AI Hydra Settings Thread

[TWEEKEDTA]

I have basically used Tweekedta's settings and my lps's are looking even better than when i had them under the sol's. Too early to tell on the sps's

great to hear that! I have only a few SPS but between the few acros and monti they have been doing really good lately. to soon to tell for long-term growth but PE has been very good.

 

[Goofy393]

Nice settings. I just purchased 2 Hydras for my 125. I've only gotten one light so far and the director the second is due in tomorrow. Anyway after reading all these threads I have a question. It seems some people manually acclimate when changing to LEDs. My plan was to set the acclimation to like 65% for 8-10 weeks. Is there any problem using the acclimation system built into Director over doing it manually?

I had mine set at 90% eduction for one month which has since finished. All seemed to go well.

 

[Magickiwi]

My tank is the same depth as yours. I can't put my lights any where near 80%. I had the blues around 70 and the white at 45 or 50 and it bleached my higher sps and lps, and I got a ton of algae even though I run phosphate. I've gone all the way down to about 45 on the blues and 30 on the whites. Just lowered them about a week ago, algae is gone but have to wait and see how the coral does.

How long ago did you switch over? Any algae issues with the lights at the 80% mark? And how high off the tank are they?

It's been about a week now and they are roughly ten or so inches off my water. Actually I misspoke because my royal blue and UV channels are over 80%.

Nothing with algae or bleaching. The anemones haven't moved around etc. I think back to my MH lights and they were incredibly bright in comparison. I'm actually worried about there not being enough light.

Are you using the Hydras or Hydra 52's?

 

[Sonicboom]

My tank is a 90g 48lx24dx18h and I was running the Aquamedic 2x250w MH with 2x54w T5s. I just recently changed over to two Hydras with the Director controller. So far I haven't taken my settings down from the default 80% for mid-day and I haven't seen any bleaching, tissue recession, etc. Could it be because my previous lighting was so strong? Even at 80% the light from the Hydras don't come close to my MH fixture in terms of visible light.

I'd be interested in hearing what settings people with similar tank configurations are using. I have a mixed reef with a few LPS, SPS, softies, etc. Some photosynthetic anemones etc.

Also I've got my weather settings set to Umhlanga Rocks, Kwazulu Natal. A coastal resort in South Africa that is known for its reefs.

You should watch your corals closely, not sure how you set the weather to Africa since I thought the director only accepted zip codes but if the weather is enabled and it was cloudy then the lights would be dimmed by the clouds percentage. On a clear day at peak time the hydra should match or be brighter than a 250 w MH.

 

[Magickiwi]

AI Hydra Settings Thread

You should watch your corals closely, not sure how you set the weather to Africa since I thought the director only accepted zip codes but if the weather is enabled and it was cloudy then the lights would be dimmed by the clouds percentage. On a clear day at peak time the hydra should match or be brighter than a 250 w MH.

Love the avatar btw. But it's not even close to as bright. The weather yesterday was sunny and the LEDs were running at 80% and it wasn't near as bright. Are the corals just acclimated to extremely high light?

 

[McGee10]

i have actully lowered my blues and whites a little more about a week ago and my tank and corals never looked better. I had slight bleaching on my red cap montipora that is about 3/4 down so i lowered my whites to 21 ans blues to around 60 and the next day my monti colored right back up imediately. I have had these settings since and love them. Sunrise about 11 full strength at 1230 to 8 then ramp down to 910. My tank is 22" deep so depending on yours if its deeper you may run them a little more. But my personal experience i like the seetings im at. Im sure i could get them up more but slowly acclimating if id like but i have great pe on everything right now so im not going to mess with it.

W 21%
v 35%
g 10%
r 8%
db 60%
rb 55%
uv 33%

+1

 

[McGee10]

It's been about a week now and they are roughly ten or so inches off my water. Actually I misspoke because my royal blue and UV channels are over 80%.

Nothing with algae or bleaching. The anemones haven't moved around etc. I think back to my MH lights and they were incredibly bright in comparison. I'm actually worried about there not being enough light.

Are you using the Hydras or Hydra 52's?

you may want to keep a close eye on the tank it took my SPS's two weeks to show bleaching then the sh*t hit the fan. I think these lights may have twice the power of a 250 MH which is what my lights were. be careful.

 

[Sonicboom]

Love the avatar btw. But it's not even close to as bright. The weather yesterday was sunny and the LEDs were running at 80% and it wasn't near as bright. Are the corals just acclimated to extremely high light?

Haha, thanks she loved it!. I may be wrong but accuweather showed the weather for Umhlanga Rocks, Kwazulu Natal and it said Sunday was mostly cloudy with 81% cloud cover and rain today so it would have been pretty dim.

 

[exray]

How many hydra would i need for 48x24x25 mixed reef

 

[McGee10]

How many hydra would i need for 48x24x25 mixed reef

I am thinking 2 maybe 3. If 3 I would put them across / front to back

 

[Magickiwi]

AI Hydra Settings Thread

Haha, thanks she loved it!. I may be wrong but accuweather showed the weather for Umhlanga Rocks, Kwazulu Natal and it said Sunday was mostly cloudy with 81% cloud cover and rain today so it would have been pretty dim.

You guys aren't talking about the hydra 52's are you?

Sorry I should have stated the weather was at Sidney aus for a few days.

 

[McGee10]

You guys aren't talking about the hydra 52's are you?

Sorry I should have stated the weather was at Sidney aus for a few days.

Talking reg hydra's

 

[Sonicboom]

You guys aren't talking about the hydra 52's are you?

Sorry I should have stated the weather was at Sidney aus for a few days.

Reg hydras on director, but that will make a difference too if it was raining in Sydney. By the way the lights should have been off last night for the end of the moon lunar cycle. That's how you can check if it's set correctly.

 

[saltyair]

+1

you should watch your corals closely, not sure how you set the weather to africa since i thought the director only accepted zip codes but if the weather is enabled and it was cloudy then the lights would be dimmed by the clouds percentage. On a clear day at peak time the hydra should match or be brighter than a 250 w mh.

 

[saltyair]

In the location setting it's not by zip code - you can search by country or city.

You should watch your corals closely, not sure how you set the weather to Africa since I thought the director only accepted zip codes but if the weather is enabled and it was cloudy then the lights would be dimmed by the clouds percentage. On a clear day at peak time the hydra should match or be brighter than a 250 w MH.

 

[Magickiwi]

So what are you guys using for color mixing? Right now mine is mostly flat with all the channels near the same setting. I up'd my royal and deep blue and the violet channel a bit but only a couple of percent.

I'm hoping to get some coraline growth in my tank along with my SPS and anemones. As I understand the coraline will thrive with more red and I don't have a spec of algae to speak of (aside from coraline). Do you think I should up my red too?

 

[SiXLiNe]

I just got my Hydra 52 unit installed 11" awl on my 30x30x24 this weekend and compared to the Reeftech led unit I had on the tank, the Hyrda seems a little dimmer. To be fair, my Reeftech unit was just white and blue leds while the Hydra has a lot more color leds.

It just seems strange seeing all the people running these at low %. I have my Hydra running whites at 55% and blues at 90% and it still seems dim when compared to my old unit but I'm just guessing my old unit might have just been set brighter then what was needed for the corals.

So far everything in my tank seems to be doing great. My anemone has moved up higher in the tank but he is a new addition so I was expecting him to move around so I don't think the lights had been the cause.

 

[saltyair]

what lens did you get with the 52 hydra's?

I just got my Hydra 52 unit installed 11" awl on my 30x30x24 this weekend and compared to the Reeftech led unit I had on the tank, the Hyrda seems a little dimmer. To be fair, my Reeftech unit was just white and blue leds while the Hydra has a lot more color leds.

It just seems strange seeing all the people running these at low %. I have my Hydra running whites at 55% and blues at 90% and it still seems dim when compared to my old unit but I'm just guessing my old unit might have just been set brighter then what was needed for the corals.

So far everything in my tank seems to be doing great. My anemone has moved up higher in the tank but he is a new addition so I was expecting him to move around so I don't think the lights had been the cause.

 

[mypepper]

Don't be fooled by the intensity of your LED's compared to metal halide fixture.

When I first purchased my AI Vega over a year ago, I set my intensities to 50% and within a period of a few weeks, I almost lost my entire Hanipora coral. After turning down my LED's to 35% and year to recover, my Hanipora is finally start to grow once again and recover from the shock of the LED light intensity. With the power these LED's give off, it takes time for the corals to adjust.

Currently, I have my red and green set to 25%, all my blues at 80% and the white set to 60%.

Even though the LED's do not look as bright as a metal halide light source, LED's pack a tremendous amount of light.

Thanks,
Randy

 

[Magickiwi]

Maybe it's the diffuser plastic lens covers that are causing things to appear muted. The other units I've seen just have straight clear plastic covers while the ones on my Hydras are frosted.

No one wants to share their color blends? They must be top-secret like the recipe for KFC or how the get the caramel in the caramilk bar.