Dialing in hydra lights!! Help!!!

[Sohal Tang Tim]

Hello Everyone, I would appeciate your input on setting the schedule for these lights....I have 3 x Hydra HD26HD over a 160 gallon reef
Tank is 5.5ft x 28 deep x only 20 high....

I use mostly LPS but will add sps in future....

What do you recommend for peak intensity for the following:

UV
VIOLET
ROYAL BLUE
BLUE
GREEN
RED
WHITE

currently I have lights on 8am off 8pm with 2 hour ramp
UV is 40
violet is 35
Royal Blue is 75
blue is 60
green is zero
red is 5
white is 10

when light is at peak shows 38 watts being used (x 3)

Thx
Tim

 

[mcgyvr]

Well.. My $0.02..if I had 160g reef tank I'd be running 250+watts of leds...
I'd also crank up the non-blue channels to improve color rendition and provide more light..

 

[jjencek]

I set it up to mimic the LAB SPS AB+ settings. I got it from one of the BRS videos.

 

[billdogg]

Well.. My $0.02..if I had 160g reef tank I'd be running 250+watts of leds...
I'd also crank up the non-blue channels to improve color rendition and provide more light..

^^^This^^^

IMHO, to even have a hope at keeping LPS you'll need to crank those 3 lights way up. For SPS you are going to need more light than you can currently get out of what you have.

Borrow a PAR meter from your local reef club or LFS. I think you will be very surprised at the results. I know I was, and I'm running 2 x radion XR30G4 pro's on my standard 120DT. I had them at what I thought was too bright (~50% power on the AB+ setting), had a friend come over with his PAR meter, and am now acclimating the tank to bring it up to 70%. My clam and SPS look happier already.

 

[Sohal Tang Tim]

UV and VIolet and White

UV and VIolet and White

I am also very surprised to see that people are cranking their UV up over 100% AND the Violet too... and most of them hAVe the whites on at 35% or more....

It seems I am not using enough power from my lights...

I will likely be cranking them up but doing it on acclimation mode so they gradually go up ...

How fast would you increase the intensity over 1 week 2 weeks month???

Thanks
Tim

 

[Sohal Tang Tim]

Here is what i will do.....

Here is what i will do.....

HI Guys Here is what I am going to do...
I am going to change my intensities to the following and set my lights to
the **aclimation mode* at 30% reduction.....so if set at 100 it will start at 70 and aclimate over time...

Question..HOW MUCH TIME should I aclimate over now that my new settings are

UV was at 40 now 110
Violet was at 35 now at 95
Royal Blue was at 80 now at 115
Blue was at 60 now at 100
Green zero
Red zero
White was at 15 now at 30 (is this high enough?????)

Thanks
Tim

 

[Sohal Tang Tim]

tHANKS gUYS!!!

tHANKS gUYS!!!

tHANKS gUYS...THE PATTERN of all replies I got on this board and other boards is the same!! I have my lights down at about 1/2 of where they should be for intensities! I have cranked them up but set them to acclimate mode...

The QUESTION IS howwww long should I take to get from
where they are to where they are going? Acclimation period for how long????

Please advise your input.

Thanks
Tim

 

[mcgyvr]

Bringing them up evenly over a month should be just fine..
If you want to go up 40%...do 10% a week,etc..