chenjie911
New member
Hi, i have red sea max 650 for 9 months, a lot lot to learn. I have first question to ask how to set up ai lighting, what s the rule for use of different color of lights? How is percentage for each color?
New to this site, exciting
- Thread starter chenjie911
- Start date
Hi and welcome! I'm also using AI and am pretty happy for budget lighting. You'll find a balance that will work best for you but I might suggest the following to start:
ultra violet 15
Violet 30
Royal 40
Blue 40
Green 0-5
Red 0-5
Cool white 40
This may be aggressive to start depending on your current stocking. The most usable colors will be your blues and whites. The absolute best thing you can do is get/borrow a PAR meter and tune your light to meet the output that your system will require. Go slow and read all you can on this forum.
The way you can get the best possible help with your questions is by being as specific as you can. It might help to tell us how deep your tank is, and what kind of coral you are hoping to keep. Believe it or not, this can have a HUGE impact on PAR.
ultra violet 15
Violet 30
Royal 40
Blue 40
Green 0-5
Red 0-5
Cool white 40
This may be aggressive to start depending on your current stocking. The most usable colors will be your blues and whites. The absolute best thing you can do is get/borrow a PAR meter and tune your light to meet the output that your system will require. Go slow and read all you can on this forum.
The way you can get the best possible help with your questions is by being as specific as you can. It might help to tell us how deep your tank is, and what kind of coral you are hoping to keep. Believe it or not, this can have a HUGE impact on PAR.
chenjie911
New member
Thanks for your reply. I have to learn how to use par meter... Everything is new to me, i have to learn a little by little. Could you give me time window for lighting, because i got different answer from different fish guy. Normally how many hours on daily basis?
Sure, most reefers seem to run a 8-10 hour photoperiod, but I have heard up to 12 hours as well. Personally, mine come on about 7amand slowly ramp up to my max intensity by about noon. I'll hold that intensity till around 4 and ramp down to a lunar setting at about 7. My periods from 7am to about 9am and 5pm to 7pm are a very low light setting.
Ron Reefman
Active member
Most corals use an hour of intense light to get the chemistry of photosynthesis started in the zooxanthellae (algae) that live inside the coral polyps. Then they need 4 to 6 hours of good, intense light. After 4 to 6 hours of photosynthesis the process shuts down even if you provide more light.
It's a genetic, evolution thing from hundreds of thousands of years in the tropical sun on shallow reefs. Morning and afternoon sun is weaker and comes into the reef at such a steep angle that the water absorbs all the energy before it gets to the coral.
Using lights longer will not do any damage to the coral, but it is of little if any advantage to the coral.
It's a genetic, evolution thing from hundreds of thousands of years in the tropical sun on shallow reefs. Morning and afternoon sun is weaker and comes into the reef at such a steep angle that the water absorbs all the energy before it gets to the coral.
Using lights longer will not do any damage to the coral, but it is of little if any advantage to the coral.
