How to safely raise PAR?

[jayteerq]

So I want to bump my PAR up. I have a mixed reef. LPS on the bottom half, SPS upper half. I’m barely meeting minimum PAR requirements for my corals. With 3 AI Primes over 4’ tank, I’m estimating (off research) that I’m reaching Max PAR of 150 and 50 PAR at the sand. I have a par meter and new powerful lights coming in Monday. If my estimation ends up being correct and I want to bump my PAR up, how do I safely do it and how do I find out how much I can push my PAR without killing anything? Do I raise intensity like 5% every other week until I start seeing bad results and then back off? Or can I increase a spot that is currently at 100 PAR to 2-300 PAR instantly? Is it easy to bleach corals? Does it happen overnight? Or over a few days? Is it something I can notice and reduce/relocate immediately? How can I raise my PAR to max potential while still keeping everyone happy? I understand I might have to relocate corals to more shaded areas and that’s ok. But I do want to get as much PAR as I can at the top.

 

[MrGisonni]

Be careful. Corals don't like major changes in lighting. At what intensity are you running your primes? The two finger slide and you can bump up your intensity.

 

[Uncle99]

Why is it you need to increase par?
Corals not happy?
It’s hard to under light, easy to overlight.

 

[jayteerq]

Why is it you need to increase par?
Corals not happy?

Well they look ok but they aren’t growing. It’s been 6 months with no improvement. I also have a maxima clam that isn’t growing (white inner shell no growth). And some of my monti’s are brown rather than bright green.

Be careful. Corals don't like major changes in lighting. At what intensity are you running your primes? The two finger slide and you can bump up your intensity.

I’m pretty maxed out with my primes. Melting the lens as we speak

 

[PharmrJohn]

Where are you keeping your parameters?

 

[jayteerq]

Where are you keeping your parameters?

Alk - 9
Calcium - 500
Magnesium - 1500
Nitrate - 15
Phosphate - 0.05
PH 8.0 (it’s as high as I can get it)

 

[PharmrJohn]

Alk - 9
Calcium - 500
Magnesium - 1500
Nitrate - 15
Phosphate - 0.05
PH 8.0 (it’s as high as I can get it)

Well......That's OK......No issue there.

 

[MrGisonni]

The reef looks great. Add another prime for coverage, lower your lights to 9" inches above the waters surface and bring up your intensity a bit. Use two fingers on the screen and slide your whole light schedule up. You're only at about 79% from the looks of it. Bring it up to 85% and you should get close to 200 par on the top of your rocks for your SPS.you can also bring up your whites a bit at peak

 

[jayteerq]

The reef looks great. Add another prime for coverage and bring up your intensity a bit. Use two fingers on the screen and slide your whole light schedule up. You're only at about 79% from the looks of it. Bring it up to 85% and you should get close to 200 par on the top of your rocks for your SPS.

Wait what?! I thought my intensity is at 100? lol have I been mistaken this whole time?!

 

[MrGisonni]

Well they look ok but they aren’t growing. It’s been 6 months with no improvement. I also have a maxima clam that isn’t growing (white inner shell no growth). And some of my monti’s are brown rather than bright green.


I’m pretty maxed out with my primes. Melting the lens as we speak

The only lens you really have to worry about is the UV

 

[Patx]

The only lens you really have to worry about is the UV

Why ?

 

[jayteerq]

Why ?

They have a tendency to melt almost most the time

 

[MrGisonni]

Open the app, place two fingers on the screen and slide up. Your whole schedule will increase in intensity at the same " spectrum" ratios they are set at now

 

[MrGisonni]

 

[jayteerq]

Open the app, place two fingers on the screen and slide up. Your whole schedule will increase in intensity at the same " spectrum" ratios they are set at now

I did that lol it’s maxed out at 100

 

[mrpontiac80]

I personally am following WWC lighting method. I run 30 min ramp up and down with 12.5 hours total on time. All blues run 100% all day and once a month I am bringing my white, red and green up 10%. They ramp up with the blues and run 4.5 hours total.
Basically increasing full spectrum for 4-5 hours and once I see a negative result I can stop or back it down. If you hit the full spectrum at all channels 100% then you could always increase the time the white red and green stay on.

If you change lighting, I personally would get a par number first then install new lights at a lesser percentage and work up from there.

 

[jayteerq]

Ya that dang video says I need 8 lol

 

[jayteerq]

I personally am following WWC lighting method. I run 30 min ramp up and down with 12.5 hours total on time. All blues run 100% all day and once a month I am bringing my white, red and green up 10%. They ramp up with the blues and run 4.5 hours total.
Basically increasing full spectrum for 4-5 hours and once I see a negative result I can stop or back it down. If you hit the full spectrum at all channels 100% then you could always increase the time the white red and green stay on.

If you change lighting, I personally would get a par number first then install new lights at a lesser percentage and work up from there.

Thanks! Yeah I definitely plan on reading my current par before installing new lights. I’ve read this before but forget. Why do people tend to run reds, white and green for less time?

 

[mrpontiac80]

Ya that dang video says I need 8 lol

Yeah I eventually got rid of the primes over my 4’ long tank and went with reefbreeders.

 

[jayteerq]

Yeah I eventually got rid of the primes over my 4’ long tank and went with reefbreeders.

Nice that was one of my picks. I went with Orphek instead