AI Hydra Settings Thread

saltyair said:
I thought I would share my observations so far having run the hydra's for 30days.

#1 they are much more powerful than expected.
#2 most of us run these to high at first and see instant positive effects.
#3 after a week or two if not lowered we see negative effects like bleaching and browning.
#4 having red is a blessing and a curse - most of the time we start red to high creating algae on the sand.
#5 treat UV and Violet in the same % range.
#6 lowering or moving sps.

I have now lowered all spectrum's - dropping uv,violet to 30% - dropping rb and db to 70% - red to 15% and green to 25% (shortened red and green photo period to 4hrs)
white @ 40%. I am going to leave as is for 1 month with a 15% cloud@60% - I am hoping that my monti's,green dragon and millie will recover and lighten up my birds nest again. My acro's and pocillopora have been unaffected (good growth)

be watchful and react asap when seeing changes.

hope this helps.

Side note love the director - will even be better once they update.
these are great lights over all, well worth the $ IMO
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Saltyair, are you running three or four hydras? and do you like how the light spreads?
 
McGee10 said:
Saltyair, are you running three or four hydras? and do you like how the light spreads?
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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.
 
Quick question, are any of you running t5s with your Hydras? I am and would like to know what results you have had, I have been battling a GHA issue and I took the t5s out of the hood, now that the issue is resolved I am putting them back in next weekend.
 
Blazen said:
Quick question, are any of you running t5s with your Hydras? I am and would like to know what results you have had, I have been battling a GHA issue and I took the t5s out of the hood, now that the issue is resolved I am putting them back in next weekend.
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You may want to turn down or off the reds and greens till you get the GHA under control. I turned mine way back and it was a big help. been thinking of trying the T5's but not sure why the hydra should be all that is needed.
I guess I just love to tinker with the tank. LOL
 
On my 90.gallon the Hydras just didn't seem to cover the whole tank, dark on both ends and the Middle, and seemed very dim, once the t5s. were in everything looked better and the tank was as bright as it was with the radions, your tank looks really good!
 
Blazen said:
On my 90.gallon the Hydras just didn't seem to cover the whole tank, dark on both ends and the Middle, and seemed very dim, once the t5s. were in everything looked better and the tank was as bright as it was with the radions, your tank looks really good!
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How high off the water are you? try 11" or 12" made a big difference on my 75 gal.
 
Megee , my Hydras are 10.5 off the water and I can't raise them any higher, they are all the way to the top of the hood.
 
Blazen said:
Megee , my Hydras are 10.5 off the water and I can't raise them any higher, they are all the way to the top of the hood.
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Thats what mine are now.I started with 12" and used the acclamation mode for two weeks and lowered them to 10.5.The highest of my lights are like 55%and thats it.And it works for me.
 
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.
 
Is anyone having success with sps corals with the Hydras? Before my massive GHA outbreak I was having major problems with the sps in my tank, that was the main reason I went and got the 3 Current t5 fixtures, once I put those on everything seemed to be doing really great, now that the GHA is almost gone I wanted to go next week and pick up my sps that I dropped off at the LFS to save from the algae. The issue is the heat from the t5s was causing some heat challenges, so if someone is having great success with sps I would love to hear what they are doing, and what types of sps they have, placement ect
 
08WingRider said:
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.
Click to expand...

Wow.I have a Bare bottom,tank that is.I noticed the same since i had my hydras.If you look at my pic a few post back,You can see those brown spots on the back glass.Its covered my bottom.And also have HA that i didnt have as much.What caused it.The red and green.I got them at 10%.
 
Sonicboom said:
With the weather feature the sunrise and sunset is tracked daily and changes per my zipcode. I am noticing the days getting longer now. I only had one coral bleach because it was white with green polyps and a 1" frag so I lost track of until it was too late. I have repositioned it to see if it comes back.
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SonicBoom: Is everything still looking good under the Hydras? Have you made any further adjustments that have seemed to make a difference?
 
I was gonna say, since I turned mine down to 40 some of the colors have really started popping. Uv makes them put on sunblock and gets them darker and not as bright. I'm keeping it down more to see how it goes.
 
Blazen said:
Is anyone having success with sps corals with the Hydras? Before my massive GHA outbreak I was having major problems with the sps in my tank, that was the main reason I went and got the 3 Current t5 fixtures, once I put those on everything seemed to be doing really great, now that the GHA is almost gone I wanted to go next week and pick up my sps that I dropped off at the LFS to save from the algae. The issue is the heat from the t5s was causing some heat challenges, so if someone is having great success with sps I would love to hear what they are doing, and what types of sps they have, placement ect
Click to expand...


I have great success with them and SPS. Don't have too many but they're all doing great and growing fast. Acro, Birdnest, encrusting types and a few more
 
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