AI Hydra Settings Thread

I got my 4 Hydras installed 3 days ago, got them 11" from the water surface on a 72"x36"x36" tank.

Got my only corals on the sand bed right now.

Im not doing any acclimation mode or anything since Im only starting at 50% blues and 25% whites on a very tall tank with the only corals on the sand bed.

What do you guys think? The coverage is very very good.

Full tak shot is with all at 100%, before I got the controller, just runed them this way for a couple of minutes for pictures.








This is how I got them now with the controller on
 
looks fantastic

btw anyone who doesn't think sps can grow coral check it out. 2 1/2 month growth

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I got my 4 Hydras installed 3 days ago, got them 11" from the water surface on a 72"x36"x36" tank.

Got my only corals on the sand bed right now.

Im not doing any acclimation mode or anything since Im only starting at 50% blues and 25% whites on a very tall tank with the only corals on the sand bed.

What do you guys think? The coverage is very very good.

Full tak shot is with all at 100%, before I got the controller, just runed them this way for a couple of minutes for pictures.








This is how I got them now with the controller on
 
I got my 4 Hydras installed 3 days ago, got them 11" from the water surface on a 72"x36"x36" tank.

Got my only corals on the sand bed right now.

Im not doing any acclimation mode or anything since Im only starting at 50% blues and 25% whites on a very tall tank with the only corals on the sand bed.

What do you guys think? The coverage is very very good.

Full tak shot is with all at 100%, before I got the controller, just runed them this way for a couple of minutes for pictures.








This is how I got them now with the controller on

Gorgeous, just remember any corals at the top or close to the top of those pillars will be be getting maximum light. I redid some if my rock work from pillars to more of a slope because of that.
 
I got my 4 Hydras installed 3 days ago, got them 11" from the water surface on a 72"x36"x36" tank.

Got my only corals on the sand bed right now.

Im not doing any acclimation mode or anything since Im only starting at 50% blues and 25% whites on a very tall tank with the only corals on the sand bed.

What do you guys think? The coverage is very very good.

Full tak shot is with all at 100%, before I got the controller, just runed them this way for a couple of minutes for pictures.








This is how I got them now with the controller on


What did you use for the frame holding all the lights together?
 
Is there a special temp where the fans turn on to? I was looking at my lights today from the top and only one of the four lamps was turned on, the other three had the fan off.

The hydra that had the fan obviously was a lot cooler to the touch than the other three that had the fan off...

This is the power Im running

 
If your lights turn off during the day it means they are getting to hot. During the day check to see if your fans are running. If not they might be stuck and need a push to get them started.
Contact AI and they will send you a new fan (sometimes they are not flush with the heatsink)
 
well an update with mine i can say that over he last month i put it in a small acclimation mode trying to just bump up a few values a bit but over this last week my red cap montipora started bleaching out again and its 3/4 down and all other corals in general not coming out as much. so i went back to what i had to start with.. and everything opened right up. so it seems like especially for me that having my blues around 70-75 is too much. my levels now are

uv- 35 for 4 and half hours 27 for the other 2 and half
v - 33
db - 60
rb - 55
g - 11
r - 10
cw - 28
 
I have been watching this thread from the background and it's crazy how everyone's numbers are not far off from each other but at the same time not close to each other either. Seems like the red and greens are in a certain range and the other colors are off.
 
I have been watching this thread from the background and it's crazy how everyone's numbers are not far off from each other but at the same time not close to each other either. Seems like the red and greens are in a certain range and the other colors are off.


Slowly the number are getting closer and closer together. What gets me is how little whites the corral like.
 
Trial and error but were getting there! Mines been doing quite well and growing a ton. Agreed they hate whites and algae loves red and green! Haha
 
my ramp up time is 3 1/2 hrs - peak is 6hrs

Since lowering my red, green UV and violet I have already seen a positive response. The algae on the sand bed is almost gone and my birds nest and green dragon are starting to colour up again. Unfortunately I think my milli is toast my fingers are crossed that it holds on.
I am leaning toward UV and Violet being the major factors on bleaching and browning. I did lower my uv first saw a small change, but once I lowered my violet i did notice a significant positive shift. I am convinced that red is a major factor of algae on the sand bed (i have been lucky not to get gha). I just hope others don't make the same mistake:hmm5:
After 1 month i am going to try to increase green an extra 10% - the more I am reading, the green is a major factor in pigmentation with the low risk of algae and see how it goes.

But as promised i will stay on these settings unless i see damage being done.
I have also been testing and not adding anything to the system other than my regular routine

wingrider - if you can I would try the following and see if it helps.

raise the lights to 12 inches from the water
lower the whites to 35% on a shorter photo period
add green @ 15%
manually remove what you can b/c when it does die it will feed the next crop of algae.
put your urchins right on the algae sand.
maybe set up a cloudy week to help get it under control.

hope that helps



Saltyair -I have a 265g w/3 52s. My tank is 29" tall and lights are 9" above water. I have R & G at 0 now (brown sand bed). I just lowered my Whites back to 40% and DB & RB to 70% aligning to what you've had success with. What is your ramp and duration of your Whites and Blues? I also made V & UV same (ramp to 20%, peak at 25% and back to 20% with 2 hour ramp on both sides. I love the lights, just sick of brown sandbed and some HA growing on my overflows. Retested all levels yesterday and NO3 and PO4 at 0, Calk - 450, Alk at 9.5dk and Mag at 1350.
 
I am running 3 over my 180 - great question at first i was disappointed and observed shadowing @ the edges. but as the day progressed saw the shadowing disappear.
I am happy with the spread - i couldn't imagine putting 4 up.

DO you have them running long ways or short ways?
 
short - but was thinking of going long way. I think i will try it next month once i get my results over 30 days

QUOTE=AdamC00;22590083]DO you have them running long ways or short ways?[/QUOTE]
 
short - but was thinking of going long way. I think i will try it next month once i get my results over 30 days

QUOTE=AdamC00;22590083]DO you have them running long ways or short ways?
[/QUOTE]

I started with mine short then changed to long and i like it much better.
 
Hello Everyone!

I have been reading this thread for months, got my Hydra 52 in February, and just got my Director and rails this past weekend (so just set up the light this past weekend) on my 60g 24x24x24 rimless cube.

So far, all I have in this tank is a rainbow montipora frag, so I won't be able to gauge performance much yet. But I have plenty of time to play!

The only thing that I wanted to add my .02 on was that I believe I have read that darkening (browning) of corals usually happens because they are increasing the populations of zooxanthellae because available light is too dim. I believe I read this in one of the Sprung and Delbeek Reef Aquarium books, I'll try to post the Volume and page this evening.

Other than that, I love the setup so far. Is there a manual anywhere that explains (in detail) the specifics of some of the features like Lunar and Weather? I know what they generally do, but I want to to know everything about how they work and what they do. All I know is that for Lunar you need to have your minimums above (or equal to?) 5% (for all color spectrums?) and it is supposed to vary percentage based on moon phase. But how much does it vary?

Has anyone heard a date for a Director firmware upgrade?
 
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