Novices need LED lighting questions answered.

[Ron Reefman]

Originally Posted by karyze

Thanks for starting this! Comes at a perfect time for me, as I'm about to get my 75g box of air back wet again and full of reef. I need to refurbish the hood, and had MH + actinics, but am considering LEDs. Looking forward to learning more from others' experience.

If I were setting up a new 75g reef, I'd be looking at a couple of OceanRevive, ReefBreeders or EverGrow fixtures. Two of the smaller fixtures like the OR T247 or a couple of basic RB fixtures will work fine. The upgrade I like (because I like sunrise/sunset and I'd like color control) in the RB Photon 32 V-2 or 48 V-2. The 32" will cover your 48" tank. The 48" fixture doesn't have any additional leds and at 48" wide, the end leds will just be lighting up whatever is out the sides of your tank (wasting light).

[Crimson11]

I am planning to do a 150cm diy led light controlled by an arduino most probably as I use arduino to control the water level, leakage, timer for t5's etc.

As soon as I become more proficient about the par/pur I will start the project, so its a very useful thread for me.

[othyehe]

I have an oak canopy with a glass top. It does stay dry. Affects the light a bit, but thus far seems ok.

[jam.jo]

Has anyone tried the Galaxy hydro lights yet? I have them, I used a par meter to adjust them to about 400 par at the top of my tank, but my red planet acro is not doing very well. It has turned brownish and pale, but not white. Any tips?

[Ron Reefman]

Originally Posted by jam.jo

Has anyone tried the Galaxy hydro lights yet? I have them, I used a par meter to adjust them to about 400 par at the top of my tank, but my red planet acro is not doing very well. It has turned brownish and pale, but not white. Any tips?

How deep is the Red Planet? Do you know the PAR at it's depth?

[jam.jo]

The red planet is within the 2 inch space from the surface of the water from the base. It is just a small frag right now about an inch tall. The PAR gets about 400 measured with a seneye.

[Ron Reefman]

If the PAR is 400 at the red planet, you may have too much light.

How big is your tank that a red planet coral is only 2" under the water surface?

[jam.jo]

My tank is 40 gallons but my rock is stacked two high and so the area that receives the most light is in that 2 inch space which I have read sps need that par of light. But maybe I read that wrong too.

[Ron Reefman]

Par of 400 seems a bit high, but there are a host of other potential reasons besides the PAR or light for this coral's poor health. Even if everything else in your tank is doing well.

[Snuggs]

Hydra 26 settings.

[Crimson11]

I ended up buying 3 165w led lights like mars aqua. they are wifi controlled with a "chinese" app.

[TriedAndProven]

I've used LEDs on planted tanks before, but am getting ready to take the salt plunge. Since Build My LED is done with consumer sales I'm looking at Kessil and EcoTech. Tank will be an ADA 60P, 24" x 12" x 14" deep.

Can I get by with a single Radion XR15 Pro, or will I need more? Absolutely want SPS.

[Ron Reefman]

A single Radion at 8" off the water over a 14" deep tank will light the entire tank. However, Radions don't cover 2' spreads as well as some other led fixtures due to the tight grouping of the leds and that the light won't get the benefit of a 24" deep tank to spread out. You may find the outer edges of the tank are not as well lit and may not be acceptable for sps corals. But you are probably right at the ragged edge of enough. If you can raise the fixture higher off the water, you will get better end to end coverage.

[TriedAndProven]

Originally Posted by Ron Reefman

A single Radion at 8" off the water over a 14" deep tank will light the entire tank. However, Radions don't cover 2' spreads as well as some other led fixtures due to the tight grouping of the leds and that the light won't get the benefit of a 24" deep tank to spread out. You may find the outer edges of the tank are not as well lit and may not be acceptable for sps corals. But you are probably right at the ragged edge of enough. If you can raise the fixture higher off the water, you will get better end to end coverage.

Would I be better off with a Kessil or AI Hydra instead?

[drodge]

Does anyone know if O2Surplus sells his controller boards anywhere else? I'm new to the forums and can't PM or search the classifieds, so i assume that's where they would be. I'm building a new custom LED setup and have a Bluefish mini already. I was looking to integrate fan control into my build and ran across his arduino integrated board and it's exactly what I need. If anyone has any idea where to purchase one I'd be indebted.

[Stackhous1]

I bought the hydra 26 HD but how do u know what levels to set each color at.
Everyone says something way different

[Tanthaitrung]

Originally Posted by Ron Reefman

Set your initial power levels low and adjust them to a color (shade of white/blue) you like. I'd suggest you start at something like 50% blue and 25% white (or even less) and then bump it up 10% every week or two. I run my fixture at 100% blue and 50% white. But understand, that is after a full 3 years of slowly bumping up the power levels from the 50% blue and 25% white when I started. Put a sacrificial coral as high in the tank as your highest coral and when it starts to show signs of bleaching, dial the power back a touch and you are good to go

Dear Ron Reefman,

My tank is 72x28x28 running with Rapid Led Corona x 3 (120W each). It was fallow in few months because of aiptasia and high PO4. But when Copperbanded Butterfly came and cleaned a ton of aiptasia, I was so happy and made my tank recovered then bought the lights as I said above (I used to have T5 but no knowledge about led) There are some fishes, mushroom leather coral and zoanthids now.

My tank has no hair algae any more, even no need to clean glasses. Next week, I will add some corals. My question are:

- If I start the lights at 50% and bump up 10% every week, then after few weeks my lights will reach 100%. What happens if the new corals come when the lights at 100%? They will be burned?

- Why did you suggest too much blue?

Thanks in advance & Regards
Khanh

[Sk8r]

THey will be burned. You have to acclimate them to the light by reducing intensity and photoperiod and increasing it slowly over time.

[Tanthaitrung]

Originally Posted by Sk8r

THey will be burned. You have to acclimate them to the light by reducing intensity and photoperiod and increasing it slowly over time.

Thanks so much Sk8r

But I don't know why adjusting too much blue?

Regards
Khanh

[Ron Reefman]

Khanh, I'm not an expert on light or coral, but I do know enough to be dangerous! I'm sorry for the long reply, but I don't want to assume you know this stuff, so I'll try to cover even the basics.

There is a lot to learn about light, leds fixtures, how your corals use light and what effects the light has on everything else in your tank.

First, let's clear up the misconception of getting to 100% power. You'll need to figure out what the maximum amount of power your systems need to use to get the right amount of light in your tank.

1) The easy way is to do that is with a PAR meter which measures Photosynthetically Active Radiation, or the light that ALL plants use in the process of doing photosynthesis. But most people don't have PAR meters and they are kind of expensive and not very useful once you get your light set properly. Some people borrow them from other reefers or rent them from an LFS.

2) Find somebody who has the same fixture you have and is successful with keeping coral in a tank similar to yours. That's possible here with all of us, but given your fixtures are not the most common ones in use, it may prove difficult to find. I'd recommend you try asking in the Lighting, Filtration.... Forum ( http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/fo...play.php?f=212 ). Tell people what led fixture you have, about your tank size, what kinds of corals you want to keep and you may find help.

3) I call this the 'Canary in the Coalmine' approach which is what I was refering to with the start using low power setting and ramping them up over time. I'd set 1 or 2 inexpensive frags as high up in your tank as you expect any corals to be. These are the 'canary' corals. As you raise you power levels over time, you will get to a point where 1 or both of those corals will start to get too much light and bleach. That will almost always be before you get to 100%. When you see one of those corals start to bleach, back the power levels down 5% or 10% and you should be good to leave it there.

Your other question was about why so much blue light?

Let's start with your coral. The coral is an animal and living inside the coral polyps are a form of plant/algae called zooxanthellae. This algae does photosynthesis that feeds both the algae inside the coral and also the coral itself. The particular kinds of zooxanthellae that live in coral use mostly blue light (400nm to 480nm wavelength) to do this photosynthesis. Your coral could almost survive on light that is mostly blue. The white light is a mix of a wide spectrum of colors like red, green & blue (RGB) and your corals use some of those other colors to produce pigments that create some of the color you see in your coral along with some proteins and other chemicals they need to survive. But they don't need nearly as much white light as they need blue. So more blue and not as much white is good for the coral.

The light in your tank will also be used to grow other nuisance algae (which you don't seem to have yet). These nuisance algaes do their photosynthesis mostly with red light which is part of the wide range of colors included in the white light. So white light can help glow algae that you don't want. So less white is OK for your corals as long as they get some and less white also helps keep nuisance algae from growing. Some people even go so far as to cover the red leds in their fixture. This can help if you are getting an algae bloom you don't want.

The other component we need to consider is your eyes and what you want to see when you look at the tank? Some people like a very blue tank and some hate it. Others like a cool white look which is a lot of blue and some white. Others like a warm white look that is more white and less blue. Even this is OK as long as you realize that it is less useful to the coral and more useful for nuisance algae. You get to control how blue or how white your tank is with the dimmers. So set them to a level you like to look at. Just remember it only takes a little bit of white light to make the blue look go away to our eyes. But the blue is still there and the corals don't see the light with our eyes.

That is the basics as I understand them. There are a lot of articles about light and how corals use light. And if you have questions, I encourage you to ask them. That's how we all learn.

[Tanthaitrung]

Ron Reefman. I have no knowledge about led but I love the way, that you explain is easy to understand.

Great thanks Ron Reefman
Khanh

[Ron Reefman]

Khanh, you are welcome, and if you have more questions please ask them.

[lacybiker2000]

Has anyone had experience with the Current USA 20000 white/460 blue units with ramp timer?

[nickandcrystal]

Me and my wife have purchased a Hydra 26 hd model and am having a hard time finding out a good base line for the different lights. We have a 20 gallon reef tank with the following dimensions 24"x 16" x 12" that we are stocking soft corals for right now with the chance of hard corals in the future. We are knew to the hobby and have struggled to find any answers on the internet. It seems like even if you do the very next page will tell you the complete opposite. Any info you have would be great. Thanks for the helping

[hbash]

Found a new blog about marine aquariums. Looks like the writer has work to do, but looks interesting.

http://www.aquariumnook.com