LED lighting intensity question.

[NanoReefLovers]

I have a Bio-cube 32 with the Steve's LED upgrade kits installed. I have been adding some coral frags, SPS, Acans and Acros as well as some Zoanthids. Eventually I want to add some more corals and a clam.

I was told by one of the LFS that I need to run the blues all day and the whites I can run for only a short time (If at all). Further I was told the blues could be turned up to 100% without any negative issues. Currently they are at 30%

My questions are these:
1. Do I need to run the whites more and are the in any way beneficial/needed?
2. When the Blues are turned all the way up they are super bright, is there benefit to having them up all the way or is that just asking for trouble?
3. Will running just the blues cause algae to grow faster (So far no algae issues)

I am open to suggestions and info on how to best run the lights.

 

[murphreef]

I am not sure about your exact light but I do have a Radion XR15 G4 Pro on my current nano.

I run my lights 11 hours a day.....

Of that I run my blues and uv's at full 100% and add some white as the day progresses using the Radion web site. My whites only get up to around 8% vs my blues and UV which I said were at 100%.

What adds to the confusion is the "intensity" portion which you adjust independently from the actual lights max power.

I start my Intensity lower in the day at like 30% which gradually increases then I run 85% with the added whites for 4 hours maximum a day. Then I back off the whites and my intensity at night.

How do you adjust your lights? Can you make them automated or is it only "On / Off"?

 

[NanoReefLovers]

How do you adjust your lights? Can you make them automated or is it only "On / Off"?

Thank you for answering me. I am still fairly new to the LED scene. and I want to do it right. I can adjust my light intensity and control when and how ling as well as the ramp up and down time.

I was told to have the blues on at 100% and I am willing to do so, however, I need to know if I need to acclimate the corals to this intensity. Also, do I need to reduce the blues every time I add a new coral?
Thanks

 

[NanoReefLovers]

Also will that intensity harm the fish?

 

[murphreef]

Thank you for answering me. I am still fairly new to the LED scene. and I want to do it right. I can adjust my light intensity and control when and how ling as well as the ramp up and down time.

I was told to have the blues on at 100% and I am willing to do so, however, I need to know if I need to acclimate the corals to this intensity. Also, do I need to reduce the blues every time I add a new coral?
Thanks

So with my led fixture its weird because each color channel (blue, royal blue, uv, white, cool white, red and green) are all controlled individually and can be set from 0-100%. So I set all blues and uv at 100% and then my whites, red and green LEDs at 8-10%. But then I set the "intensity" starting at 10% and it slowly ramps up through out the day starting from 11 a.m for about 5 hours until it hits a max of 85% power or around 53 watts being used. I run my max 85% for 4 hours then I ramp back down to 0 over the last 2 hours of the day.

This is based on my radion xr15 g4 pro. I have to control mine through a computer and USB cable.

I assume yours is kinda similar in how you can adjust each color channel then adjust the overall intensity. They are 2 different things which is kinda confusing

 

[NanoReefLovers]

I increased my blue lights from 20% to 40% over the weekend. I will run it like that for a bit and lowered my whites from 20% to 5%.

I run the blues for 12 hrs and the whites for 4 hrs.

So far I am really digging the look.

 

[murphreef]

I increased my blue lights from 20% to 40% over the weekend. I will run it like that for a bit and lowered my whites from 20% to 5%.

I run the blues for 12 hrs and the whites for 4 hrs.

So far I am really digging the look.

Yea you will be amazed at how little "white" light you really need with the LED's

When I first hooked mine up I was running like 18% on the whites and now I am down @ 8% and it seems like everything is coloring up much better.

Might be sacrificing growth but I am ok with that since its only a nano.

 

[blasterman789]

A cool white LED *is* a blue LED with a little green and orange mixed in. The green and orange contribute little to coral growth, although the white LED might provide better growth triggers to some coral (lots of debate on that).

You can therefore burn corals just as easily with blue LEDs as white LEDs. It's just that most of us don't run lights with that much white light.

Always amazed at what get's repeated by reef stores.

 

[murphreef]

^ yea lots of people run LED's differently for the good or bad I suppose.

I run mine on the Ecotech AB+ schedule but modified the whites down quite a bit and more for viewing pleasure.