AquaIllumination PAR Measurements

[jonnybravo22]

Originally Posted by sploke

I'm in the process of a 265gal build, and I think I'm pretty sold on these lights. One idea I had though, for versatility, is instead of mounting to a hanging rack or something, mounting it to an articulating arm. I realize this isn't an option for everybody...my tank will be in-wall, so the mounting wouldn't be visible anyway. I was thinking about it because it is a glass tank with plastic braces, and I was trying to figure out how I could get creative about angling the lights so I wouldn't get shadows too bad. My first thought was like a dentist's light, but there are a lot of options out there. It would allow me to try different angles, heights, orientations to really maximize spread and PAR. The light modules themselves are only about 4lbs each so I don't think it would be a huge stretch.

Something like this. any thoughts?

I use a third party mount. few pictures and info in my tank thread:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1905303

and old thread:
http://web1.reefcentral.com/forums/s...1643924&page=6

[Braincoral73]

Originally Posted by daveonbass

use one rail...down the middle. If not then I assume you can use two rails but the side of the hanging wires will be slightly different then when mounted perpendicular. I plan on only using one rail.

Can't wait to see if this is possible. I thought the rail was just one big attached rectangle, but perhaps not.

[moliken]

i have 2 on the same rail of the 2 rail system. looks and works fine. i plan on another 2 later on, and wanna keep the rails from getting lost in my clutter. ducatimikep on the previous pg shows a 1 rail system. great look!

[snewcrash]

Originally Posted by moliken

i have 2 on the same rail of the 2 rail system. looks and works fine. i plan on another 2 later on, and wanna keep the rails from getting lost in my clutter. ducatimikep on the previous pg shows a 1 rail system. great look!

Are you using 2 over your 75 gallon? I'm trying to figure out if I can get away with that, at least temporarily. Any pictures?

[larryfl1]

what is ideal target par values for

sps?
lps?

i just measured and i have around 225-250 up high on the rock
and about 130 - 150 at the sand level where the lps are?

with that i wouldnt expect the brains and stuff to bleach but they have...

[moliken]

snew,
yep i hav only 2, about 9 inches above my 75, but i don't hav a big spread of rock. lots of my stuff is in a line, as i have a huge chunk of coral that holds most of my smaller stuff. then at the other end is a pillar of sorts, so most of the life is near the middle of the tank or forward. old pic/old lights to letcha see the 1 coral being placed into the tank

newer pic at about 30% white/bl/royal. but only about 6 inches up, so not a lotta spread.

right now 14" above water level
wh62% bl/ry at 35%

so to answer i think it depends on the tank, but you can always add a mod or 2. AI's recommendation of 1/foot is a bit much.

[kmu]

Originally Posted by moliken

snew,
yep i hav only 2, about 9 inches above my 75, but i don't hav a big spread of rock. lots of my stuff is in a line, as i have a huge chunk of coral that holds most of my smaller stuff. then at the other end is a pillar of sorts, so most of the life is near the middle of the tank or forward. old pic/old lights to letcha see the 1 coral being placed into the tank

newer pic at about 30% white/bl/royal. but only about 6 inches up, so not a lotta spread.

right now 14" above water level
wh62% bl/ry at 35%

so to answer i think it depends on the tank, but you can always add a mod or 2. AI's recommendation of 1/foot is a bit much.

NICE, do you have any close up pics of how you mounted the AI modules sideways

[moliken]

very eeezee. no need for pix. there are 2 screws in each mod. unscrew a bit and slide them into 2 rails or turn mod 90 deg and slide screws into 1 rail.

[wickedfish]

Originally Posted by larryfl1

what is ideal target par values for

sps?
lps?

i just measured and i have around 225-250 up high on the rock
and about 130 - 150 at the sand level where the lps are?

with that i wouldnt expect the brains and stuff to bleach but they have...

130 on the sand For longer than 2 hrs will bleach things. I have 110 being the highest for an hour, then 80 par and lower there after. All of my Lps are flourishing.
These leds are different than a t5 or mh it's a beam so the light is stronger than what the meter says. My mh were on for 7 hours before and produced 225 par and never even came close to cooking anything.
My leds have been set that this is the highest par and I have lightened 50% of my Sps.

If you have the 40 optics and have Sps the beamed center pieces need to like blasts of 350+ par to be okay. I believe this light is way more intense than what the meters read, you will find this out first hand.

[wickedfish]

You must set up the firmware failure to do so will cook your coral in the higher parts of your tank. Why? Well since the final time of rising is say 1159am and you want to see your tank you will have the tank on at least 8 hrs (or whatever you set it at) from sunrise to sunset. The controller only compensates for 10% less par throughout the day, from the older preset software. FYI guys I measured the par on the original software every 2 hours and this is the info I got.

I will confess to what I did wrong from week one (sunrise 11:59, setting whites 40% blues 62%. par was around 320 in the middle/highest part of the rockwork under the module around 10" below the water line. Sunset 9:20pm) All of the sps in the center of the module either were bleached partially or suffered color loss. The ones on the sides showed good growth and slight color lost all of them. FF 2 weeks I saw what I had done, got a meter again and rescaped big time, no corals under the 40 degree optics.

FF 7 weeks got my 70 degree optics and added the newest firmware I also got lots of mini colonies from Arthur a local reefer and after 10 days no color loss no bleaching ( came from 400 watt radiums, full zeo system. ) So if I was starting today...I would start where I am now. This is my experiences only and can only tell you what is going on in my system.

Good stuff to confess: all of my milli's have excellent growth 0 bleaching. I have great growth on all pieces of Bali slimer, good growth on miami orchid, zoanthids on bottom are multiplying and are open during light hours fully. All of my bright yellow/green corals are enjoying the leds. Blues and purples not to hot but are growing.

Anyone have good color on their purple and blue sps longer than 5 weeks, with these lights??

[BigRedNole]

I just read through much of this thread. Lots of good information. I talked to my LFS yesterday about the AI lights. I do not have a tank setup yet, but will in a week or so. He said all I need is 2 Sol units and the 70 degree lenses. He showed me how they would look on my tank. They have 4 on their show tank which is 2x wider than mine. He showed me everything you can do with it. Unless a miracle unit comes out in the next 3 months, I will have to Sol units on my system wen I am about starting to get it really moving after cycles.

Thanks for all the info.

[snewcrash]

Originally Posted by BigRedNole

I just read through much of this thread. Lots of good information. I talked to my LFS yesterday about the AI lights. I do not have a tank setup yet, but will in a week or so. He said all I need is 2 Sol units and the 70 degree lenses. He showed me how they would look on my tank. They have 4 on their show tank which is 2x wider than mine. He showed me everything you can do with it. Unless a miracle unit comes out in the next 3 months, I will have to Sol units on my system wen I am about starting to get it really moving after cycles.

Thanks for all the info.

What size tank are you getting?

[BigRedNole]

It's a 90g Aqueon pre-drilled (48x18x~25). Because I am not sure what I am going to keep in it yet and just going to start the cycle in about a week, he said there is plenty of time to plan. He also said that if I need a 3rd one, I can update when needed.

[wickedfish]

If you have corner over flows then focus the modules in the centers.

If you have the center overflow like me and only are doing 2 sol blue modules you will want to do 2 islands for the aquascape to be able to maximize the light, 3 is ideal for your set up, I have the same tank. Obviously if you only do LPS then 2 modules is more than enough.

The center braces if you have them, also removes a lot of par so watch out for this. Also you want to go horizontal for more coverage, maybe 10-14" from the water. If you want to grow sps in the bottom 12", then 10" or less from the water is where you want the lights. With the 70 optics it will create less shadowing and more even PAR.

Get that new firmware running out the gate. Since I am computer illiterate, it took me a while. But for normal folks who read instructions.... it takes literally 60 seconds, to set up the new firmware on your controller. Another few minutes to play with the controller to add your timers and intensities. GL

[Rotknee]

Originally Posted by CalmSeasQuest

I purchased 3 403nm stunners but only installed 2 (1 ea on each AI.) They do add considerable "pop" when the AIs are off, but are not noticeable when the main lights are on. It will take time to determine the effect (if any) on pigmentation. I'm on the road for most of the next week - I'll post pics when I get back in town.

Tom, now that you have had a little more than a month to play with the 403nm Stunners, what do you think? While I am sure we can't expect much of difference in coloration I am curious to see if there has been any discernible impact on the zooxanthellae and resulting changes in coral pigmentation.

Rodney

[krazykornertank]

Installed the new firmware this weekend. Super easy and everything worked great. Played around alot with ramping and intensities but I think I got this thing looking awesome. Made the light 10 times more interesting!

Im happy I didnt bleach anything these past months. I have acros, lps and plyps with no bleaching and was running pretty intense light for 10-12hrs. I tried 25/35 then 50/50 then 65/75 all for about a few weeks each. Then I dropped down a bit because wickedfish freaked me out! Light sits 9" above water with first acro another 9" below. Im running 1 AI unit on a 54 gallon corner and have NO dark areas all the way up the sides. Of course I dont have a huge rock display since I am a minimalist!

[drtrash]

Sruggling with purple and just got a faded blue hoeki so not sure about blue. I have a ULN system so just started adding pottasium to see if it changes. Not sure if blue & purple are washed out by LED

[Logzor]

I'm having an issue with my controller. When my controller is idle and is scrolling through all of my parameters, it lists my LEDs as running at 50% when I actually have them running at 100%. Has anyone else had this issue?

[jdokos]

My lamp tree I made out of 3/4" conduit. Mounted to wall behind tank.

[rostato]

Originally Posted by jdokos

My lamp tree I made out of 3/4" conduit. Mounted to wall behind tank.

I would lower that to reduce light spillage, and the amount of percentage needed. Lower power bills...

Nice job on it though.

[wickedfish]

drtrash blues and dark purples in spas are problematic for me as well in 5 of 7 pieces. So its the lighting or chemistry of the water.

I am also contemplating the potassium or potassium iodide. Don't know which one the Zeovit one or the iherb. I ordered my potassium test kit. Hopefully the water tests low of potassium.

I would be sad if the lights are at partial fault. I got a like chocolate blue piece from my friend Jorge and over the course of 3 weeks it lightened. He told me he had the colony high up on his 400 watt radiums, so I put the 1 inch frag in the middle of my rack. At peak hours the rack is 325 par+.

I have a tri color nana that is nice and dark purple but is pretty low in the tank. My newest blue stag mini colony is fading a tiny bit and I truly hope its water parameters. Nitrates, nitrites, phosphates 0 via multiple test kits.:sleep

Krazy,

Sorry to freak you out but hey, whatever you did worked. For everyone else, please read my comments as you would take some neighbors advice.... My experiences only.

I ordered some red reefbrite leds to hopefully add a different spectrum. If it looks good I will post pics if not you will not see them. ( I will get a better camera to take the pics as well.) Either way I will have them on a timer and leave them in place for at least 6 weeks to see if they are helping coral growth.

[tmgrash]

Lp

Originally Posted by wickedfish

You must set up the firmware failure to do so will cook your coral in the higher parts of your tank. Why? Well since the final time of rising is say 1159am and you want to see your tank you will have the tank on at least 8 hrs (or whatever you set it at) from sunrise to sunset. The controller only compensates for 10% less par throughout the day, from the older preset software. FYI guys I measured the par on the original software every 2 hours and this is the info I got.

I will confess to what I did wrong from week one (sunrise 11:59, setting whites 40% blues 62%. par was around 320 in the middle/highest part of the rockwork under the module around 10" below the water line. Sunset 9:20pm) All of the sps in the center of the module either were bleached partially or suffered color loss. The ones on the sides showed good growth and slight color lost all of them. FF 2 weeks I saw what I had done, got a meter again and rescaped big time, no corals under the 40 degree optics.

FF 7 weeks got my 70 degree optics and added the newest firmware I also got lots of mini colonies from Arthur a local reefer and after 10 days no color loss no bleaching ( came from 400 watt radiums, full zeo system. ) So if I was starting today...I would start where I am now. This is my experiences only and can only tell you what is going on in my system.

Good stuff to confess: all of my milli's have excellent growth 0 bleaching. I have great growth on all pieces of Bali slimer, good growth on miami orchid, zoanthids on bottom are multiplying and are open during light hours fully. All of my bright yellow/green corals are enjoying the leds. Blues and purples not to hot but are growing.

Anyone have good color on their purple and blue sps longer than 5 weeks, with these lights??

Yup, my purples and blues are probably my best color. Will post some pics when I get home.

[drtrash]

who carries a pottasium kit? Hate adding it without testing but I got over it. Would like to know if I was or are going in right direction. Purple is faded

[geo11]

Originally Posted by moliken

snew,
yep i hav only 2, about 9 inches above my 75, but i don't hav a big spread of rock. lots of my stuff is in a line, as i have a huge chunk of coral that holds most of my smaller stuff. then at the other end is a pillar of sorts, so most of the life is near the middle of the tank or forward. old pic/old lights to letcha see the 1 coral being placed into the tank

newer pic at about 30% white/bl/royal. but only about 6 inches up, so not a lotta spread.

right now 14" above water level
wh62% bl/ry at 35%

so to answer i think it depends on the tank, but you can always add a mod or 2. AI's recommendation of 1/foot is a bit much.

Do you see any spotlighting when they're higher up?

[tmgrash]

Was taking more, new and updated ones, just now and dropped my phone in the tank, DOH!