kevlow
Active Member
Agreed. Good observation. My blues tend to photograph as purple.
SB reeflights.
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USMC4Life
Well-Known Member
Congratulations!
kevlow
Active Member
Thank you.
Blue/purple set at 100% and whites/red at 50%. I keep my fixture up high at 16 inches above the water so that I get good spread and even color blending. I was nervous about the disco light effect but I have not experienced this at all.
I borrowed a par meter recently. My numbers are consistent because my tank is so shallow. The center 14 inches running the length of the tank between my overflows is 400-450 par. The next 2-3 inches outward is 250-350 or so. 1-2 inches out from the front and back glass is 100-200.
Have a shallow display 48x24x8 means I must think in terms of spread from center instead of depth to get varying degrees of par. Depth is something I don't have. The 32 SBLights is perfect shape for my tank. My Radions did not work well because of their puck design. To get spread I had to raise them to the point that I had low par, 100-275 running at 100% all channels. I would have needed three, maybe four Radions to get coverage and lower them for more par. I already owned two was not about to double my investment.
The SB Lights are giving much better par, much better coverage, and consequently better growth and color. Which is impressive because I personally believe that lighting can be flexible and is not near as important as water quality.
I just bought myself two sb reef lights I like them. I'm just wondering what par levels I should maintain them at. I have sps.. idk if you guys have seen dan riddles speech at macna 2016 regarding lighting, alk and flow and how they correlate with growth. He suggests having par levels at around 200 for increased photosynthesis.. vs high levels above 300.. have you guys looked into that?
kevlow
Active Member
I just bought myself two sb reef lights I like them. I'm just wondering what par levels I should maintain them at. I have sps.. idk if you guys have seen dan riddles speech at macna 2016 regarding lighting, alk and flow and how they correlate with growth. He suggests having par levels at around 200 for increased photosynthesis.. vs high levels above 300.. have you guys looked into that?
I have not read this but my understanding of this subject and personal experience has led me to this: That higher par requires higher nutrients and lower alk. Lower par allows for lower nutrients and higher alk.
In my own tanks with my husbandry practices, acros did not grow well in 175-275 par. They did not color up either but rather stayed a tan/brownish/mauve color.
I do believe that it is all an equation and a balancing act. Every tank is different and as soon as you change one parameter then the entire equation changes. Hence every tank works a little different. It is up to me to find the correct balance of food and alk to go with the light and flow in my system.
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USMC4Life
Well-Known Member
The output of par and spectrum of SB light is exceptional. That aside it will depend on the depth of your tank and how you game them setup. I would say take about two weeks to ramp them up to 70% on white. And about the same on blue. But be careful on UV. Ramp it up slow. And I would say go by how the coral react.
kevlow
Active Member
Lots of info!
The simplified version that I can grasp is that Low par and high alk can both produce faster growth.
Higher par produces color.
I think that having a bacteria driven tank [eating up and lowering nutrients], reducing Zooxanthellae [getting rid of brown protective coloring], causes an acropora coral to develop it's own pigments to protect it from the high par.
The trade off is that having colorful acros is at the expense of really fast growing brown corals. Once the brown colored Zooxanthellae have been reduced then the rate photosynthesis reduces also.
I think the ultimate goal, the holy grail of sps keeping is to have fast growth and incredible color. The people that achieve this have found the balance of reducing the Zooxanthellae, inducing pigmentation, all while pumping enough nutrients and bacteria through to keep the coral growing [ but not enough to cause a bloom in the brown Zooxanthellae].
This is about all that I am able to wrap my brain around.
B I N G O
both work. I prefer higher levels simple because it seems to reduce nutrient issues. IE the corals are eating the food faster.
Keep in mind, as it was discussed after they turned the cameras off,(I was there) this is a singular data point and not a rule. Use the data point to manipulate the outcome and understand the out come. This Is what I believe what kevlow was illustrating.
Acclimation IS KEY. Why? your increasing and decreasing the organisms(animals) metabolism. Targeting the 250 to 300 is a good starting point, then go from there while you play experiment and learn. this is part of the why many say go SLOOOOW.
And for many who have different rock work, it is impossible to distribute light evenly(its not a frag tank), so be the nature of it some will get low ligh some high. And back to old scool rules, its why you start on the bottom and move up, as the field of light in a tank can vary by as much a 400 par.+ depending on the depth.
I tried ramping up the blues to 100% and have whites at 10 percent so far I'm getting around 450 par at the top of my corals. I feel like if I start adding more white I'm going to bleach my corals.. they were accustomed to 250-300 par.. we'll see how things go in the next couple of weeks.
IMO consider PUR. do the corals like that much blue. Ie old school 14k MH v 20 MH. With only blue you may be giving the 32k.
I would experiment with combos of white blue, and Id assume you can reach 450 using different color ratios.
Thus, why I usually recommend setting by eye, and then intensity.
I would experiment with combos of white blue, and Id assume you can reach 450 using different color ratios.
Thus, why I usually recommend setting by eye, and then intensity.
It appears really blue on photograph but it's very similar to 20k from my radions. For some reason the sb reef lights photograph very purple/blue these sb reef lights are so strong if I increase whites just a little par jumps like crazy, I can possibly try a 50w/20 white hmm let me get my par meter out
there is soo much burple in these lights. I kinda like it but...
Also a FWIW, manufacturer color schemes differ.
White. May be 8k or 14k depends.
Blue, may be 20k or higher, OR, may be only 420 to 460 and NOT a true color temp. just a piece of the spectrum that allows mixing channels to achieve an actual color temp.
What's the distance between the corals and light at 300 par?50b/20w about 300 par above the corals
I'll bump blue to 75/30w
50/20
75/30. 400 par
Check out this video. Great info to help you with deciding on your settings.
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