Adding new lights need advise

[Otaku Reefer]

Hi fellow reefers,

 

I am intending to add a third hydra 26hd to provide better spread as some my sps suffer from shading..

 

Can kindly advise on acclimating corals to the new light source? how much intensity and for how long is considered safe? i currently have 2 hydra 26hd, means i need to reduce intensity of these 2 lights when i add a third one?

 

Thanks!

 

 

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[R0B]

Overall consistency is key, assuming you dont have a PAR meter (Seneye, Apogee?) to guide you. So the key is keeping spectrum same but adjusting the intensity. The HD26 is suitable for a 2ft tank (like most 90w lights), so depending on how big your tank is (how big is it?) you will get an overlaping of the light. Clearly a smaller tank will see more direct overlapping (meaning you have to change the intensity on all the lights). Space the lights wider then you think. Whilst an even distribution of the lights looks nice you can end up with some segments getting 3 light sources (1 direct and 2 indirect) which can end up with a centre spot being twice as intense as the outer parts. On smaller tanks this overlapping is like 3direct light sources. The increasing in height will help distribute this more evenly.

One way I have coped with this in the past is to increase the height of my lights by 2 to 3 inches and reduce the photoperiod by a few hours at the start. Another solution I found that worked is to increase the lights a few inches (mine are now 12.5 inches above the tank), and reduce the centre light intensity to 10% and slowly increase it overtime.

I wonder why no LFS has an Apogee that you could rent (any LFS listening? Haha). I have a Seneye which works really well as for measuring PAR and Spectrum. You will be amazed just how much certain areas of your tank differ in PAR. I completely changed the light setup raising the lights and physically spacing them wider to get more even spread it was also why I move to a hybrid t5 solution to gain more blanket effect. Then again maybe you want an area with slightly higher intensity depending on your mix of corals.

So increase height if can, else reduce centre intensity.

Hope that helps.

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[Otaku Reefer]

Overall consistency is key, assuming you dont have a PAR meter (Seneye, Apogee?) to guide you. So the key is keeping spectrum same but adjusting the intensity. The HD26 is suitable for a 2ft tank (like most 90w lights), so depending on how big your tank is (how big is it?) you will get an overlaping of the light. Clearly a smaller tank will see more direct overlapping (meaning you have to change the intensity on all the lights). Space the lights wider then you think. Whilst an even distribution of the lights looks nice you can end up with some segments getting 3 light sources (1 direct and 2 indirect) which can end up with a centre spot being twice as intense as the outer parts. On smaller tanks this overlapping is like 3direct light sources. The increasing in height will help distribute this more evenly.

One way I have coped with this in the past is to increase the height of my lights by 2 to 3 inches and reduce the photoperiod by a few hours at the start. Another solution I found that worked is to increase the lights a few inches (mine are now 12.5 inches above the tank), and reduce the centre light intensity to 10% and slowly increase it overtime.

I wonder why no LFS has an Apogee that you could rent (any LFS listening? Haha). I have a Seneye which works really well as for measuring PAR and Spectrum. You will be amazed just how much certain areas of your tank differ in PAR. I completely changed the light setup raising the lights and physically spacing them wider to get more even spread it was also why I move to a hybrid t5 solution to gain more blanket effect. Then again maybe you want an area with slightly higher intensity depending on your mix of corals.

So increase height if can, else reduce centre intensity.

Hope that helps.

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Hi Rob,

As usual, thank you for the detailed advise appreciate it. yup u are right, i dont have par meter, will consider a seneye after this CB ends lol. Mine is a 4 foot tank currently lighted by 2 26HD, i just mounted the 3rd light today, took ur advise and mounted it higher for all 3 lights, now about 12 inches above water, used to be about 11 inches. And using the acclimation mode of the AI hydra. Reduce intensity by about 40% for 1 month. Will take this chance to monitor the corals reaction daily since we r all stuck at home lol.


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[R0B]

Sounds like you have a great lighting set up. I can lend you my Seneye post the CB if that helps just PM me.

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[sherman]

Seneye can measure spectrum？

[R0B]

Yep, it has a graph where the spectrum is shown. I am not sure how accurate it is, but for sure it gives a very good indication of what your lights are doing. I remember BRS saying it was very close in accuracy to their high end testing equipment. So that is good enough for me. In addition it measures both PAR and PUR as well as Kelvin and Lux. You can also use it to keep an eye on your ph, ammonia, temperature and water level. Generally a great little tool.

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[Otaku Reefer]

Yep, it has a graph where the spectrum is shown. I am not sure how accurate it is, but for sure it gives a very good indication of what your lights are doing. I remember BRS saying it was very close in accuracy to their high end testing equipment. So that is good enough for me. In addition it measures both PAR and PUR as well as Kelvin and Lux. You can also use it to keep an eye on your ph, ammonia, temperature and water level. Generally a great little tool.

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Rob, is the seneye connected to cloud? can u remote access like the apex for the monitoring?


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[R0B]

It does have a cloud function. There is an additional 'Websever' box you need to be able to connect it to the cloud.

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