led % how to get the right setting

[sick1166]

getting leds and have been reading all threads on RC and it seems that every one is on certain percentages all different than each other.

MY metal halides and t-5s run full power turn on and turn off every thing grows great t-5 mostly blue come on 1 hour before halides and stay on 1 hour after halides.

Setting up a led system do i need a par meter and set from there?
I see so may running 65% or 75% and every thing in between does this mean at full power the light is that too intense. what am i missing or not understanding.
after running 2 400watt halides and 4 60" t-5 now switch to leds I would need to acclimate to leds and just not plug in a run

 

[Hentz]

If your LED's provide it, use the acclimation program some come with. You can set it like 5-90% lower automatically and it will gradually acclimate over time.

As for finding your percentage, it depends what corals you're keeping. Keep Acropora in the 200-300 range. One thing you will notice is the LEDs will look dimmer compared to MH/T5 and is often mistaken as lack of light. So many users will up their brightness and bleach corals.

It's best to find a lower % that works that you can gradually increase 5% a week, if your fixture does not provide an acclimation setting.

Going from ATI 6x39 Sunpower to Hydra 26HD, I simply set my acclimation settings to 35% over a month. Everything transitioned perfectly fine.

 

[f3honda4me]

PAR meter won't help. LED target specific wavelengths so it will read low on PAR since PAR is full spectrum from 400-700. This article might help. http://www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2012/03/pur-vs-par-in-aquarium-lighting.html?m=1

LED require you to be able to read your corals so it takes more knowledge and tweaking.

 

[zsuman101]

PAR meter won't help. LED target specific wavelengths so it will read low on PAR since PAR is full spectrum from 400-700. This article might help. http://www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2012/03/pur-vs-par-in-aquarium-lighting.html?m=1

LED require you to be able to read your corals so it takes more knowledge and tweaking.

i fully agree, it took me a year and then i got a par meter and still had tweaking to do, now that i got it right..... im going back to my good ole radium halides, nothings better, good luck... zsu

 

[Ron Reefman]

If you've been running 400 watt MH, it's VERY unlikely that any led fixture is going to give you problems.

Yes, many led fixtures have the ability to make light intense enough to damage your coral at 100%. The MH guys don't want to hear it, but yes, leds can be even more intense than MH. Oh, and leds come with the ability to be dimmed, MH can't! It depends on a lot of issues like depth in the tank, type of coral, clarity of the water, what spectrum of light is being used...

You've had a successful tank for how long? You've used MH and t5? Then leds aren't going to be a big deal. If you are really new and your tank is new, yes, you need to be more careful. Start lower and build up over time. It's not hard, my neighbor's 12 year old son understands it...

I recommend the PAR meter if you want real data. Yes PUR is way more important than PAR. But when is the last time you saw a PUR meter for sale? Oh, that's right, nobody has! So it's a talking point that has little real world use in our tanks. You know the coral likes blue spectrum best but still wants other spectrums as well, so we add in white. That's your basic, general PUR for a reef.

If you don't want a PAR meter, use the 'canary in a coalmine' approach. Take an inexpensive monti plate and put it as high or higher than any other coral in the tank. It's the one that will bleach first if you get your led set too intense.

 

[f3honda4me]

If you've been running 400 watt MH, it's VERY unlikely that any led fixture is going to give you problems.

Yes, many led fixtures have the ability to make light intense enough to damage your coral at 100%. The MH guys don't want to hear it, but yes, leds can be even more intense than MH. Oh, and leds come with the ability to be dimmed, MH can't! It depends on a lot of issues like depth in the tank, type of coral, clarity of the water, what spectrum of light is being used...

You've had a successful tank for how long? You've used MH and t5? Then leds aren't going to be a big deal. If you are really new and your tank is new, yes, you need to be more careful. Start lower and build up over time. It's not hard, my neighbor's 12 year old son understands it...

I recommend the PAR meter if you want real data. Yes PUR is way more important than PAR. But when is the last time you saw a PUR meter for sale? Oh, that's right, nobody has! So it's a talking point that has little real world use in our tanks. You know the coral likes blue spectrum best but still wants other spectrums as well, so we add in white. That's your basic, general PUR for a reef.

If you don't want a PAR meter, use the 'canary in a coalmine' approach. Take an inexpensive monti plate and put it as high or higher than any other coral in the tank. It's the one that will bleach first if you get your led set too intense.

There are absolutely products out there to measure PUR. One of our local reefers has this. http://answers.seneye.com/en/Seneye.../why_you_should_be_using_the_reef_light_meter

So it's a talking point that not only has real world use in our tanks, but it's magnitudes more important than PAR.

 

[Ron Reefman]

There are absolutely products out there to measure PUR. One of our local reefers has this. http://answers.seneye.com/en/Seneye.../why_you_should_be_using_the_reef_light_meter

So it's a talking point that not only has real world use in our tanks, but it's magnitudes more important than PAR.

And if you look closely it says PUR with a wavy = which means approximately equal to! I can do that in my head with a PAR meter. And it doesn't say anywhere what spectrum it's using as PUR. And you don't even know for sure what the PUR is of any given coral. It's marketing BS until I see a ton more details.