Patrick Cox
Active member
Hello,
I am running a 100G (48"x24"x20") SPS focused aquarium that is approaching 1 year old. Day 1 was Feb 10, 2016. I have had my challenges over that time but for the past few months things have really improved. I am starting to get better colors and better growth. One thing I have been working on and what is the subject of this post is increasing the lighting of my tank. I am running an 8x54 ATI fixture with an LED strip mounted to the front simply for night time viewing.
My salinity is 1.025, Alk has been running around 9 and Ca at 455.
Here is my current lighting setup and schedule:
ATI FIXTURE SETUP - Back to Front
Channel 2 Blue +
Channel 2 Coral +
Channel 1 Actinic
Channel 2 Blue +
Channel 2 Purple +
Channel 1 Actinic
Channel 2 Coral +
Channel 2 Blue +
LED Blue LED - Attached to Front of Fixture
SCHEDULE:
Channel 1
11:00 - 12:40 No ramp
19:10 - 20:30 Ramps down pretty quickly
Channel 2
12:00 - 19:10 No ramp
LED
18:00 - 20:30 Ramps down last 30 minutes
So over the past few months, I have been making two adjustments to my light schedule...
1. I have been increasing the length of time I run Channel 2 (main day light)
2. I have been adding some Channel 1 to the main daytime light cycle in order to get more intense light during the day. You can see that I am only about 40 minutes into this in the morning. ( Channels 1 and 2 overlap from 12:00 - 12:40)
So my questions are...
Q1. For SPS, what light schedule should I be moving towards as my end state permanent light cycle and intensity?
Q2. And in making changes, are there considerations in adjusting intensity vs time the lights are on? So my way of adding intensity would be to add more time to Channel 1 and then I could even substitute out at least one of the actinics for say a Blue + if needed.
So thanks for your suggestions and here are a few pictures...
I am running a 100G (48"x24"x20") SPS focused aquarium that is approaching 1 year old. Day 1 was Feb 10, 2016. I have had my challenges over that time but for the past few months things have really improved. I am starting to get better colors and better growth. One thing I have been working on and what is the subject of this post is increasing the lighting of my tank. I am running an 8x54 ATI fixture with an LED strip mounted to the front simply for night time viewing.
My salinity is 1.025, Alk has been running around 9 and Ca at 455.
Here is my current lighting setup and schedule:
ATI FIXTURE SETUP - Back to Front
Channel 2 Blue +
Channel 2 Coral +
Channel 1 Actinic
Channel 2 Blue +
Channel 2 Purple +
Channel 1 Actinic
Channel 2 Coral +
Channel 2 Blue +
LED Blue LED - Attached to Front of Fixture
SCHEDULE:
Channel 1
11:00 - 12:40 No ramp
19:10 - 20:30 Ramps down pretty quickly
Channel 2
12:00 - 19:10 No ramp
LED
18:00 - 20:30 Ramps down last 30 minutes
So over the past few months, I have been making two adjustments to my light schedule...
1. I have been increasing the length of time I run Channel 2 (main day light)
2. I have been adding some Channel 1 to the main daytime light cycle in order to get more intense light during the day. You can see that I am only about 40 minutes into this in the morning. ( Channels 1 and 2 overlap from 12:00 - 12:40)
So my questions are...
Q1. For SPS, what light schedule should I be moving towards as my end state permanent light cycle and intensity?
Q2. And in making changes, are there considerations in adjusting intensity vs time the lights are on? So my way of adding intensity would be to add more time to Channel 1 and then I could even substitute out at least one of the actinics for say a Blue + if needed.
So thanks for your suggestions and here are a few pictures...
