Hydra 52- how high should I go

[mitek2]

I have recently set up my 125 gallon with 2 hydra 52 lights
Right now I only have fish as I'm waiting for it to cycle. Once I put corals in how high intensity should I turn the lights? I realize that is a very vague question, but the fish look good under about 5 to 10%. I know the corals will need more but I did not know if there is a rule of thumb. I don't have a PAR meter so I was wondering what most people kept there's on.

Thanks!!

 

[thegrun]

How high above the water line are your fixtures? I have three 52's over my 120 gallon tank and the lights are about 8" above the water line but they are also set near the front of the tank on 15 degree angles so the SPS corals grow towards the front of the tank and give a semi top down look to the coral growth so that reduces the delivered PAR values by about 10%.

I have them set in a bracket with heavy duty drawer guides so they can be pushed towards the back of the tank for maintenance.



I have an SPS dominated mixed reef tank so my PAR values are on the high side, but since I'm using three fixtures and you only have two you will need to adjust your levels accordingly. I use a 4 hour ramp up, run the lights at their highest setting for 3 hours and then ramp them back down for 5 hours. At their peak the lights are set at:
CW-49%, G-38%, V-42%, R-42%, DB-67%, RB-67%, UV-67%

It's difficult to give you exact numbers without knowing the height of the lights above the waterline and what you have for corals. For fish only I suspect setting your lights at half the numbers I have mine set at would be fine unless you want a brighter look. My tank is probably in the 14K color range, so you may want more whit and less blue or more blue and less white according to your taste, but whatever you do I would not exceed my levels by much.
Hope that helps a little.

 

[Zukari]

Thegrun:

This is simply awesome - thank you so much for posting this. I have been trying to figure out the best way to do something similar and ... well this is perfect. I'll be attempting to replicate this idea with my lights.

Does this help with shading at all? I currently have my two side lights pointing toward the middle ( / _ \ ) obviously they are not that tilted but you get the idea. This seems to help with shadowing/shading of my SPS corals and gives some shade to the corners for less light intense corals. My end lights are also just standard hydras so I'll need to upgrade these first.

Thanks again!

 

[mitek2]

Mine are about 6 inches above the water level and hanging inside a canopy. I would like a 14 or maybe even a 20 K color so I will try yours. Thank you so much. I don't have corals in there yet as I just set it up, but I will be doing a mixture.

I also have a 32 gallon Red Sea max 130 with the mix of corals. It's doing great so I'm hoping I can propagate or cut some of those for the big tank.

 

[Allentown]

Some people run these things up very bright with succes.....only if you ramp a ver small % a day over 60 , 90 or even longer.

And look closely at the corals every couple days

 

[amcvay1979]

I was advised to by AI to mount my 2 52's 12 inches above the water line. I have a 150 tall, basically a 120 but 6 inches taller. My 2 fixtures provide plenty of light for all my corals. I learned quickly that you start SPS frags on the bottom for 2 weeks, move them up a few inches every 2 weeks and my levels aren't high at all and I'm still in Acclimation mode. At my highest I'm still only running at 60% so these lights are more than powerful enough for all corals to grow. I've burned some LPS corals by having them in the middle of the tank, all LPS are at or near the bottom.