Trouble with SPS on new tank

[acer]

Well I may have figured out why I am having issues with SPS on my tank for the past 2 years and why my softy's/ Zoa's are looking great. Alex lent me his PAR meter and my Radion G3 xr30 using Color Lab program at 100% is reading only about 250 at a few inches below water surface and 150 at 12 inches. My Reefbreeders 24 is much better at close to 500 at a few inches and around 300 at 12 inches. I was putting the SPS under the Radion thinking it was the better light- well not according to the PAR meter. I emailed Ecotec today asking why my par is so low on the G3 xr30 - maybe its just worn out - it was an original G2 and I upgraded it with new pucks and fans almost 3 years ago.

If anybody has Xr30 G3 what setting/programs are u using and what is your PAR?

 

[loui]

Interesting find. I would be interested in Eco-techs response. I am using reef breeders photon V2. I have never used a par meter, but I have acros on the bottom 1/3 of the tank and I only get the light up to 65% and that is only for a couple of hours. I could't imagine the par reading being higher then 150 at that level. Would love to find out though.

Biggest issue I have had with Acros is letting the ALK get to high, mine seem to do best at 7.5 to 8.0. Recently noticed some white showing on some acros and I was at 10 ALK. I lost a couple due to the spike and my laziness this summer and not checking ALK more often.

 

[acer]

Mine is 8.4 and I cannot get it lower than that. Yes, I agree the light is not the main issue. My Alk is. The light may be a part of the overall problem.

 

[acer]

I did hear from Ecotek today. They asked for pics if tank, etc.

Also due to my issues of high Alk and my lazyness of not testing enough. I ran an Alk test=results= 9.8. What!! Every Sunday I do a 15-20 gallon water change - my total water is about 210 gallons. So, that means doing that 10% water change increased my Alk from 8.4 to 9.8!! - well probably just killed the nice frags Bob just gave me. I have been reading about other people having high Alk issues- read that Randy Holmes Farley (chemistry guru) says Alk can cone from frag plugs, artificial rock,etc. And I do have 2 pieces of man made rock = both shelves if u look at my pics. Both have been in the system since it began. Hmmmmm... Water change was with a new batch if Reef crystal- so that's not helping either. Will need to stick to a low ALK salt from now on. Will test the new salt mix and post it later.

 

[loui]

Instant Ocean regular salt may be a good option and elmers has it on sale real cheap.

I use reef crystals myself, but I only do a 5 gallon water change once a week. Been thinking of going back to regular Instant Ocean, so I can do larger water changes every once in awhile and avoid the possibility of spiking my ALK.

Wonder why ecotech was asking questions about your tank? 150 par at 100% at 12 inches has nothing to do with anything going on inside your tank.

 

[acer]

Ya, I was kinda confused about the questions fron Ecotek as well.

 

[Pittsburgh]

they probably think that there is a bacterial bloom in the water blocking the light...

Anyway, there is a calculator for radions which should tell you what your par is supposed to be at various depths given the spectrum and the brightness:
https://www.aquaticlog.com/radion

Your light seems to be quite a bit on the blue spectrum, which is fine, but the PAR of blue LEDs is much lower than that of the white LEDs, which means you'd have to drive them at a much higher intensity. This could explain the readings. But then again, I'm not ruling out a problem with the radion either.

 

[acer]

Here is a copy of the main body of the email I got from Ecotech today:


"Based off of the pictures the light on the right does appear pretty bright, possibly brighter than you would normally run it above your tank so I don't believe there is an LED issue with that light. I do see currently only of the lights are in your account. Although the lights are scheduled at very different intensity, with being totally different lights with different programming and LEDs available it would be difficult to compare among the two. With how sensitive PAR meters can be, it may be not picking up the light correctly at the Radion is appearing very bright in the pictures. It would appear that if you were trying to reach a particular PAR value, it may cause the tank to be too bright for the corals at that point. I'd recommend closely monitoring the reactions of the corals, as you may lowering of the lights may be needed. Please let me know if there is anything additional I could assist you with, thank you Ted."


Am I reading this correctly? It seems to me the Ecotech rep is basing the "functionality " of the XR30 on the "brightness" of my emailed cell phone picture (he has no idea the cell phone model, its settings, the room brightness, etc. ) . Rather than by a PAR meter, and the fact that my Reefbreeders light is reading nearly double the PAR as the Ecotech light on that same PAR meter- I did include a pic of the PAR meter setup showing the PAR meter reading, where the sensor was sitting in the tank, etc. Please note, I did not contact Ecotech for any warranty purposes or to get anything for free - rather I was wondering if I needed to send the light for diagnostic purposes and then expected to get a bill for those services and have them give me an estimate to fix the light or to tell me that is is not worth fixing at this point. I guess Ecotech is not interested in supporting/servicing G3 lights any longer.

Pittsburgh/Alex: Upon looking at that link and reading your post - I think the Par meter readings may be "off" because of the "Colorlab program" I have the XR30 light programmed with which does is indeed put the blue LED's at 100 % and the white/ red/green at 50% as you suggested- I will remeasure tomorrow with all LED's at 100% as by the time I get home this evening the light will be pretty low. I told Ecotech in my original email what program I was using - for this very purpose.