PAR and SPS

[jamgar]

I was wandering if any of you know of a resorce wth examples of sps with corresponding PAR employed. I see a lot of "place in middle of tank (strawberry shortcake)" but it would be helpful to have the PAR next to the beautiful picture. If anyone would like to post a picture of their SPS and submit a PAR reading I will begin building a table that we could make into a sticky
Thanks

 

[jbadd99]

I was wandering if any of you know of a resorce wth examples of sps with corresponding PAR employed. I see a lot of "place in middle of tank (strawberry shortcake)" but it would be helpful to have the PAR next to the beautiful picture. If anyone would like to post a picture of their SPS and submit a PAR reading I will begin building a table that we could make into a sticky
Thanks

Tagging along for this one since I'm about to start incorporating SPS into my tank.

 

[Hnguyen85]

Tagging along as well. I have an SPS dominate tank and I'm running 400w MH. Tank is a 93 marineland cube. I'd also like to know which coral does best where.

 

[rgfast]

I would be willing to add input here as to what levels my corals are growing at but think we will see many diffent opions to what is optimun. Currently in my display system my SPS corals are growing in levels between 325 to 375 par

 

[allsps40]

Mine do great in the 300-200 range.

 

[jamgar]

Specifically what species or common name with picture and what PAR they are at in your tank is more of what I am looking for. Maybe it is a bit to ambitious of a project.
For instance:
sunset monti-picture-PAR 320
Red Planet acro-picture-365
superman monti-picture-250

 

[ANGRY JOHN]

this would be a great project for a database. There will be a range that corals do great at, and it will also vary with type of lighting but good idea.

 

[AquamanSE]

this would be a great project for a database. There will be a range that corals do great at, and it will also vary with type of lighting but good idea.

Exactly-good idea but the best you could do is create a guild line or ball park as every situation is different. We all have gotten pieces from friends who say hey grows best at........& that only works half the time cause there running T5, Led or MH-there running GFO/Carbon or Pellet & so on.

 

[jbadd99]

I had been told, and read, that most SPS corals photo saturate around 300 PAR. But I'd still like to see a database as mentioned above.

 

[n0rk]

I had been told, and read, that most SPS corals photo saturate around 300 PAR. But I'd still like to see a database as mentioned above.

I'd be dubious of this... what about shallow equatorial species being pumped with closer to 2000 year after year?

 

[sirreal63]

Some acro's are adaptable to very high par. Here is a thread where it was shown at MACNA what is needed. Of course, it is not carved in stone and is just a guideline.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1918643

 

[Potsy]

I'd be dubious of this... what about shallow equatorial species being pumped with closer to 2000 year after year?

They have adapted to withstand those high par levels at midday, but there probably isn't any photosynthesis going on. Perhaps their photo-inhibition levels are higher than deeper water species.

 

[tmgrash]

I'd be dubious of this... what about shallow equatorial species being pumped with closer to 2000 year after year?

I would also be dubious. I have several corals (stags, tenius, birdsnest) getting 900+ par, and are thriving with color and growth. 300 par seems like an awfully low number as a photo-saturation point.

No scientific evidence here, but I would imagine you would need to be at least 30' deep to get down to 300 par on a sunlit reef.

 

[sahin]

The article below has a good discussion and examples of photosaturation and photoinhibitions points for a few corals:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/3/aafeature1