NanoBox Duo M settings help for SPS

[lkoechle]

In my sleep deprived state, I messed with my settings and cant remember what i was doing. lol  TBH, I am not sure my settings were great anyways so I reset them to default for the time being.

 

This is an SPS dominated IM 25 Lagoon tank with two or three LPS at the bottom. 

 

My light sits about 6 inches off the water.  What should my settings be?

 

Lookin' mainly at you, boss man @DaveFason

 

Any help would be appreciated!

[burtbollinger]

I have the same question...running mine 6" off water at 75 blues/violet and 30 for whites...but I feel like this is washing out/causing my monti caps and monti undata to fade a bit....meanwhile I have some digitata that seem to be slightly browning over time with same setting...right next to montis that are slightly fading if the whites are higher.
 

I'm wondering if I can bump the blues higher....

 

and an even more important question...just how important are the whites at all?  Can we just bump the blues to something like 90 and ride the whites at 30 or so?

[DaveFason]

On 6/16/2017 at 3:41 PM, lkoechle said:

In my sleep deprived state, I messed with my settings and cant remember what i was doing. lol  TBH, I am not sure my settings were great anyways so I reset them to default for the time being.

 

This is an SPS dominated IM 25 Lagoon tank with two or three LPS at the bottom. 

 

My light sits about 6 inches off the water.  What should my settings be?

 

Lookin' mainly at you, boss man @DaveFason

 

Any help would be appreciated!

Try these. 

Royal - Cyan/Blue - Violet - 85%

White/mint - 30%

 

8-10 Hour photo period. 

 

-Dave

[lkoechle]

1 hour ago, DaveFason said:

Try these. 

Royal - Cyan/Blue - Violet - 85%

White/mint - 30%

 

8-10 Hour photo period. 

 

-Dave

Thanks!

[gone_PHiSHin]

i've noticed the whites are very strong and have the greatest negative effect on my corals if i push them too much.  

 

i have a Tide Plus M over my IM10 and i can't really get my whites above the 34% mark without things starting to fade a little.

 

i do run my royal blue at 87% at the peak as well as the violet.  the blue/cyan is about 82 i think.  

 

i use the max ramp up time and only have my peak for 2 hours i think

[burtbollinger]

2 hours ago, gone_PHiSHin said:

i've noticed the whites are very strong and have the greatest negative effect on my corals if i push them too much.  

 

i have a Tide Plus M over my IM10 and i can't really get my whites above the 34% mark without things starting to fade a little.

 

i do run my royal blue at 87% at the peak as well as the violet.  the blue/cyan is about 82 i think.  

 

i use the max ramp up time and only have my peak for 2 hours i think

bingo...my corals also start to fade right after the 34% mark.  

[xilez]

This in an interesting thread, havn't been too happy with my quad over my tank. Dont get me wrong, i love the profile of the light, i like the way it looks over my tank, but SPS are just not coloring up as nicely as I have seen.. jedi mind trick looks great, montis looks bad (pale), all acros are brownish. Parameters are all spot on: alk (8.5-9)/ca stable, no3:2-5, po4: .02-.05... tweaking light every couple weeks/months and not seeing too much improvement...this thread has me thinking maybe its the white causing problems? was 80-90% on blue the past couple of weeks, white has been 20-22%ish. 

Going to bump the white down and see if I notice anything.

[burtbollinger]

Do you think the whites are too low at 20-22?  I'd think bump them up to at least 28?  

 

Also could acros not be getting enough and montis gettting too much?  I'm not an expert....

[gone_PHiSHin]

yeah i think 20-22 is too low, especially for acros.  i would move that up, but do it slowly.

 

i have a birdsnest at the top almost directly under my light at those settings and it hasn't bleached, but showed good growth in about 2 months.  it could probably handle a little more than that actually but i have a mixed reef and my acans in particular don't like any more white. 

 

 

[xilez]

I guess it's possible 20% is too low.... however, I have an Oregon tort that's essentially rich brown with some blue hue and a purple monti as well as a stellata montipora in basically the same positions that appear pale. 

 

Here's my current settings

 

Morning:

 

midday:

Evening:

 

night:

Graph:

 

 

[burtbollinger]

funny timing as we are in very similar boats....i had a somewhat painful realization last night that I really just had to bite the bullet on...I have a slowly browning (red to brown) monti digitata next to a fading encrusting monti (red to light pink, no PE)....I had to bite the bullet and move the encrusting monti to stop it from fading further.  

I think you need to consider leaving the acro thats browning where it is, and bump your light to run at @ 85b/33w.  20w is just too low.  just do this change SLOWLY.

 

then move the montis down...treat them as medium light corals.  not sure what other solution there could be

[DaveFason]

I wish I could say one setting would 100% work for everyone. There are many factors besides your light setting to SPS looking correct. I have to drop off a unit this morning but will take a few PAR readings on my personal tank. 

 

In my experience montis do not need a ton of light. Much less than an acro. I prefer to have my montis in ~ 140-200 PAR max. This results in correct colors and good growth. 

 

A few other personal opinions as well.

• Clear water - If you are running carbon, GFO, purigen your water will be much more clear/clean. This will allow light to penetrate much more. 
• Magnesium Levels - Often to low. I recently had a industry person tell me the same and I tested this. Lone and behold it was 300 off! 
• Steady ALK for Acros - While keeping your ALK around 1-1.5 constant is great, I found that it needs to be within .5. A small weekly swing will cause all types of issues in a small tank. 

I will get some readings over my tank. I hope this helps in any way! 

-Dave

[xilez]

Some photos for reference

 

Some photos for reference

 

[basser1]

Bumping this thread to see how things turned out. What settings are you using?

[jorahx]

Did you guys find a good setting for your tanks?

[burtbollinger]

7 minutes ago, jorahx said:

Did you guys find a good setting for your tanks?

 

this is from a guide that came out in January.

 

 

[xiaoxiy]

The acropora in my frag tank are sitting under an 100/30 blue to white ratio. They get about 300 par for a total photoperiod of 9 hours. Frags I put down there typically do fairly well under those settings!

 

 

[JcSH2o]

1 hour ago, burtbollinger said:

 

this is from a guide that came out in January.

 

 

How are things turning out for you @burtbollinger? I'm very curious as I have a quad on its way in a few weeks...  

[JcSH2o]

On 6/19/2017 at 6:09 PM, xilez said:

This in an interesting thread, havn't been too happy with my quad over my tank. Dont get me wrong, i love the profile of the light, i like the way it looks over my tank, but SPS are just not coloring up as nicely as I have seen.. jedi mind trick looks great, montis looks bad (pale), all acros are brownish. Parameters are all spot on: alk (8.5-9)/ca stable, no3:2-5, po4: .02-.05... tweaking light every couple weeks/months and not seeing too much improvement...this thread has me thinking maybe its the white causing problems? was 80-90% on blue the past couple of weeks, white has been 20-22%ish. 

Going to bump the white down and see if I notice anything.

@xilez Any news?

[burtbollinger]

19 minutes ago, JcSH2o said:

How are things turning out for you @burtbollinger? I'm very curious as I have a quad on its way in a few weeks...  

In a perfect world I would have purchased a quad wide duo and hung it on my ceiling.  

 

Im happy but I’m mostly LPS.  My SPS do shade, but I just ordered a 24” Nanobox Beam to add to the rear....

 

colorwise, I’m super happy.

[jorahx]

On 3/5/2018 at 7:43 PM, xiaoxiy said:

The acropora in my frag tank are sitting under an 100/30 blue to white ratio. They get about 300 par for a total photoperiod of 9 hours. Frags I put down there typically do fairly well under those settings!

 

 

 

 

why the 9 hour photo period?

[xiaoxiy]

2 hours ago, jorahx said:

 

why the 9 hour photo period?

Why not? 

 

I chose the 9 hour photoperiod because that's what they ran on the Ecotech CoralLab publication, with their AB+ Setting.

[DaveFason]

The preset photoperiods and color are what worked for a handful of customers and myself over the course of a year. 

 

Photoperiods are subjective just like spectrums. I have run as little as six hours and as much as fifteen. Currently I am running an eight hour photo period. Here is a recent video of the NanoBox office tank. 

 

[jorahx]

i just ask because, currently i run 12 hours. didnt know if something else would be better.

i have offically given up on SPS. i can not grow them for the life of me. if they are to high in the tank they go white. if any lower they go brown.

[mitten_reef]

 

On 3/5/2018 at 11:54 PM, JcSH2o said:

How are things turning out for you @burtbollinger? I'm very curious as I have a quad on its way in a few weeks...  

 

I run my tank with NBR Quad at roughly 10:1 blue:white. I like a tiny bit of the warm white to round out my personal visual appeal. But I also have the luxury of controlling mint separately, as you can see below. Here’s my peak and my schedule.  Been running this for almost as long as I could remember, with only a few minor tweaks in between. 

 

REMEMBER: do NOT constantly change your settings!!!  Allow the corals time to adapt.