Lighting your reef... Best bang for your buck.

[Gregcoyote]

I do need to come visit you. Do you ever make it near St. Louis?

 

[DeathclawRowe1]

I went with wave point LEDs from amazon. They were 50% off for Father's Day

 

[54seaweed]

Man I would love to see your tank setup but that would be a long drive.... A few thousand miles probably....

Hundreds maybe not millons lol unless you plan on going around the world a time or two

maybe if I ever get back to the east coast I could get a tour of your tank two X

 

[54seaweed]

I have a 6 inch one of those lights it's over my 37g it's just ultra blue leds
not a bad light considering how small it is wish it had a dimmer on it
I use them along with 4 HO t-5s now I got spoiled I have the Chinese leds over my 40b
look so good Now I have to get another

 

[Dary421]

I find that most of the dull looking corals we hear about with these fixtures are from lack of proper acclimation. IME, it takes months to get a coral to color up to it's full potential under these particular fixtures, no matter if you use a RB or similar fixture with multiple colors, or a straight blue and white one.
Some LPS just can't handle the fixtures at full strength. I am growing montipora and keep anemones under a Tao fixture with just the blues at about 80%. Turn it up any higher and the anemones hide.
Even going from one LED unit to another, potency differs.
I have a 250 watt halide fixture set up over one of my sumps with a 20k lamp in it and The same corals look 100 times more colorful and more florescent under the Tao units I am using.

I have to agree with you ,... A few of my newer corals did not show their true colors until after a couple of months in the tank,.... As stated a zillion times before things go slow in a saltwater tank....

 

[JJ-MIK]

It's only been a few days on the new Taos . And the colors have popped like crazy!! And all my corals and even fish. Look so much happier now!! I'm going to have another Tao to go over my 55!!

 

[TommyP]

Which brightness do you have the blues and whites? Seems like some of the zoas in the sand aren't opening up and I've had them for a while.

 

[JJ-MIK]

In running between 50-75% on white and 80-100% on blue.. Been toying with the brightness to see what is working the best. Have you checked your params lately?

 

[TommyP]

I haven't. Been slacking I've been so busy. Doing change tomorrow when I'm off hopefully they perk back up. Everything seems a little eh lately since I got the lights but its a week overdue for a change so well see what happens. Also, I have 40% whites and blues running right now

 

[JJ-MIK]

Could b salinity.. I put my lights at 65% white and 100 blue and my corals look amazing today!! Never seen my elegance and brain corals so huge and full of color!

 

[TommyP]

I did just get my ato in sync so the salinity is a little low but it's still above 1.020 it will be adjusted over the next week so I don't shock anything. It was steadily at 1.026. I didn't wanna turn the lights up so much because I didn't want to burn my corals. When they white it means not enough light and when they brown it means too much right?

 

[Animal-Chin]

I've backed my 2 units down to 50% over my 55. 1 units not enough to cover the tank but with the 2 I was bleaching things out when they were turned up. Having trouble finding just the right intensity for these to really be right for everything in the tank. Wish I could find a par meter to really know what I'm blasting into my tank...

 

[aadair22]

When they white it means not enough light and when they brown it means too much right?

Other way around

 

[mr_X]

When they white it means not enough light and when they brown it means too much right?

it's the other way around, if the parameters are good, that is.

 

[aadair22]

it's the other way around, if the parameters are good, that is.

Question, when nems bleach out though, it's due to a lack of light thought, correct?

 

[mr_X]

Possibly. It's the zooxanthellae leaving the host for one reason or another. In many cases it's lighting or lack thereof.

 

[TommyP]

Ok thanks. Sorry I got it mixed up.

 

[TommyP]

Ok thanks

 

[Token]

Just got my new 40g running and loving the maxspect razor 120w. Ran about 400$ but has a built in controller and comes with a bracket mount and a hanging mount.

 

[JJ-MIK]

I backed my white to 50 and up to 100 on blue. And my corals are thriving in color and size! I know I said it before. But man I'm loving this setting! I'm going to check par levels tonight. I never seen so many polyps on my one leather. And it looks like me devils hand leather is opening up more now too. I'd post a pic. But my phone only pics up the blue