Sonicboom
Addicted to salt
Yes the 52's are no joke, you can also set the clouds to something like 40% chance 20% intensity to give corals another break.
AI Hydra Settings Thread
- Thread starter hilgert
- Start date
Yes the 52's are no joke, you can also set the clouds to something like 40% chance 20% intensity to give corals another break.
Wazzel
New member
They are great lights. Do not be afraid to turn them up, slowly. I ran a single over my 60 cube at 96%. I added a second and currently at 75% on both. No bleaching or anything. I just take my good sweet time raising the power. When I added the second I did a 45% reduction and a 4 month ramp. I plan on bringing them both back to 96%.
Wazzel
New member
No calculated total power. I run blue, blue and violet at 100% and the rest at lower values. I put a spread sheet together to give me an estimated fixture power at my settings.
Reeftub
New member
I would like to put my setting in to see what I'm running at. Try mine try mine! Lol. I'm curious
robertifly
Premium Member
Yarm79, that's right don't forget to setup the acclimation! They look great but are definitely hotter than they look, I started at 50% and burned monti caps, I moved to 70% reduction for a month and may up that to 2 months. I'm using the rail kit mount as well
Wazzel
New member
Sure, what are your settings.
Wazzel
New member
Yes you can.
Reeftub
New member
Lighting schedule below
14k at 55% with channels set to this
12k at 60% with channels set to this
What do you come up with?
Wazzel
New member
Lighting schedule below
14k at 55% with channels set to this
12k at 60% with channels set to this
What do you come up with?
With the 12k setting you are at 60% of the fixture output, the 14k settings are at 47% of the fixture power.
Reeftub
New member
Thanks I was wondering about the 14k so thank you. I posted the 12k and after I sent it I realized I didn't need to know that one lol. O well thank you.
who wants to share there graph?
Wazzel
New member
I have had my Hydras for 2 years now. The first year things were great. I had two over a 90g corner tank and my settings were something like:
UV=40
Violet=50
Royal Blue=70
Deep Blue=70
Red=30
Green=30
White=45
I ran these setting for a long time, and sometimes I would change them 5% one way or another. Never had issues .. not once, I was growing frags and colonies.
Then I moved to my 125 Standard ... so I now have 2 hydras and one hydra 52 in the middle. My god, what have I done. Everything I worked so hard to keep alive died nearly days after the move (SPS, nothing else). Water parameters were quite stable for a move - but I did have some alk swings so I wrote it off as moving stress/Alk complications.
I then got my Alk under control and let the tank sit and mature for about 5-6 months after the move. My anemone farm is doing great, all the LPS were happy - the tank was in good conditions. I decided to go to a frag swap and grab some new SPS. They all died within 2 weeks. Literally each colony, no matter where I moved them were dead in 2 weeks. So I adjusted lighting and kept trying.
This was a year ago. I still can't keep SPS. I don't know what is wrong, here are my parameters:
P04: .02
DKH: 200 (about 11)
CA: 480
PH 8
nitrate 5
MG - 1600
These have been stable for months, seriously .. months. The alk may swing by 5-7PPM before my kalk kicks in on the ATO, so it is always right around 11DKh
The crazy thing is the SPS look great for the first week, polyp extension ... and I am always so damn excited they are going to live. Then around day 9-10 the tips bleach out completely, the color is gone (and slowly gets worse after day 2-3), and only areas not being touched by light have extension. Algae takes care of the rest.
I know nitrates at 5 is higher than some prefer, but they have always been around 5, same for phos at .02 - I strive for that number because I believe the corals benefit from some trace phosphates.
Any help would be great. I think the 90G with the lights being right next to each other gave better coverage - I think now they are not enough to keep my SPS alive... I have been looking into MH Radium setups out of desperation. If anyone has any ideas at all, I would appreciate it. My last attempt to save this reef was to by a XF-150 Gyre pump, and I love it - things DO look better... but the SPS are still failing. All of my fish look wonderful, Anemones - my Clam ... all doing great.
I CAN'T EVEN KEEP DIGITATA ... What have I done? I use to keep those in my sump under a CFL FFS when they would break and grow all over. . I want to keep these lights, and I want to call this user error ... but I have NEVER had these issues in the past ... even when I ghetto rigged things together due to being a broke college kid. So I get a job, pour some money into this hobby and can't keep SPS now. And because I failed to mention: I can't keep LPS either at this point in time - they just stay shriveled up before and after adding the gyre... I almost feel like someone threw a bag of pennies in this tank and I just don't see them.
Please help, I beg of you. Sorry if this comes of as a whiny post - I am at a loss. I have thought about selling everything for 3-4 weeks now and it's heart breaking. I'm at work now but when I get home I'll post my current light settings.
UV=40
Violet=50
Royal Blue=70
Deep Blue=70
Red=30
Green=30
White=45
I ran these setting for a long time, and sometimes I would change them 5% one way or another. Never had issues .. not once, I was growing frags and colonies.
Then I moved to my 125 Standard ... so I now have 2 hydras and one hydra 52 in the middle. My god, what have I done. Everything I worked so hard to keep alive died nearly days after the move (SPS, nothing else). Water parameters were quite stable for a move - but I did have some alk swings so I wrote it off as moving stress/Alk complications.
I then got my Alk under control and let the tank sit and mature for about 5-6 months after the move. My anemone farm is doing great, all the LPS were happy - the tank was in good conditions. I decided to go to a frag swap and grab some new SPS. They all died within 2 weeks. Literally each colony, no matter where I moved them were dead in 2 weeks. So I adjusted lighting and kept trying.
This was a year ago. I still can't keep SPS. I don't know what is wrong, here are my parameters:
P04: .02
DKH: 200 (about 11)
CA: 480
PH 8
nitrate 5
MG - 1600
These have been stable for months, seriously .. months. The alk may swing by 5-7PPM before my kalk kicks in on the ATO, so it is always right around 11DKh
The crazy thing is the SPS look great for the first week, polyp extension ... and I am always so damn excited they are going to live. Then around day 9-10 the tips bleach out completely, the color is gone (and slowly gets worse after day 2-3), and only areas not being touched by light have extension. Algae takes care of the rest.
I know nitrates at 5 is higher than some prefer, but they have always been around 5, same for phos at .02 - I strive for that number because I believe the corals benefit from some trace phosphates.
Any help would be great. I think the 90G with the lights being right next to each other gave better coverage - I think now they are not enough to keep my SPS alive... I have been looking into MH Radium setups out of desperation. If anyone has any ideas at all, I would appreciate it. My last attempt to save this reef was to by a XF-150 Gyre pump, and I love it - things DO look better... but the SPS are still failing. All of my fish look wonderful, Anemones - my Clam ... all doing great.
I CAN'T EVEN KEEP DIGITATA ... What have I done? I use to keep those in my sump under a CFL FFS when they would break and grow all over. . I want to keep these lights, and I want to call this user error ... but I have NEVER had these issues in the past ... even when I ghetto rigged things together due to being a broke college kid. So I get a job, pour some money into this hobby and can't keep SPS now. And because I failed to mention: I can't keep LPS either at this point in time - they just stay shriveled up before and after adding the gyre... I almost feel like someone threw a bag of pennies in this tank and I just don't see them.
Please help, I beg of you. Sorry if this comes of as a whiny post - I am at a loss. I have thought about selling everything for 3-4 weeks now and it's heart breaking. I'm at work now but when I get home I'll post my current light settings.
Last edited:
Sonicboom
Addicted to salt
Sorry to hear about your issues, it definitely does not sound like anything related to lighting since 2 Hydras and 1 hydra 52 is more than enough for a 120. Try dropping your UV down to 15 and whites down to 20. Also make sure all led's are lighting and you don't have a burned out pucks.
I did just have a board replaced where my blues died. This has been corrected although I do not know how long those were burned out. The new board, unfortunately, keeps powering off for hours at a time - so I'm expecting a replacement for that this week. I have moved all the corals from this end of the tank to keep them happy. The new board seems to think its over heating as the fan keeps spinning while it's off to the point that it's colder than room temp when touched.
I agree it should be more than enough light. I'll try lowering my whites and UV down to the numbers you have given me - I do not have a director, just the standard wireless controller... is there a best practice for lowering the intensity? 2% a day or something? I want to buy a director but I am so close to making the halide jump I have held off =/. One thing that is odd: My SPS have a lot of shadowing near their base due to the light not hitting it... is there a trick to this ? I thought about slanting the lights but I'll have to figure out a new hanging method.
I can't imagine the lights are 100% at fault here (or at all). I'm looking into a lab that will do a full water test for me to see if there is something else going on... but that isn't cheap from what I have found thus far (500 or so dollars)
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