I found your YouTube video on YouTube whilst searching for LED SPS tanks and then searched you up and found my way here lol.
Amazing video. Amazing tank. I would love to see more of your tank. Photos and details about your beautiful setup please.
Are you running both Radions and pc actinics over your 90G? Can you please provide details of your radion settings.
Many thanks.
Thank you for the kind words.
Regarding Radions and PC actinics. I hesitated to list both of these because the power compacts (pure actinic bulbs) only run for two hours a day. My reasoning to this is to provide a spectrum that Radion's arguably lack, and for pure aesthic's. I run them during dusk/actinic phase, when I think my tank looks it's best. Everything glows, I can't even really capture it on camera because it's so intense. I can always reduce vibrance and saturation but then it doesn't do justice to the appearance in person.
In regard's to LED's. There is alot of love/hate with them. I have a few theories on the problems with them, or what seem as problems...
#1 is that people run them too high. I have two Radion's over my 90g and I'm currently running them @ only 65% max power during the peak of the light phase. All the while I have been flirting with bleaching many different corals.
#2 PAR ratings are not accurate when measuring LED's (more on this later)... I read a physics related explanation on this, I don't remember where but it was a very credible source and made sense to me. A testament to this is that I have LPS bleaching at the bottom of my tank. I have a Platygyra... Brain Maze... it was the first coral I ever aquired, and somehow is still alive and doing well after 5 years and 3 tank upgrades. It is at the bottom of my tank and the very top of it is very bleached. Yet, the sides are showing excellent growth and the best tentacle extension I have ever seen from it.
#3 Independent spectrum.... this is my own personal observation, and may not be relative whatsoever. When I look at my tank... and the shimmer it produces, I notice something unique. Every single LED color/spectrum is distinguishable. Think of a disco ball. When I see the reflection from the top of the water to the light fixture this makes sense. With every other form of reef lighting, the color spectrum is blended. Think of a metal halide. It is one extremely bright light source containing a multitude of spectrum's. It's not like this with LEDs and could be some explanation of why PAR isn't an accurate measure for the intensity of LEDs.
#4 is that most LED fixtures to not provide a near complete spectrum. Blue + Royal Blue + Cool White... just doesn't seem adequate. Even though that what the majority of light consists of @ reef levels, there are still small amounts of other spectrum's missing. The consequences of this seem to be shown in growth and overall color, rather than survival.
Then again, I could be way off on all of this. Just basing it on what makes sense to me, which could totally be proven wrong by science or physics or whatever.
If you want my Radion Program PM me and I will send you a link where you can download it. But every tank is unique and has it's own demands, it will likely need adjusting.
Wow... longest post ever.
... nice tank Drew
