Help getting my Radions on the right setting

[siidman]

I have a 180g mixed reef set up with 3 Radion Gen 2's. It's been running 7 months now and I'm still having issues getting the lights correct. Currently the coral that are doing well are a few leathers, some ricordia shrooms, wesophylia, a rose anenome, a few few acans. I've had torch corals that do fine for a few hrs then fully retract and eventually die. I have one now that's been doing ok. And had some sps that do fine til I move them up in the tank after some time acclimating and they end up bleacing and dying. Now before we get to asking about the lights I know most people are wondering about my water parameters. They're perfect and have been consistent for 5 months now.
ammonia-0
nitrite-0
nitrates-o
ca-360
alk-9
everything else is where it should be as well. And I've routinely checked the water myself and have had it checked at the reef shop just to make sure and it's all good.
So this brings me to the lights. I've obviously been having a hard time with what to have these set on. My lights are 9in above the water and I've always used the given templates and after issues with coral I've tweaked them a bit. I've also had the local reef guy come over and mess with them too and I still bleached a small pink birds nest frag. Right now they are on from 10-7 on the radiant color template. The intensity was at 100% with the white at 50 at 4 then 60 at 5 then back down to 50 at 6 pm an then it would ramp down. I then noticed my elegance coral, which was doing fine for about 2 weeks starting to retract a bit more than it had so I've recently kept the colors where they were but dropped the intensity to 80% on all points. The thing that makes me so confused is that my lfs has a 220 thats only 18 inches tall compared to my 24 and they have gen pros over it using the growth template which is all colors set at 100% and 100% intensity. It's an sps tank and the coral are all doing great so I just dont get it.
Is the intensity just too high???
I could elaborate more but I've already written a novel.

 

[bobbyc366]

I run the same lights on my 180, peek at 45 percent, come on at 830am and peak at 45 percent at 2pm, and off at 830pm, all corals do well, if I go to 50 percent I get bleaching.

 

[milto29]

I have a 180g mixed reef set up with 3 Radion Gen 2's. It's been running 7 months now and I'm still having issues getting the lights correct. Currently the coral that are doing well are a few leathers, some ricordia shrooms, wesophylia, a rose anenome, a few few acans. I've had torch corals that do fine for a few hrs then fully retract and eventually die. I have one now that's been doing ok. And had some sps that do fine til I move them up in the tank after some time acclimating and they end up bleacing and dying. Now before we get to asking about the lights I know most people are wondering about my water parameters. They're perfect and have been consistent for 5 months now.
ammonia-0
nitrite-0
nitrates-o
ca-360
alk-9
everything else is where it should be as well. And I've routinely checked the water myself and have had it checked at the reef shop just to make sure and it's all good.
So this brings me to the lights. I've obviously been having a hard time with what to have these set on. My lights are 9in above the water and I've always used the given templates and after issues with coral I've tweaked them a bit. I've also had the local reef guy come over and mess with them too and I still bleached a small pink birds nest frag. Right now they are on from 10-7 on the radiant color template. The intensity was at 100% with the white at 50 at 4 then 60 at 5 then back down to 50 at 6 pm an then it would ramp down. I then noticed my elegance coral, which was doing fine for about 2 weeks starting to retract a bit more than it had so I've recently kept the colors where they were but dropped the intensity to 80% on all points. The thing that makes me so confused is that my lfs has a 220 thats only 18 inches tall compared to my 24 and they have gen pros over it using the growth template which is all colors set at 100% and 100% intensity. It's an sps tank and the coral are all doing great so I just dont get it.
Is the intensity just too high???
I could elaborate more but I've already written a novel.

 

[siidman]

I run the same lights on my 180, peek at 45 percent, come on at 830am and peak at 45 percent at 2pm, and off at 830pm, all corals do well, if I go to 50 percent I get bleaching.

Is that the intensity that's peaking at 50%?

 

[milto29]

Is that the intensity that's peaking at 50%?

On my graph the intensity is high due to the fact that I'm running the radion with wide angle lens. This has lowered my par reading. So to compensate for the lost par I have raised the intensity. But you always want to start low.

 

[bobbyc366]

Is that the intensity that's peaking at 50%?

Yes.

 

[brentj]

Bobbyc366, thanks for the intensity info; how high above water are yours hanging? And how far below water to the shallowest and deepest SPS, ballpark?

I hung mine higher that usual to get more spread to cover 36" tall, 36" deep 72" long tank (3 oriented perpendicular to tank long axis) (will have to measure when home; guessing 14"?)

 

[bobbyc366]

Bobbyc366, thanks for the intensity info; how high above water are yours hanging? And how far below water to the shallowest and deepest SPS, ballpark?

I hung mine higher that usual to get more spread to cover 36" tall, 36" deep 72" long tank (3 oriented perpendicular to tank long axis) (will have to measure when home; guessing 14"?)

14inches above water,
72 long 24 deep 24 wide tank, 3 lights also.
SPS at apx 12 to 15 inches below the water line and getting good growth.

 

[brentj]

Thanks!