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AI Prime HD Setting for a Newbie


SURVEYMAN46123

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SURVEYMAN46123

Okay I know this topic has been asked a thousand times, trust me I read quite a few last evening.   However I am still a bit confused on what route to take, best setups, etc.    I've seen the signature files on AI's website (Saxby Settings etc), and BRS's AB+ settings on their youtube video.   I've also read about variation in intensity throughout the day (zig zag pattern) and something called a Pirates of Caribbean setting, whatever the hell that is.   

 

Anyway....................  I'm a noob with this light, but I wan't positive results with it.   Color and Growth, like everyone else.   I'm coming from a Kessil A80 that had 15 Watts of power so I'm also trying not to fry my corals.   I want to stick to the Jason Fox idea of keeping all blues, but not sure what the best results would be on a IM 10 tank.

 

So anyone with any insight would awesome!   Dumb it down for this idiot.  LOL

 

 

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On 8/14/2019 at 11:25 AM, SURVEYMAN46123 said:

Okay I know this topic has been asked a thousand times, trust me I read quite a few last evening.   However I am still a bit confused on what route to take, best setups, etc.    I've seen the signature files on AI's website (Saxby Settings etc), and BRS's AB+ settings on their youtube video.   I've also read about variation in intensity throughout the day (zig zag pattern) and something called a Pirates of Caribbean setting, whatever the hell that is.   

 

Anyway....................  I'm a noob with this light, but I wan't positive results with it.   Color and Growth, like everyone else.   I'm coming from a Kessil A80 that had 15 Watts of power so I'm also trying not to fry my corals.   I want to stick to the Jason Fox idea of keeping all blues, but not sure what the best results would be on a IM 10 tank.

 

So anyone with any insight would awesome!   Dumb it down for this idiot.  LOL

 

 

Really you shouldn't worry too much, plenty of folks had success with cool or even warm-whites long before all these wifi-enabled monstrosities hit the market. AB+ will grow animals and look pretty neutral, if your animals look better under blues then crank them up, just watch your wattage and PAR output via the reaction of your livestock and take things slow with acclimation. Otherwise corals don't really benefit much past 8 hours of lighting, so a good start is about a 30-45 min ramp-up to max intensity and then a 1 hr or so ramp-down to around 30% intensity for night-viewing if you want it. If you like I have a couple of profiles and also a long rant breaking down spectrums, relative par values and individual-intensities I could PM you as well.

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SURVEYMAN46123
1 hour ago, TatorTaco said:

Your best bet is to pick a setting and stick with it. Then, make small changes as you see fit. 

Gotcha!   I think I found something I am going to run with for the next few months and tweak how I see fit.

 

 

51 minutes ago, Amphrites said:

Really you shouldn't worry too much, plenty of folks had success with cool or even warm-whites long before all these wifi-enabled monstrosities hit the market. AB+ will grow animals and look pretty neutral, if your animals look better under blues then crank them up, just watch your wattage and PAR output via the reaction of your livestock and take things slow with acclimation. Otherwise corals don't really benefit much past 8 hours of lighting, so a good start is about a 30-45 min ramp-up to max intensity and then a 1 hr or so ramp-down to around 30% intensity for night-viewing if you want it. If you like I have a couple of profiles and also a long rant breaking down spectrums, relative par values and individual-intensities I could PM you as well.

 

Okay.   I prefer the blue look, maybe a tad white.   I have been keeping an eye on the wattage when playing with my settings for sure.   I don't want to come home to BBQ'ed corals.    I downloaded the Saxby setting from AI last night and fiddled with it for an hour or so to get it to my liking.   Kept most of his ideas, but turned them down to lower intensity a bit.

 

 

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I copied some reefer with the same setup - ran his program for 6mo (2mo in acclimation starting 30 or 40%) and it was a great.

 

Now the last few months i’ve been exploring/tweaking to set my own program, with colors that I actually enjoy.

I am one of those wierd reefers, who do not like all blue, all day.

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58 minutes ago, Daniel91 said:

I copied some reefer with the same setup - ran his program for 6mo (2mo in acclimation starting 30 or 40%) and it was a great.

 

Now the last few months i’ve been exploring/tweaking to set my own program, with colors that I actually enjoy.

I am one of those wierd reefers, who do not like all blue, all day.

Not all animals look best under heavy blues, some look best under 14-18k spectrums, most however do look quite good with heavy violets and UV.

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1 hour ago, Amphrites said:

Not all animals look best under heavy blues, some look best under 14-18k spectrums, most however do look quite good with heavy violets and UV.

Well that’s pretty subjective - to each their own 🙂

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Far-Blue (near-uv I think is the proper term), Violet and UV spectrums are largely responsible for the florescence you observe from your animals, a fun test of this would be to set your UV to 2% and V to 1% at night. (I actually run this as a night light)
You'll probably also notice how dim it looks compared to even 1% royal blue, this is both due to the blue bulbs outnumbering the V+UV channel by one light and our, as humans, relative-inability to see far-blue and violet light.
It appears much dimmer to us, which is why bulbs in these spectrums are often rated lower in lumens and instead have their own brightness-rating system (rmw as opposed to flux), in terms of PAR the V and UV channels actually contribute quite significantly to the overall power of the prime pucks.

 

Different colors are more or less florescent in different spectrums, for instance many find deep reds help bring out the oranges and pinks in montis, chalices, or acros, while some corals which really don't "glow" [technically most of what we percieve as a glow tend to be colors effectively rejected by the animals as unusable, the result of a kind of "sunscreen"/protectant if you will and/or the corals themselves potentially refracting light into different wavelengths internally] at all benefit from a very neutral-white spectrum, Japanese pink nepthea is a great example of such an animal (though V + UV bring out the pastels in said pink).

 

It's also worth noting that green can be essentially entirely controlled by cool white which contributes the whole spectrum, with peaks at green and light blue, and that excess red light has been found to cause stunted growth in montipora and other sps.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I do a 4 hour ramp on/off with a 4 hour steady setting of:
UV 119%
Violet 116%
Royal 79%
Blue 80%
Green 4%
Deep Red 4%
Cool White 19%

Which I think is basically the AB+ setting iirc.

My night time lowest level setting is just a steady:
UV 13%
Violet 12%
Royal Blue 11%
Blue 10%

 

The night setting was mostly just finding a nice color, no real rhyme or reason.  It might be a bit too bright depending on tank size and such, but nothing has seemed to mind any of this (LPS, euphylia, etc)

 

I've gone back and forth with dropping green and deep red altogether, but really I think around this kind of setting your results won't be too different.  You have to stick with something long term to really judge if its working or not.

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1 hour ago, bpipher said:

I do a 4 hour ramp on/off with a 4 hour steady setting of:
UV 119%
Violet 116%
Royal 79%
Blue 80%
Green 4%
Deep Red 4%
Cool White 19%

Which I think is basically the AB+ setting iirc.

My night time lowest level setting is just a steady:
UV 13%
Violet 12%
Royal Blue 11%
Blue 10%

 

The night setting was mostly just finding a nice color, no real rhyme or reason.  It might be a bit too bright depending on tank size and such, but nothing has seemed to mind any of this (LPS, euphylia, etc)

 

I've gone back and forth with dropping green and deep red altogether, but really I think around this kind of setting your results won't be too different.  You have to stick with something long term to really judge if its working or not.

I have a similar schedule on my tank except that I turned down the UV&V and cranked the royal blue to 130%. My settings are:

 

3 hour ramp up from 10:00 to 1:00 then 5 hrs at Full intensity followed by 3 hr ramp down from 6:00 to 9:00.

UV - 50%

V - 50%

RB - 130%

Blue - 80%

Green - 5%

Red - 5%

White - 20%

 

I really dislike the look of the UV & V at night so I have my RB @ 1% until 11:00pm and starting @ 5:00am

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5 minutes ago, lpsouth1978 said:

I have a similar schedule on my tank except that I turned down the UV&V and cranked the royal blue to 130%. My settings are:

 

3 hour ramp up from 10:00 to 1:00 then 5 hrs at Full intensity followed by 3 hr ramp down from 6:00 to 9:00.

UV - 50%

V - 50%

RB - 130%

Blue - 80%

Green - 5%

Red - 5%

White - 20%

 

I really dislike the look of the UV & V at night so I have my RB @ 1% until 11:00pm and starting @ 5:00am

What are your thoughts with the UV/V/RB like that, same issue of not liking the color?  I think I read that UV and V tend to pretty important, have you ever tried maxing UV, V and RB at the same time?

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On 8/28/2019 at 1:17 PM, bpipher said:

What are your thoughts with the UV/V/RB like that, same issue of not liking the color?  I think I read that UV and V tend to pretty important, have you ever tried maxing UV, V and RB at the same time?

I set it this way partly for aesthetic reasons, but more so because my tank is pretty shallow and I have seen talk that it is quite easy to overdo the UV and burn corals. My tank inhabitants seem pretty happy with the settings, so I see no reason to change it at this point.

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