Your SPS full spectrum vs blue only par?

[vitaliyphoto]

Hi Vitaliy!!!

How are you my friend? I didn't realize that was you

Par is 250-400 range. 300-350 is a good level for almost anything. I keep that at mid level of my system

My peak range goes for about 6-7 hours

Doing great! Finally fixed my life enough to take care of the tank . I just adjusted to this:

3x ReefLed90’s: 50% blue 30% white all 12 hours
2x Aquatop 460nm strips on for 12 hours
2x Coral Plus bulbs on for 6 hours. (The reason for this one is to save money on bulbs so they don’t burn out too fast)

When all are turned on it gives me 250-330 par on most sps.

Considerations:
-should I just run that range for the whole 12 hours with all lights on?
-should I increase that 6 hour peak par level?
-should I bump Reefleds a little to give more par throughout the day raising peak (all lights on) and leds only par?

 

[ReeferZ1227]

Ive been chasing billyoceans coloration for 6 months now. I have exceptional growth, great ICP results, seldom lose coral but cant pull colors like he can. I run a 12hr bell curve. My center valida colony gets about 550par at its top with a 4hour peak, and recently added alot more lime, amber, and cool white. I run 3hr of strong blues before ramp down. This is coming off peak.

 

[Big E]

Doing great! Finally fixed my life enough to take care of the tank . I just adjusted to this:

3x ReefLed90’s: 50% blue 30% white all 12 hours
2x Aquatop 460nm strips on for 12 hours
2x Coral Plus bulbs on for 6 hours. (The reason for this one is to save money on bulbs so they don’t burn out too fast)

When all are turned on it gives me 250-330 par on most sps.

Considerations:
-should I just run that range for the whole 12 hours with all lights on?
-should I increase that 6 hour peak par level?
-should I bump Reefleds a little to give more par throughout the day raising peak (all lights on) and leds only par?

Ramp up for 2-3 hours.......peak out for 6-7 hours then ramp down the same as how you ramped up

You don't have to run 12 hours.............you can run 10 hours and it will be fine.....................just have a peak about 6-7 hours. This is when you should have 300-350 at the mid level of your tank.

 

[beesnreefs]

This is my program. My SPS are all less than a year from frags with about half of them acquired in the last two months…so haven’t had them long enough to know if this will pull good colors or kot

ATI Stratons. Originals, not the new Pro. Three of them over a 6-foot tank. Highest peak is over “SPS” island on the right side of my tank.

Lights on at 6:30 am. Ramp up to 9 am. Mid-day peak from 11:30-1. Ramp down from 4 pm to 5:30 when lights off.

Thoughts?

All Blues (blue dots on the program)

Full spectrum (orange dots)

 

[areefer01]

This is my program. My SPS are all less than a year from frags with about half of them acquired in the last two months…so haven’t had them long enough to know if this will pull good colors or kot

ATI Stratons. Originals, not the new Pro. Three of them over a 6-foot tank. Highest peak is over “SPS” island on the right side of my tank.

Lights on at 6:30 am. Ramp up to 9 am. Mid-day peak from 11:30-1. Ramp down from 4 pm to 5:30 when lights off.

Thoughts?

All Blues (blue dots on the program)

Full spectrum (orange dots)

Have you seen this thread?

ATI Straton LED Light - Comments, Review, PAR, Coverage, Discuss...

Hi All, I purchased two pre-embargo ATI Straton units for testing and feedback. The two units were replacing an 8-Bulb 48" ATI Powermodule over half of my new ~340g SPS reef. I wanted to document my findings and comparison on PAR, heat, sound (none!), look, build quality, coverage, and so on...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[beesnreefs]

Have you seen this thread?

ATI Straton LED Light - Comments, Review, PAR, Coverage, Discuss...

Hi All, I purchased two pre-embargo ATI Straton units for testing and feedback. The two units were replacing an 8-Bulb 48" ATI Powermodule over half of my new ~340g SPS reef. I wanted to document my findings and comparison on PAR, heat, sound (none!), look, build quality, coverage, and so on...

www.reef2reef.com

I totally forgot about that thread. I’ll post there too. Thanks!

 

[areefer01]

I totally forgot about that thread. I’ll post there too. Thanks!

YW! BTW sorry, I was not trying to redirect, lol. I was just wondering if you saw it as maybe there is info in there you haven't seen yet.

Hope your day is well.

 

[beesnreefs]

YW! BTW sorry, I was not trying to redirect, lol. I was just wondering if you saw it as maybe there is info in there you haven't seen yet.

Hope your day is well.

No worries. Appreciate the clarification…and I didn’t take it as a redirect. Just thought your were being helpful and I appreciate it very much

 

[vitaliyphoto]

Ramp up for 2-3 hours.......peak out for 6-7 hours then ramp down the same as how you ramped up

You don't have to run 12 hours.............you can run 10 hours and it will be fine.....................just have a peak about 6-7 hours. This is when you should have 300-350 at the mid level of your tank.

Is 12 hours detrimental? I run them to prolong viewability of the tank because I don’t always get to enjoy it at the same time of day. Currently off-peak they get 230-250 par for 6 hours and on peak they get 280-330 par mid level for 6 hours. Hoping this is not too much light.

 

[Big E]

No, 12 hours isn't detrimental as long as you have 6 hours of lower par levels during ramp up/down.

10 is fine if you want to save some electricity..........you keep a 6 hour peak and you're ramp up/down periods can be shorter.

I would reduce the on/off peak by 100 par

I use the helius program because it fits my usage profile I have done with T5s & halides. I run T5s all on for 7 hours no ramp periods. I just let the ambient light create that. My philosophy is to pick one spectrum profile as I've always had success this way for decades.

Some info here may help-----

The Secret of Coral Health, Growth & Color iCon Helius Program

The Secret of Coral Health, Growth & Color Orphek iCon Helius Program,Achieving the optimal coral health, color & growth by using Atlantik iCon Helius Program,

orphek.com

It doesn't hurt to start out lower and work your way up. The first 3-4 months I ran the helius program for 9 hours.

Either way corals will adjust..........the main thing is to not bleach them or create photo inhibition. You don't want a scenario where the corals spend the whole darkness/low light period repairing damage done by over lighting a system and not putting energy into growth.

 

[beesnreefs]

No, 12 hours isn't detrimental as long as you have 6 hours of lower par levels during ramp up/down.

10 is fine if you want to save some electricity..........you keep a 6 hour peak and you're ramp up/down periods can be shorter.

I would reduce the on/off peak by 100 par

I use the helius program because it fits my usage profile I have done with T5s & halides. I run T5s all on for 7 hours no ramp periods. I just let the ambient light create that. My philosophy is to pick one spectrum profile as I've always had success this way for decades.

Some info here may help-----

The Secret of Coral Health, Growth & Color iCon Helius Program

The Secret of Coral Health, Growth & Color Orphek iCon Helius Program,Achieving the optimal coral health, color & growth by using Atlantik iCon Helius Program,

orphek.com

It doesn't hurt to start out lower and work your way up. The first 3-4 months I ran the helius program for 9 hours.

Either way corals will adjust..........the main thing is to not bleach them or create photo inhibition. You don't want a scenario where the corals spend the whole darkness/low light period repairing damage done by over lighting a system and not putting energy into growth.

Bleaching is clear, of course. How does one know if they’ve put corals into photo inhibition?

 

[vitaliyphoto]

No, 12 hours isn't detrimental as long as you have 6 hours of lower par levels during ramp up/down.

10 is fine if you want to save some electricity..........you keep a 6 hour peak and you're ramp up/down periods can be shorter.

I would reduce the on/off peak by 100 par

I use the helius program because it fits my usage profile I have done with T5s & halides. I run T5s all on for 7 hours no ramp periods. I just let the ambient light create that. My philosophy is to pick one spectrum profile as I've always had success this way for decades.

Some info here may help-----

The Secret of Coral Health, Growth & Color iCon Helius Program

The Secret of Coral Health, Growth & Color Orphek iCon Helius Program,Achieving the optimal coral health, color & growth by using Atlantik iCon Helius Program,

orphek.com

It doesn't hurt to start out lower and work your way up. The first 3-4 months I ran the helius program for 9 hours.

Either way corals will adjust..........the main thing is to not bleach them or create photo inhibition. You don't want a scenario where the corals spend the whole darkness/low light period repairing damage done by over lighting a system and not putting energy into growth.

So 150-180 par for off peak, got it. Let me see if visually this is still pleasant to the eye because speaking of ambient light there’s a lot of it in the room making daytime viewing challenging

 

[areefer01]

Bleaching is clear, of course. How does one know if they’ve put corals into photo inhibition?

Dana Riddle has a few articles on this subject and DLI.

 

[vitaliyphoto]

Bleaching is clear, of course. How does one know if they’ve put corals into photo inhibition?

Unfortunately over-lighting corals became all too easy. It used to be like this: you can only put so many Radium 250’s over a 180 gallon tank. Now it’s like this: we can put 800 blue only par over a that same tank. This makes the whole thing more complicated. I am pretty sure I’ve been photo-inhibiting this tank putting 350 par from PUR-heavy spectrum. Usually they lighten up when you over-light but it could be evident in other ways. I finally figured it out with torches, they stay retracted or don’t extend as good when over-lit. But with SPS it’s very hard because they may look healthy and amazing yet not grow which is exactly what my problem has been. Now that Ed gave me a recommendation I can see how much light they really need, and I’m cutting down my DLI by about 25%

 

[djf91]

To be honest I think if you acclimate your corals you can give them any amount of light you want and IMO the more the better. Steve Weast just stated in the new reefbum video that he gets around 2000 par at the top of his rockwork where his Magnifica anemones are. My Magnifica and some of my Acropora colonies sit just 6 inches under a 400 watt radium metal halide and they love it. In the past, we would add VHO to our metal halides or swap our 250 watt mh for 400 watt mh and the coral colors would become even more intense.

 

[Big E]

To be honest I think if you acclimate your corals you can give them any amount of light you want and IMO the more the better. Steve Weast just stated in the new reefbum video that he gets around 2000 par at the top of his rockwork where his Magnifica anemones are. My Magnifica and some of my Acropora colonies sit just 6 inches under a 400 watt radium metal halide and they love it. In the past, we would add VHO to our metal halides or swap our 250 watt mh for 400 watt mh and the coral colors would become even more intense.

I agree they will adjust.......... imo Steve Weast is just wasting electricity and he's going to burn out boards & diodes faster.

We went through all that in the early 2000's when everyone was using 400w halides when all you needed was 250w bulbs on most tanks.

Mags don't need 2000 par just like acros, they can adjust. My friend is a Mag & Gig expert keeper and his nems are all kept under at most 400-500. Flow is the key with them............they like it more than acros.

The problem with Leds was that each of those diodes was like a mini magnifying glass.........that's what burned corals. Now most use a more spread out approach with plates or reflectors, so isn't as bad as a problem it once was with concentrated pucks and leneses.

 

[djf91]

I agree they will adjust.......... imo Steve Weast is just wasting electricity and he's going to burn out boards & diodes faster.

We went through all that in the early 2000's when everyone was using 400w halides when all you needed was 250w bulbs on most tanks.

Mags don't need 2000 par just like acros, they can adjust. My friend is a Mag & Gig expert keeper and his nems are all kept under at most 400-500. Flow is the key with them............they like it more than acros.

The problem with Leds was that each of those diodes was like a mini magnifying glass.........that's what burned corals. Now most use a more spread out approach with plates or reflectors, so isn't as bad as a problem it once was with concentrated pucks and leneses.

Yes I agree I think he is probly over doing it a bit. I will say though that when I switched from 250 watt radium’s to 400 watters (overdriven to 430), the colors on the Acropora and Magnifica intensified and growth picked up a bit.

The Copps blue Hoeksamai I got from you is loving life under the halides. Already put out 2 branches each an inch long.

 

[vitaliyphoto]

Yes I agree I think he is probly over doing it a bit. I will say though that when I switched from 250 watt radium’s to 400 watters (overdriven to 430), the colors on the Acropora and Magnifica intensified and growth picked up a bit.

The Copps blue Hoeksamai I got from you is loving life under the halides. Already put out 2 branches each an inch long.

But we are not comparing apples to apples here. Sanjay Joshi said he superimposed LED light’s spectrum over the Radium bulb and LEDs are much much bluer. Some of the peaks we get in LEDs hit very photosynthetically active regions and I believe JDA mentioned that some of these regions are 20x more intense than same regions are on halides. Almost anyone I meet with LED lit tank has far less than the 500-700 par that MH tanks used to see.

 

[djf91]

But we are not comparing apples to apples here. Sanjay Joshi said he superimposed LED light’s spectrum over the Radium bulb and LEDs are much much bluer. Some of the peaks we get in LEDs hit very photosynthetically active regions and I believe JDA mentioned that some of these regions are 20x more intense than same regions are on halides. Almost anyone I meet with LED lit tank has far less than the 500-700 par that MH tanks used to see.

Yes but @jda will also tell you about how metal halides fill in a lot more of the gaps in spectrum that LEDs miss.

Metal halide is more like the sun in that you can push higher PAR and not damage your coral. I believe the sun measures close to 2000 PAR in most shallow tropical seas. I’d imagine it’s even higher in the Red Sea.

 

[djf91]

But we are not comparing apples to apples here. Sanjay Joshi said he superimposed LED light’s spectrum over the Radium bulb and LEDs are much much bluer. Some of the peaks we get in LEDs hit very photosynthetically active regions and I believe JDA mentioned that some of these regions are 20x more intense than same regions are on halides. Almost anyone I meet with LED lit tank has far less than the 500-700 par that MH tanks used to see.

What is “LED lights spectrum”? You could have a blue LED that only covers a narrow region of the visual spectrum of light.