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View Full Version : What power is everyone running their LED's at?


LoJack
04-23-2013, 01:59 PM
This seems to be a hot button on many other forums ... but I wanted to see what everyone else is doing with their LED's.

It seems as though people with the best growth and coloration are running their LED's are running them at about 50% power.

This could explain why my Acro's do well ... but my plating Monti's are suffering.

I am currently running my LED's (RapidLED 72x3w) at about 70% and seem to be struggling.

What do you run yours at?

banditpowdercoat
04-23-2013, 02:16 PM
180W of LED's on my 5' tank. 100% I need more light tho. I had a misshap with a driver and blew like 14 Cree's :(

daplatapus
04-23-2013, 02:17 PM
I've also got a DIY fixture up and my plating Monti's are doing so well I'm having issues cleaning my glass because they grow so fast I can't get my mag cleaner by :)

I've also got a green birdsnest and a purple tipped acro that also seems to be doing well but a purple poccilipora that doesn't seem to like it at all.

That being said, because I'm running 4 separate channels they're all at different levels. My NW's are somewhere around 60%, RB's 50%-ish, OCW's 75% and TV's 50%

monocus
04-23-2013, 02:18 PM
my vertex illumina is run at -white- 50%,blue-65%,royal blue-75%.my vertex illumilux is at 100%.over my frag tank my no-name is run at75%.all my other tanks are run at 100%

LoJack
04-23-2013, 02:23 PM
I've also got a DIY fixture up and my plating Monti's are doing so well I'm having issues cleaning my glass because they grow so fast I can't get my mag cleaner by :)

I've also got a green birdsnest and a purple tipped acro that also seems to be doing well but a purple poccilipora that doesn't seem to like it at all.

That being said, because I'm running 4 separate channels they're all at different levels. My NW's are somewhere around 60%, RB's 50%-ish, OCW's 75% and TV's 50%

Its funny to see this

I have an ORA Birds of Paradise that grows like a weed, but a green and pink birdsnest at the same level that haven't changed size in 6 months.

Plating Monti's do awful for me, yet my purple pocillipora grows like a weed.

I have a few acros that thrive, yet my purple bonsai is in neutral ... the world of reefing is such a confusing place

Dearth
04-23-2013, 02:24 PM
My LEDs run at 60% seems to be perfect right there 70% is too high and 50% too low at 60% I seem to get best growth and colour from all my coral if light is too high I don't get full opening of coral and if light is too low I get full opening but little colour

LoJack
04-23-2013, 02:25 PM
However I did some testing this morning ... and there is more than just lighting at play here. I haven't played with my dosing pumps in a while, and apparently I'm starving my corals.

ALK - 7.5 dkh
CAL - 415ppm
MAG - 1400

Calcium and ALK are both a bit low ... I guess getting these in order is probably playing more of a factor than the lighting intensity to be honest.

LoJack
04-23-2013, 02:26 PM
My LEDs run at 60% seems to be perfect right there 70% is too high and 50% too low at 60% I seem to get best growth and colour from all my coral if light is too high I don't get full opening of coral and if light is too low I get full opening but little colour

Mine seemed to be doing better at this level too ... I was trying to increase by 5% every week or two as everything acclimated ... but it seems as though I've hit my max. This week everything looks a little more pale in coloration.

I think its time to back off to about 60% again

Reef Pilot
04-23-2013, 02:41 PM
I run LED's on 3 tanks right now.

3 Radion Gen 2 - 90% - 19" deep tank. Mostly SPS, some SPS, and even a couple softies. SPS doing great. Hope to raise it to 100% soon.

3 Radion Gen 1 - 50% - 24" deep tank. LPS and softies. Seems to be plenty for these corals.

1 Radion Gen 1 - 20% - QT/frag tank.

I use the Natural Mode on all my lights, which follows the sun to a short rounded peak time as per above.

Aquattro
04-23-2013, 02:49 PM
However I did some testing this morning ... and there is more than just lighting at play here. I haven't played with my dosing pumps in a while, and apparently I'm starving my corals.

ALK - 7.5 dkh
CAL - 415ppm
MAG - 1400

Calcium and ALK are both a bit low ... I guess getting these in order is probably playing more of a factor than the lighting intensity to be honest.

Nothing wrong with any of those numbers. That's where my tank sits and I have to trim monthly.

LoJack
04-23-2013, 02:51 PM
Nothing wrong with any of those numbers. That's where my tank sits and I have to trim monthly.

Really ... maybe I should just leave well enough alone then

They seem low to me.

I typically shoot for:

ALK 8.5
CAL 440

Aquattro
04-23-2013, 02:53 PM
Really ... maybe I should just leave well enough alone then

They seem low to me.

I typically shoot for:

ALK 8.5
CAL 440

No, alk is fine, and really, anything for Ca over 380 is good. My Ca hits a max of 420 ever. I don't even test for Mg. If your tanks sits at those numbers consistently, I'd leave it alone.

daplatapus
04-23-2013, 02:55 PM
Nothing wrong with any of those numbers. That's where my tank sits and I have to trim monthly.

Ya, I was about to post the same thing. My Alk is a wee bit higher but my Ca is sitting around 380 or so.

BuschWacker
04-23-2013, 05:17 PM
AI nano on a Nuvo 8. im running it at only 35%. mostly zoas. an Acan, and a poci. zoas love it, poci is always has good polyp extention. its only been in tank for few weeks. everything seems very happy and healthy.

asylumdown
04-23-2013, 05:31 PM
8 radions on a 275 gallon tank. I was running at 75% max intensity for a while and even that was bleaching some of my LPS on the sand bed, but I removed the worst affected corals to a pico tank not too long ago and tried bumping it up to 80%. Tanks is 85% acro and montipora. So far I haven't noticed a difference, though a couple zoa polyps that point straight up stopped opening up during the peak hour.

Bblinks
04-23-2013, 08:12 PM
11 AI sol at 90% White 100% actinic and royal blue for 5 hours plus sun raise and sun set.

Sps are loving the intensity but the Lps does suffer a bit when they are first introduced. I usually have to hide them under a rock or other colonies until they get used to it.

ScubaSteve
04-23-2013, 08:18 PM
I have 8 RB, 4 CW, 2 OCW and 4 TV over my 14G Biocube.

I run the LEDs at:

RB: 75%
CW: 45%
OCW: 80%
TV: 75%

I also run them from 8 am to 11:30 pm, with the light peaking between 10:30 and 5:30 pm. Whites and OCW are off by 7pm. RB and TV taper off slowly through the night. How long are you running your LEDs for? Maybe the LEDs just aren't on long enough?

The only filtration I am running in the LED Biocube tank is filter floss and a small bag of HC-GFO. I change 30% of the water weekly with water from my main tank. That's all it gets for maintainance. I am growing 5 acro colonies and 2 plating monti colonies, in addition to a few zoas. The montis are off to the sides in lower light areas. Believe it or not, the SPS in this little tank actually look better and are growing as fast as the colonies in my main tank (in fact the Red Planet in the little tank is out growing the RP in my big tank). I attribute this success to just having a stupid amount of light in a small tank.

Another thing to consider: What optics are you using? Maybe your light isn't penetrating enough?

In regards to the plating montis - I had a huge green cap colony that did well for the longest time but then began to struggle. I spent tons of time trying to fix whatever seemed to be causing the issue with it with little success. One day the tissue did this weird thing and turn sort of crispy, and then eventually died. A couple months later I got a new monti frag. It sat there for months, doing nothing... even began to struggle a bit. I explained this to a friend of mine who is a marine biologist and he looked up a few papers for me. He found that montis are more demanding for potassium than other SPS (I unfortunately don't have the links to the papers anymore to share then with you - I'l see if I can find them again); we tested my water and found it was almost depleted of potassium. I started dosing ZEOvit Potassium Iodide Fluoride Concentrate, BAM!, monti starts to take off and grow like mad. My potassium is now at normal levels with daily dosing. I'm not saying with certainty that this what caused the change but I didn't change anything else in my daily care of the tank in at least the past 8 months. I started dosing the potassium 2 months ago and it has only been within that time that the monti started to take off. Maybe look into that as a cause?