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Coral Vue Hydros

Intensity of LED's


Guy1980

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I am after some advice. I have no Par meter, nor have I anywhere i can hire one.

 

I have a DIY led on a 6" Makers heatsynk with the following leds

 

C1 = 3 Royal blue - XTE - Running at 1A

C2 = 3 Royal blue - XTE- Running at 1A

C3 = 3 Cool white - XTE- Running at 1A

C4 = 2 Cool white & 1 Neautral white - XTE- Running at 1A

C5 = 3 Hyper Violet UV (3up)- Running at 700ma

 

They are run on a 12V / 15A power supply (adjusted to 11V)

 

The fixture is about 7' above the tank which is an Aquanano 40 (40cm cube)

 

My question is, what intensity should I run my lights at to be able to grow sps etc? I currently have softies in there with no probs and even at 30% whites and 65% blues / UV, the zoas and mushrooms are flush to the rocks and growing well (nothing stretching), GSP / xenia growing well but it does go a lot brighter but dont want to kill anything off but have seen non dimmable systems higher wattage that mine which makes me think it should be higher.

 

I know XTE are supposed to be strong but any knowledgable advice would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

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Honestly, you'd be better off just leaving things as is and seeing how any new sps corals react. If you aren't seeing any stretching or signs of anything needing more light, then you shouldn't have any issues with sps. Many times, people turn LED systems up way too high thinking they need more light just due to the fact that the light doesn't look bright enough to the eye, which is a huge mistake. You are much safer starting low and adjust up as required.

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Thank you for your reply.

 

That is what I'd like to do, it just seems odd that everything is OK with only 45 watts running at 30 and 60%. I am not complaining as they stay cooler and look nicer without them being on full power. I will give it a try. What are the obvious signs of lack of light and too much where sps are concerned? Hopefully there is a tell that I can catch quickly if need be

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The most obvious signs of too little light is browning. This is where the coral creates more zooxanthillae (the symbiotic algae that uses photosynthesis to convert light into sugars for the coral to feed on) to compensate for the lack of light. This algae is typically brown, so an excess of zooxanthillae will cause the coral to turn more brown. Too much light will usually cause bleaching (basically the opposite of what I said above).

 

Be careful though, as poor water parameters can also cause browning and bleaching issues, so don't immediately blame the light source for things like this.

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