PAR readings for acans and chalices

[reefgems]

Hi all,

Just got an Apogee MQ200 and i'd like to hear opinions on my readings. Acans and Chalices each have their own tank and they are all on the bottom of a 10" deep shallow tank (all individual corals are the same distance to the light in each tank), my t5's are in ATI fixtures, 24" above the acans, 36" above the chalices. Oh and they are getting indirect sunlight so these values might up to 10% higher. I already did some research and found that many people are getting values of 200 on their sandbed, a value much higher than mine.

Acans = 110

Chalices = 90

Who thinks I need more light? What are your readings/expierence for these types of lps? How should I expect my corals to react long term to these values?

Thanks for your data and opinions!

 

[reefgems]

I just did another set of readings with the powermodule t5 fixtures on full blast and no indirect sun (blinds closed) and tried to use better techniques for taking the readings

Acan tank = 100-130

Chalice tank = 70-100

btw my corals are growing and my acans have kept their amazing rainbow colors 4 + months into this new system/lighting. i didn't want to overdo it right away but now i'm trying to make an educated decision on how i can change my lighting for the better. i feel like my chalices might need more light.

anyone have their acans or chalices growing in shallow tanks with only 5-7 inches of water above the coral? whats your lighting?

 

[sleepy.b.Floyd]

you must be doing something right if your corals are thriving

 

[nikon187]

We have some 10" down under 250 14k metal halide growing strong.

 

[reefgems]

i feed them a real lot of rods food every other day so they are really on a healthy diet. this has probably helped them out a ton and is probably the reason i have seen so much growth. i feel like tweaking my lighting a little could provide them extra energy for even more growth! i don't think i could feed anymore without turning my tank into a sesspool but i still want more growth

 

[nikon187]

How high is your ATI fixture off the water?

 

[2006]

I keep my acans at about 100 par. Most have maintained or improved in color but a few still developed white striping.

 

[reefgems]

nikon187: 24" for the acans and 36" for the chalices

2006: thanks for sharing your par. i hate it when acans develop that white striping (especially when my rings of saturn did that). it would be interesting to hear about par values for acans and rainbow coloration from others

anyone using par values like mine for chalices?

 

[CNGH]

i'm pretty clueless when it comes to PAR and whatnot, so forgive my ignorance if this question seems stupid or incomprehensible :

when you're measuring the PAR readings, are you placing the photometer/sensor thingy inside of your tank and submerged in the water? or are you doing it outside of your tank from an equivalent distance (from your fixture to your corals) and observing the readings? I've seen it done the latter way (or in an empty, waterless tank). I'm assuming water has an effect on the "amount of PAR" or light reaching the corals (and hence why we can't see to the bottom of the ocean), but maybe the relative shallowness of our tanks doesn't make a difference? i dunno, like i say, i'm pretty clueless.

anyway: measure inside a full tank? or measure equivalent distances outside and dry?

from the pics of your acans, it looks like you know what you're doing, and i aspire to get my acans to look as good as yours. some of mine have white-striped, but i still like 'em. thanks!!

 

[reefgems]

the par sensor end is submerged in the water, i am currently just sticking my arm in the water but i am trying to hold the wire to the sensor out with my fingers (basically trying to have my arm minimize any reading errors due to the reflection from me being so white even though i just went to cancun last month!)

i was also wondering what you were talking about, my tank is only 10" from the surface to the bottom glass, so the corals are between 5-7 inches from the surface depending on their size. this is shallow for acans and chalices compared to the norm i believe. i know that light intensity decreases exponentially with depth, but certain spectrums only, thats why we see blue underwater not red. so how will this shallow depth i'm using affect my acans and chalices with spectrums and coloration in mind compared to 24" deep/10" surface to bulb situations?

 

[crooks]

What par should opens brains, scolys, and plate corals be at? I also just got a par meter and am wondering where some things should be at.

 

[reefgems]

crooks: I think many times those corals are kept in a similar location to acans and chalices, generally kept on the sandbed.


anyone out there with chalices that can share some par readings? thoughts on shallow culture...

 

[las]

just tagging along and trying to figure out where to keep my chalices

 

[reefgems]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1787673&highlight=PAR+readings

this was a thread i started over in the lighting forum but threads fly through there so quick its hard to get anything accomplished but it also gathering information

i will try and get some specific readings for some specific chalices that are growing fast up soon


tell me about your lighting if you grow these lps with only 5-7" of water over them... or if you have any lighting info or PAR values, thanks!

 

[las]

what is a good instrument to buy for reading par levels?

 

[SDguy]

...but a few still developed white striping.

i hate it when acans develop that white striping

I am not familiar with this. Can someone explain it to me, or point me to a thread? Thanks!

 

[reefgems]

las: Apogee MQ200 is what i'm using

SDguy: Sometimes on a newly imported acan lord the colors will morph. Sometimes this morph just ruins the acans color. For example, this frag I bought around mid may last year was bright as anything, check out the pic. After 3 or 4 months it developed a white striping and the yellow pretty much dissappeared. The color was ruined as it was now a red with white stripes (quite a drastic change). Also, when I got the frag it was on ebay and there were two being auctioned. The other went to PurpleUp who I believe sold his colony. In his sale photo his acan looks exactly like mine, two frags from the same mother colony go to different parts of the country under different lights/tanks and both still morph to this plain color. Other acans morph and become better colored. I have had this happen with blue rainbow acans too that become pink and red. I have recently purchased another identical frag of the same yellow red and it has kept its colors thus far, only 3 months now, so we'll see if the morphing happens with the same colors but from diff colonies.

 

[SDguy]

Interesting, hanks for the info! So is the theory too much, too little, or wrong type of light?

 

[reefgems]

2006: It seems like you think its caused from high light... Is this true?

SDguy: I'm not sure myself, ive only been growing acans for 14 months now so I have much to learn but it seems like a light issue, maybe too much, but probably a combination of too much and wrong type, i mean with all the bulbs out there and types of lighting systems, MH, t5s, VHO, PC, LEDs, it seems almost impossible to find the right combination, although i've been keeping it simple lately, t5's and the grim reefer's advise

could the striping issue be related to light and water temp??

here is my hypothesis, the white striping is like a reflector for the polyp, if there is too much light a gene is activated which allows the polyp to be more heavily populated with that particular white zooxanthealle (other colors might be deactivated by that gene). black absorbs light, white reflects it so it seems to me that the polyps are reacting to too much light by reflecting it, what do you think?



PAR readings? anyone... if your lights are out now, take some tomorrow

 

[2006]

2006: It seems like you think its caused from high light... Is this true?

Yeah too much light seems to have an affect.