some SPS, so I'm not touching the settings for now! Oh, and I have no idea about the par at these settings...

Screenshot (4).png


Here is a fairly recent FTS:
IMG_2227 resize.jpg
 

SoAg Reefer

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Phantom- That’s why I bought the Prime. Going to use that pointed at the area of the tank, back for me, that doesn’t get the full spread To try and neutralize the lower par areas. Can’t raise the light up anymore then the 10.5” it’s at due to the location. Amazing how easy par meters make it to adjust things and get it right

nice tank reefgrammie!
 

dopey

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I just got mine end of last week. The 80cm(32") version.

Here is the excel I made. The top being the 'target' numbers with a modifier to the right that generates the numbers in the second table. Also keeping track of when I started that setting.
lights.png


Started with the SPS recommended as a base, but added some ramping and more blue in evenings for viewing.

An acclimation mode to just set targets and set X weeks to ramp would of been super nice :) You really do need an excel sheet and 15 minutes to sit down and program these :)
 

PhantomHalo

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Phantom- That’s why I bought the Prime. Going to use that pointed at the area of the tank, back for me, that doesn’t get the full spread To try and neutralize the lower par areas. Can’t raise the light up anymore then the 10.5” it’s at due to the location. Amazing how easy par meters make it to adjust things and get it right

nice tank reefgrammie!
Yeah, I just raised mine up to 13” above the water. Then I had to bump up my peaks about 15% to get similar numbers. Now no more dark spots! However, I am still excited to add the light bars to help spread out the UV and blue spectrums more. I’ll post some pics later on with the setup. I can still go up about 4-5” more, but hopefully I won’t need to.
 

SoAg Reefer

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What light bars did you go with? I was thinking about light bars then just bought AI Prime HD 16 as it's not really expensive and a good controllable light. Don't know how it will work yet but guess we'll see.
 

Dana Riddle

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Maybe I missed it, but is your Reef Breeders light within a hood? Usually not recommended, but I don't know your particular situation.
 

PhantomHalo

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What light bars did you go with? I was thinking about light bars then just bought AI Prime HD 16 as it's not really expensive and a good controllable light. Don't know how it will work yet but guess we'll see.
I went with the Reef Breeders light bars. They have dimmable drivers which I really wanted. Plus, for the price, they are hard to beat.

Maybe I missed it, but is your Reef Breeders light within a hood? Usually not recommended, but I don't know your particular situation.
Yes, they are in a hood. However, the back of my hood is open and so is the top for circulation of air. Plus, it’s in my basement which stays a nice cool 64*! I moved my rear 60” light bar up front and angled it back so it wasn’t just lighting the front of my tank. No pics of that yet. The pink top now has holes in the middle of them for venting and so I could add cross bars to attach the lights to.There’s about a 8” gap behind the tank and hood that is hard to see for air flow.

490611AC-33C2-476C-8F62-8526B44F2FF1.jpeg 3F8AF5AB-7006-46AA-9DF3-A7156E717D30.jpeg A860F75E-5971-4444-A090-BB500CEC53A9.jpeg
 
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Dana Riddle

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I went with the Reef Breeders light bars. They have dimmable drivers which I really wanted. Plus, for the price, they are hard to beat.


Yes, they are in a hood. However, the back of my hood is open and so is the top for circulation of air. Plus, it’s in my basement which stays a nice cool 64*! I moved my rear 60” light bar up front and angled it back so it wasn’t just lighting the front of my tank. No pics of that yet. The pink top now has holes in the middle of them for venting and so I could add cross bars to attach the lights to.There’s about a 8” gap behind the tank and hood that is hard to see for air flow.

490611AC-33C2-476C-8F62-8526B44F2FF1.jpeg 3F8AF5AB-7006-46AA-9DF3-A7156E717D30.jpeg A860F75E-5971-4444-A090-BB500CEC53A9.jpeg
Good for you - you're on top of things!
 

PhantomHalo

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@Dana Riddle, with a partially mixed reef, mostly going for SPS, should I target 150 on the sand bed and let the top of the tank be what it will be or target 350~ on the top rocks and let the sand bed be what it will be and strategically place the lps based on the par readings? Just thinking of best way to start dialing them in.
 

WvAquatics

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I don't have a par meter to test yet. I have mine set on an ab+ type schedule. All blues and violet on 80% rest are 20% 4 hrs a day. I am thinking about upping my Whit's and lowering my reds to not produce as much red when upping the Whit's. If I remember in Dana review the whites are pretty red in spectrum so to balance the red I'll lower to raise white. I plan a par meter in the next month or 2. When corals will be in the picture. I'm on cuc and macro stage of build.
 

Dana Riddle

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@Dana Riddle, with a partially mixed reef, mostly going for SPS, should I target 150 on the sand bed and let the top of the tank be what it will be or target 350~ on the top rocks and let the sand bed be what it will be and strategically place the lps based on the par readings? Just thinking of best way to start dialing them in.
Yes, I think 150 to 200 on the sand bed will work if you want SPS corals lower in the tank. Some of the chalices I have don't like that much light though. When I get all the testing done, I'll post some pics of my corals along with light measurements.
 
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