Par Readings on Mojo's tank

[mojo~]

Well here is what I have gotten on my tank.

Ill combine them all on our website here soon.

 

[mojo~]

It looks like in the tank mine is pretty close to Davids. His tank is a couple inches deeper but the halides with good reflectors I think can put out a little more but you get to a point where it is too much. Like in Davids tank he cant hardly keep chalices as they get a lot of light and get bleached out. You kind of need a balance. I think reducing the light cycle or having more days with no light would help reduce some bleaching.

 

[JCR's Reef]

Those are some good numbers. Pretty comparable to the TEK?

 

[mojo~]

well look at robs and you will see. I put them all in one page on our website.

 

[LOVETHISHOBBY]

It looks like the Sunpower fixture puts out more power than the Tek fixture. When I saw Jessie's tank, I just knew it was brighter. I like my balance. The acros & montis are doing just fine towards the upper half and the LPS and softies are doing well towards the bottom half. But, either way neither fixture matches the flash light power of my frag tank...LOL!

 

[mojo~]

Well i took my lights off and put a candle on top with a piece of blue glass and I was able to match your frag tank #'s and still get the shimmer. Smelled like apple cinnimon too.

 

[LOVETHISHOBBY]

Too funny...

 

[Gondore]

It looks like in the tank mine is pretty close to Davids. His tank is a couple inches deeper but the halides with good reflectors I think can put out a little more but you get to a point where it is too much. Like in Davids tank he cant hardly keep chalices as they get a lot of light and get bleached out. You kind of need a balance. I think reducing the light cycle or having more days with no light would help reduce some bleaching.

I think it's sort of a trade off. I think I get better growth with acros in general but I do have problems with chalices unless I keep them in the shade. Most acros tend to like more light then things like chalices, acans, favias, etc.

 

[mojo~]

yea you def get some growth from acros.

 

[kc350twin]

MOJO, I was wondering is there a chart or a guide line of PAR levels and what your able to grow under them? Like ACROs 300par and up. That's just a guess not fact. I see most people you have measured have had around the 200's on the sand bed and your stating your needing to shade chalices. Why don't you move the light up? Too much spill over light?

Thanks for your time

 

[mojo~]

I did move it up some and am only running all the bulbs 4l5 hours a day.

 

[kc350twin]

Are you missing the shimmer? I am looking real hard at the ATI fixtures again but am scared of not having shimmer. I really like it but my next tank will need to be efficient due to high electric bills. The wife will flip if it goes up any higher.

 

[mojo~]

Yes I miss it some. But I have found a the corals dont have as much shade and a greater portion of the coral is exposed to light.

 

[crigsby]

Mojo,

my tank is the same dimensions as yours just a little taller (24" tall). I was going to purchase the same 6 bulb ati fixture you have but am now not able to spend the money on a six bulb fixture and was wondering if you think I could get away with the 4 bulb fixture. I have a mixed reef with several sps. I know I won't have as many options for color combinations but want to see some good growth out of my sps. Any thoughts?

Thanks

 

[mojo~]

well I like the color options for sure. But its a ton of light. What I would do is get the 6 bulb 24 in fixture. this would give you a little shade on the sides for chalices. And it wouldnt be dark it would just be a little more area with indirect light.

 

[crigsby]

Thanks for the response!

So how high off the surface do you think I would need to have the 24'' fixture in order to to get a good spread of light so that the ends are not dark. I am just trying to visualize what the tank would look like with a shorter light.

Thanks

 

[mojo~]

about 4 to 6 inches off the surface