Tips For Finding the Right Light Intensity

[Darth_Tater]

I'm just trying to find some tips on what to look for in SPS (Acros in particular) that will indicate they're getting the correct light intensity assuming all other variables are good.

Obviously when it's too intense they will bleach and if too low I'd guess they will brown out. But how do you tell when the light's just right?

Thanks!

 

[jda]

It depends on the light. With a high quality light like VHO, T5 or MH, you can very rarely give the corals too much of this high quality light and you can look elsewhere for signs of problems (nutrients, chemistry, etc.). With a lower quality light like the spectrum-cut and focused LEDs, you have to balance too much bad spectrum with getting enough light and this can be really hard - you won't find too many people who can adequately show folks how to do this on any kind of scale and you never know what is the matter with the corals.

Unfortunately, chemistry and nutrients also cause bleaching and browning, so this is really a hard question to answer.

 

[bif24701]

I'm just trying to find some tips on what to look for in SPS (Acros in particular) that will indicate they're getting the correct light intensity assuming all other variables are good.



Obviously when it's too intense they will bleach and if too low I'd guess they will brown out. But how do you tell when the light's just right?



Thanks!

First of all, you need to adequately feed your corals. I found that the less NO3 I had, like .<5ppm, the less LED light they could take. Boosted NO3 to >5ppm and acros/Montis loved more light. I've been using an added T5 pair to my LEDs to watch for any changes. PAR levels in my system are 600-200PAR down to sand.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Darth_Tater]

Ok, thanks for the info!

 

[Bulldog88]

Good info Bif, what is your lighting equipment list?

 

[Bulldog88]

Also, since you're seeing better results keeping NO3 higher are you running GFO, carbon, etc?

 

[WLachnit]

I'm curious as well. How about PO4?