AI settings - What do you all think? Calling all light experts!

[michelangelo620]

Just curious as to what you experts think of my schedule.  It's basically a mix of the EcoTech SPS and LPS schedules, but setup in a way to replicate the intensity of the sun over a 12 hour period.

 

Right now, I have a 12 hour total cycle, with blues and purples on a 4 hour ramp each side.  The middle 4 hours kinda has it's own intensity peaking, to replicate noon.  My red, green, and white are only on for 8 hours, and they peak as well at the same 'noon' time as the blues and purples.  The first and last 2 hours before the white, red, and green come on is the best time to view since it's only uv, purple, and blues.

 

Lunar is from midnight to 5am, then there is a 6 hour total dark period for coral respiration and to keep algae in check.  

 

Peak is 113 uv, 113 violet, 90 royal blue, 90 blue, 10 green, 10 red, 30 white.

 

Would it be beneficial to run the entire spectrum for the 12 hours?

 

Does the theory make sense?

 

Should I run lunar the entire time, or is it good to have the 6 hours of darkness?

 

Just let me know your thoughts, and if I'm on the right track, thanks.

 

Edited January 29, 2018 by michelangelo620
changed the initial question

[Subsea]

Noon spectrum on a Caribbean reef, against a blue sky, is 5000 kelvin.

 

If you run that spectrum, your corals zooanthellia will color brown.  Reef aquariums are run for our viewing pleasure.  In most cases, corals photo adapt.  Sorry, I am not techie enough to get into the details.

[mbarton2010]

the reason most don't run with a low kelvin light setting is because the colors will be extremely dull. Over the years we have discovered what lighting spectrum is best for color and growth. 

[michelangelo620]

Modified the intent of the thread, any help would be greatly appreciated

[dmw913]

Here is a screenshot from BRS video where they took AI settings and matched them to the CoralLab SPS AB+ program.  These are the settings I use and just reduce everything an equal percentage if the tank doesn't need full wattage.  

 

HTH

 

D

[michelangelo620]

8 minutes ago, dmw913 said:

Here is a screenshot from BRS video where they took AI settings and matched them to the CoralLab SPS AB+ program.  These are the settings I use and just reduce everything an equal percentage if the tank doesn't need full wattage.  

 

HTH

 

D

That schedule is for SPS growth.  They have others including an LPS.  I only have an acropora, digitata, and montipora for sps, and I have torch, hammer, Duncan, zoo, gsp, leather, and xenia for LPS/soft so that's primarily what my tank is.  I am close to their settings, but they also run those settings at peak longer than I run mine at peak which is only at noon.  Just figured I didn't need that much light for that long since I'm mostly LPS/soft.  Hopefully the way I put that makes sense.  Also attached a link to the EcoTech pdf file that shows in detail their schedules and how they do their setups, pretty good stuff.

 

http://ecotechmarine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/ReefWholesale_CoralLab.pdf

[dmw913]

1 minute ago, michelangelo620 said:

That schedule is for SPS growth.  They have others including an LPS.  I only have an acropora, digitata, and montipora for sps, and I have torch, hammer, Duncan, zoo, gsp, leather, and xenia for LPS/soft so that's primarily what my tank is.  I am close to their settings, but they also run those settings at peak longer than I run mine at peak which is only at noon.  Just figured I didn't need that much light for that long since I'm mostly LPS/soft.  Hopefully the way I put that makes sense.  Also attached a link to the EcoTech pdf file that shows in detail their schedules and how they do their setups, pretty good stuff.

 

http://ecotechmarine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/ReefWholesale_CoralLab.pdf

Yeppers!

 

While for SPS more specifically, I have found the program works well for my mixed reef and I liked that BRS took their program and put it in AI percentages for me because I'm Queen Lazy!

[michelangelo620]

I'm not an expert on this stuff by any means, but basically what I'm kinda doing is mixing different things - the natural day light cycle with spectrums from EcoTech so as to not be overbearing on the soft stuff and keep it kinda natural to the way the sun goes up, peaks, and goes down.

[michelangelo620]

1 minute ago, dmw913 said:

Yeppers!

 

While for SPS more specifically, I have found the program works well for my mixed reef and I liked that BRS took their program and put it in AI percentages for me because I'm Queen Lazy!

I have a very busy mind haha, and a lot of stuff is either contradictive, or it's like no rules apply as far as saltwater aquariums go, which is what gave me the idea to try something new based on 2 things that work - natural light cycle and the coral lab schedule settings, essentially.

[dmw913]

Just now, michelangelo620 said:

I have a very busy mind haha, and a lot of stuff is either contradictive, or it's like no rules apply as far as saltwater aquariums go, which is what gave me the idea to try something new based on 2 things that work - natural light cycle and the coral lab schedule settings, essentially.

Amen!  You do your thing!  They way we get anywhere in this hobby is by people like you going out and doing new stuff.  Between being in Camp Queen Lazy, I'm also in Camp Chicken so I appreciate you mixing it up!  Good luck and here's to color and growth for you!

[michelangelo620]

16 minutes ago, dmw913 said:

Amen!  You do your thing!  They way we get anywhere in this hobby is by people like you going out and doing new stuff.  Between being in Camp Queen Lazy, I'm also in Camp Chicken so I appreciate you mixing it up!  Good luck and here's to color and growth for you!

Hopefully we get some people much smarter than me chiming in.  I've got a good thinker, but lacking in knowledge and experience haha.  I'm really interested to learn more on this topic for sure, and it seems like what I'm doing is a little different than other things I've read about.  Seems most schedules have a one or two hour ramp time, and stay at peak for 6 - 10 hours instead of doing the gradual up and down intensity mimicking the sun like what I'm proposing.  Just ideas haha, thanks for the input.

[michelangelo620]

Really would like some input

[mitten_reef]

33 minutes ago, michelangelo620 said:

Really would like some input

Schedule-wise: You don't need to do the "mountain-shape" profile on the schedule. I once read on Advanced Aquarist that on the natural reef, the amount of light entering water will be near peak within the first hour.  Which brings me to the Ecotech coral lab lighting profiles, you'll see that their peak period lasts about 8 hours straight with short ramps.

 

Spectrum: The color spectrum are subjective, but I'd also stick close to one of theirs or try to blend the red/green/white to what is most appealing to you personally. 

 

here's my old AI profile when I was running Hydra26HD over an IM Nuvo16G (hence very low peak intensity due to the shallow depth).  I can't fully recall as it's been a long time since that light was up and running, but I think the green line represents red, green and white.  I also used their spectrum tool for easy color tuning, where you can tune the app color wheel to whatever Kelvin rating you like.

 

Not sure how much help that is. 

 

PS: I'm not a lighting expert, but I felt that I've successfully lit my reef thus far . The key thing is to set it a just let it go, no weekly or monthly tweaking. 

 

[Clown79]

I've searched everywhere asking how many hrs should peak percentage be, how long should ramp up be etc etc.

 

Some people schedules have multiple peaks while others don't. Some do full 8hrs on highest setting, some only 4 hrs

 

There is contradictions and no 100% answer so I just designed my own.

 

My schedule

 

11am-1pm ramp up

1pm - 8pm

B, rb 85%

V and uv 80%

W 24%

R & g 18%

 

8-10pm ramp down 

10pm - 2am lunar

Blackout till 11am

 

This ecotech schedule everyone is discussing, anyone have a link to it?

[mitten_reef]

5 hours ago, Clown79 said:

 

This ecotech schedule everyone is discussing, anyone have a link to it?

[michelangelo620]

On 1/30/2018 at 12:38 AM, Clown79 said:

I've searched everywhere asking how many hrs should peak percentage be, how long should ramp up be etc etc.

 

Some people schedules have multiple peaks while others don't. Some do full 8hrs on highest setting, some only 4 hrs

 

There is contradictions and no 100% answer so I just designed my own.

 

My schedule

 

11am-1pm ramp up

1pm - 8pm

B, rb 85%

V and uv 80%

W 24%

R & g 18%

 

8-10pm ramp down 

10pm - 2am lunar

Blackout till 11am

 

This ecotech schedule everyone is discussing, anyone have a link to it?

I put a link earlier in this thread. I have a young mixed reef and I run mine quite a bit higher power. 

 

Seems like everyone has their own schedule, but I guess what I was curious about in the beginning is if there is more actual 'reason'  why to do things a certain way, instead of just what looks good. That's why I made mine a Frankenstein of stuff that's been proven to work.