Supplementing my Reefbreeders Photon

[Ian14]

I have 2 reefbreeder photon 32's over my 220 gallon mixed reef

Standard size 72x24x31

I have been contemplating adding some kind of t5 fixture or kessil light to supplement it. Most of the coral in my tank are small frags and seem to be doing okay but I wonder if adding something could help, especially since how deep the tank is.



Would putting a kessil right in the middle and front of where the two reef breeders come together make the surrounding light look weird where the kessil doesn't reach?

 

[DavidinGA]

Why not just add some 60"T5's (let retro kit)?

 

[Ian14]

I was looking into that. Do you have any suggestions? Not very familiar with t5 lighting

 

[Ian14]

http://www.marinedepot.com/Hamilton...ofit_Kits-Hamilton-HT01247-FILTRTRFTF-vi.html

What about this? 2x80. Would this actually help growth or would I wasting my time?

 

[DavidinGA]

I bought two 60" LET retro kits for my 210gal. Bought them from reefnerd (best prices I could find).

I have leds in the middle and 2 T5's on each side. 4 60" tubes total and am running 2 coral+ and 2 blue plus bulbs.

Getting way better light spread (tank is WAY brighter now) and saw a noticeable increase in sps growth after adding them.

 

[DavidinGA]

Link to what I bought

https://www.reefnerd.com/products.php?72&sid=db9259967072100689747952d92ab98b

 

[Ian14]

Awesome. Were they easy to setup? I'm not really sure how hang/place them

What kind of LEDs do you have?

 

[DavidinGA]

Awesome. Were they easy to setup? I'm not really sure how hang/place them

What kind of LEDs do you have?

The retro's are really pretty but if you have a canopy I'm sure you can make them work.

Here is a top view of mine (I still had one photon 32 in this pic):

I had 2 reef breeders photon 32's, but have since sold them as I didn't need/want the ramping programmable features.

Replaced them with three eBay boxes which I am currently running.

 

[Ian14]

Nice, just ordered them. Only going to start with one kit for now and place them on the front to see how it goes. Going with a coral plus and blue plus bulb.

How high do you keep em off the surface?

 

[DavidinGA]

Same height as my leds about 10" off the water

 

[Ron Reefman]

Ian, have you checked the PAR in your tank? You don't really know if you even need anything more. And I have my doubts that you do.

I have the same fixture (made and sold by EverGrow) over a 180g (so only 24" deep). I have a PAR meter and I max my leds at 90% blue and 40% white and have almost a 200 PAR at the sand. I've used these leds for over 31 months now and my few softies, more lps and lots of sps are all healthy and growing just as well as the did a few years ago under 1000 watts of MH and 160 watts of t5.

I'm not saying you shouldn't do what you are doing. I'm just saying I seriously doubt your corals will respond any different than they were before the change. They may look different with the addition of new spectrum from the t5's. And that's cool if that's what you wanted. But your original post said, "Most of the coral in my tank are small frags and seem to be doing okay but I wonder if adding something could help, especially since how deep the tank is." If the corals are doing OK, what 'help' did they need. You don't expect small frags to grow fast. But as they become bigger colonies and have way more growth area, they will grow like weeds.

Good luck.

 

[Ian14]

Ian, have you checked the PAR in your tank? You don't really know if you even need anything more. And I have my doubts that you do.

I have the same fixture (made and sold by EverGrow) over a 180g (so only 24" deep). I have a PAR meter and I max my leds at 90% blue and 40% white and have almost a 200 PAR at the sand. I've used these leds for over 31 months now and my few softies, more lps and lots of sps are all healthy and growing just as well as the did a few years ago under 1000 watts of MH and 160 watts of t5.

I'm not saying you shouldn't do what you are doing. I'm just saying I seriously doubt your corals will respond any different than they were before the change. They may look different with the addition of new spectrum from the t5's. And that's cool if that's what you wanted. But your original post said, "Most of the coral in my tank are small frags and seem to be doing okay but I wonder if adding something could help, especially since how deep the tank is." If the corals are doing OK, what 'help' did they need. You don't expect small frags to grow fast. But as they become bigger colonies and have way more growth area, they will grow like weeds.

Good luck.

You may be right. I haven't checked the par and I am not willing to purchase a 200-300 dollar unit to test it. I just am worried about the corals in the front that are about 8 inches off of the direct light from the LEDs. The LEDs seem very directional

 

[Ian14]

Got the miro-4 let and tank looks much better

 

[Ron Reefman]

You didn't say you were trying to make the tank look better, you said you were worried about the corals getting enough light.

 

[Ian14]

You didn't say you were trying to make the tank look better, you said you were worried about the corals getting enough light.

Some corals opened up that I have never seen open up before

 

[Ron Reefman]

DavidinGA, do you have a PAR meter? Did you lower the led power when you added the t5's? What color t5 bulbs did you use? Can you run the 2 t5's independat of each other? I'm thinking a white bulb at the front of the tank for midday and a blue bulb at the back of the tank for morning and evening (or even all day).

I'm considering adding t5's, because I think it will soften the shadows due to the led lenses. I currently run my 32" led fixtures at 40% white and 90% blue for 3 hours with long sunrise and sunset schedules. I happen to like the effect.

 

[DavidinGA]

DavidinGA, do you have a PAR meter? Did you lower the led power when you added the t5's? What color t5 bulbs did you use? Can you run the 2 t5's independat of each other? I'm thinking a white bulb at the front of the tank for midday and a blue bulb at the back of the tank for morning and evening (or even all day).

I'm considering adding t5's, because I think it will soften the shadows due to the led lenses. I currently run my 32" led fixtures at 40% white and 90% blue for 3 hours with long sunrise and sunset schedules. I happen to like the effect.

I don't have a par meter.

I did not change the led levels at all.

I added two 60" T5's first and ran them for an hour a day and raised it by an hour each week. I can't remember when, but I added two more T5's later and did the same thing with them (added an extra hour of run time each week).

I'm up to 7 hours a day on all 4 lamps now. They run during the last 7 hours that the leds are on. The leds run for 12 hours a day with zero ramping at 60/70%.

Yes you can run two bulbs independent of the other two bulbs (two bulbs per ballast) if you want to.

Right now I am running two coral plus and two blue plus bulbs:

Front
C+
B+
leds
C+
B+
Back

I just got a purple plus bulb and may replace one of the C+ bulbs with it.


The tank is WAY brighter and looks night and day better when the T5's kick on. The leds are just not providing enough coverage by themselves, plus now I won't get the led shading issues where the coral tissue doesn't grow down at the base.

I definitely recommend adding T5's!

 

[Ron Reefman]

Thanks David. I may just give that a try.