I am working on raising the par level in my tank. As it is now the par is about 290 -310 on the top and about 85 -100 on the sand bed my tank is 16" deep. I have mostly monties on the lover level and a few acros and a stag closer to the top with a sour birdsnest. my current daylight is 6 hrs. I had the fixture higher and was only getting like 200 par on top. I lowered the fixture a few days ago and the colors are starting to get better . How much par should I shoot for and how much par can I add in a week. My nitrates are 4-5 and phos .04-.09 I want to see how much light affects the colors .when I get into the 350-400 par range is it better to cut the duration of the daylight to 5 hrs? Btw my fixture is 6bulb t5. What are the ranges the sps guys keep their tanks and how does the intensity affect your colors. I notice the sour birds nest gets more green in the tips in the few days I raised the par and my neon green cap is getting more of a neon vs just green. I got a grip on the nutrients and the problems I had now I want to learn the affects of the light. If anyone can post pics of corals they had with different light intensity to show the difference on the same coral . Thanks.
light intensity?
- Thread starter SteveZ15
- Start date
- Location
- Astoria, NYC
This is a great thread and it's great that you're trying to quantify the impact of the lights. I can't help with any specific PAR numbers (I doubt many can), but you can probably extend the hours of light by maybe an hour a week, and/or lower your lights an inch a week, and adjust as you're seeing differences in your corals. A week should give time for them to adjust to the differences, assuming you are keeping everything else constant.
For "adjusting the PAR" do you mean just adjusting the height of the fixture, or are you dimming/changing bulbs/something else? With LEDs I can see "adjusting PAR" being easier since dimming is so big with those fixtures, but with T5s I've never really heard anyone use that statement, though I could see you doing it with the previously stated methods. Just an interesting thing to hear.
For "adjusting the PAR" do you mean just adjusting the height of the fixture, or are you dimming/changing bulbs/something else? With LEDs I can see "adjusting PAR" being easier since dimming is so big with those fixtures, but with T5s I've never really heard anyone use that statement, though I could see you doing it with the previously stated methods. Just an interesting thing to hear.
I am adjusting the par by lowering the fixture. As for increasing the photo period I'm not sure I'm gonna do that just yet . when I had nutrient problems(lack of) I had the fixture high up when I got the par meter I barely had 200 at top. Now I have some nutrients and coral colored up some they are still somewhat faded and they have very slow growth. I'm increasing par to try to get them to color better. I was reading a article that a shorter daylight period at a higher intensity might be better for the color and growth vs less intensity and longer light period
Man that's a lot . I will see if I can get 400 at the top I don't have acros as much .only a few frags at the top and one colony . how much do you think caps and digits can take.
- Location
- Mt Sinai, NY
- Location
- Astoria, NYC
That's really interesting. Do you have any links? I've heard of some fantastic tanks that run either iwasaki 6500k or XM10k for only a few hours a day and then radiums or T5 the rest of the day for coloration, though I don't remember where I heard it, and don't recall that it was for color, more for growth with light saturation coming pretty quickly on that setup. I'd be interested in reading up on it. Thanks for taking the time to explain it!
I searched par for sps on google and read threads people posted and clicked some links in treads I didn't save any I usually do it on my phone I like to read stuff .I am just learning sps really since my tank had problems and things are getting better I am trying to pay more attention . I notice on the nicer tanks where the people really know what they are doing .. Is the water is right the tank is fed and the light is strong. I'm trying to find that without messing anything up along the way
Those of you with high par on sand and keep softies, how have you acclimated them?
I bleached out 2 of my zoas, and shrunk a few of them (only change was in moving my t5s closer to water level) and while I want at least 400 par for the sps that need it most, I still want my softies to thrive.
I bleached out 2 of my zoas, and shrunk a few of them (only change was in moving my t5s closer to water level) and while I want at least 400 par for the sps that need it most, I still want my softies to thrive.
- Location
- astoria,new york
I have 150-250 on the sandbed, 300-400 middle height, and 550-850par in the upper area.
What kind of lights Led .t5 or mh..what kind of sps are under the high par? And what are your nutrient levels? Vio I have a 65 I'm gonna upgrade to hope to have it up by summer not as big as a lot of tanks on here but better than a 40.. Just taller.
- Location
- astoria,new york
400w radiiums ...keeping a variety of Aussie acros ... Nitrates are around 20-30
Phosphates 0.04
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