PAR Meter and Lighting Questions

G

Grant

Premium Member
I currently have the club PAR meter and have measured the readings in several parts of my tank. ?They aren't drastically different since my tank is only 18" deep but that wasn't any surprise. ? I'm running two Kessil A160WE pendants. ?What I'm having a hard time figuring out is what the readings SHOULD be? ? Online I've seen people say 400-500 for SPS but I've also seen people saying that their SPS is doing great at 200-250. ? Also, would those numbers be different for LED vs MH? ??Currently I'm only reading a little over 130 on the SPS side (and that?s after the .3 correction being applied). ? This seems really low but when I had the lights running at 90-100% intensity the SPS corals were losing color and all turning kind of tan. Any soft corals had to be completely shaded (although the Frogspawn seems to be invulnerable and has been happy with anything). ? After turning the lights down to 70% on the SPS side and 60% on the other side I started to get some color back on the SPS corals, although neither of the blue Acros that are my favorites have improved much. ?I have some Montipora Caps a little lower down and they seem to be doing great. ? So does a ?Surf and Turf" Acro that's a little further off to the side. ? This makes me think that my lights are still too bright?but the PAR meter seems to say differently.My current lighting schedule is 9 hours: ?1:00pm - 10:00pm. ?It ramps up for 4 hours to a max of 70% on the side with the SPS corals (60% on the side that's mostly a giant Frogspawn and some Zoas). ?It stays at 70% for an hour, then 4 hours back down.Am I just running them too long? ?Is it better to have more intense light for a shorter duration? ?And this doesn't even bring up the aspect of color temperature. ? If I'm running the lights at a specific intensity does it matter if the color is at 10k vs 14k? ?I?d be happy to hear any suggestions at this point.
 
When it comes to light; there are different methods that work for people, it really depends in too many factors but Drex uploaded an article recently which is very interesting, it is in our Facebook page.It talks in detail about the best approach and type of light recommended.
 
That's kind of what I was expecting would be the answer. ?I'll go look for that article and check it out. ?Thanks.
 
I'm trying to make a long explanation short, but what do your water params look like? ?Too much light and not enough food messes with things. ?Lowering the light will fix it, but there may be other solutions as well, particularly if the LPS is unhappy.
 
I can't find it right now, but I just wanted a really good video put out by BRS TV talking about PAR measurements and what they should be for SPS / LPS ect.? If I can find it I'll post it here, but I suspect some google searching will uncover it for you.The big take away I got from the video was your coral will live 50X longer with not enough light than too much.?
 
Thanks, I'll take a look and see if I can find that BRS video. ? As for the water parameters, it looks good except that I'm reading almost zero nitrates (it's an API test kit, so it's slightly darker than the "0" color but nowhere near the "5") and zero phosphates. ?I've started adding some coral food in a few times a week and have (for now at least) cut out the automatic water changes. ??The LPS is perfectly happy (before and after I lowered the light). ?The few soft corals I have are definitely happier with less light, though, but since they're all on one side of the tank I can leave the light on that side at a lower setting.
 
https://reefbuilders.com/2015/09/19/grow-colorul-sps-corals/Here you go Grant here's the link to that article 
 
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