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Lighting for Fluval EVO 13.5

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chuckfu5 View Drop Down
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    Posted: August 28 2017 at 9:29pm
So I know this is overkill but I'm hoping to get some great growth and colors with this light.

I've never purchased such a powerful light before so I was looking for some advice on how to adjust my corals to it? How often should I increase intensity and so on?

Right now it's the stock lighting for the EVO and is growing softies, lps and the sps that I have at the top all are showing good color, grown some and all of encrusted nicely.

Thanks for any advice!

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chuckfu5 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote chuckfu5 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 29 2017 at 12:23pm
Any ideas?
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jdinchak View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jdinchak Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 29 2017 at 12:47pm
Did you buy it already?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Marcoss Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 29 2017 at 1:19pm
I never ran mine past 70%, even during a peak, because I didn't see that the corals needed more light. That said, I would start around say something like 20-30% and ramp up 10% weekly. If you notice your corals turn white, back off on the light, if they seem to be reaching for the light, add a tiny bit more. 

There is a person on here that rents a lux meter. That would be the best way to know. Take a measurement of your existing light, and then try and match that with your new light. 

Think of it as acclimating a coral to your light, but backwards. When you get a new coral in the tank you keep it at the bottom so you don't fry it. You move it up as needed. Do that with your light, start low and go high. 
RedSea Max S400 - 90G Rimless Frag Tanks x2 - 185 Lookdown Bin
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote chuckfu5 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 29 2017 at 1:40pm
Originally posted by jdinchak jdinchak wrote:

Did you buy it already?


Yup...on its way!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote chuckfu5 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 29 2017 at 1:43pm
Originally posted by Marcoss Marcoss wrote:

I never ran mine past 70%, even during a peak, because I didn't see that the corals needed more light. That said, I would start around say something like 20-30% and ramp up 10% weekly. If you notice your corals turn white, back off on the light, if they seem to be reaching for the light, add a tiny bit more. 

There is a person on here that rents a lux meter. That would be the best way to know. Take a measurement of your existing light, and then try and match that with your new light. 

Think of it as acclimating a coral to your light, but backwards. When you get a new coral in the tank you keep it at the bottom so you don't fry it. You move it up as needed. Do that with your light, start low and go high. 


Makes sense. Thanks. I'm sure I'll have a ton more questions when I get it. The higher spectrum is better for our reefs correct?

I think the stock good hood color is 16k or 14k but a little more blue is better right?

Edited by chuckfu5 - August 29 2017 at 3:38pm
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mark Peterson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 30 2017 at 9:36am
Yes, the blue area of the spectrum is what coral need, but in the surf zone where more SPS grow, the entire spectrum is an advantage for growth. 

Caution ** Be aware that these top of the line LED reef lights look much dimmer to our eyes than they look to coral. Coral can get sunburned so bad with intense blue light that they can actually die. The dying can takes weeks to happen after just a few days of sunburning so resist the urge to crank up the blue. It's the blue portion of the light we love to crank up because it makes colors Pop. 

I have a friend that sunburned the coral in his 90 gal and almost lost them. Fortunately, he called me just in time. He told me he wanted to get rid of the new lights. They were making his coral shrink. These are two AI Prime HD's, the smallest LED light that Aqua Illumination(AI) makes! When he got the lights, he wasn't listening to me tell him to start at low intensity, like 20% on his 90 gal. He thought the light seemed too dim and turned the blue intensity up to 110%.

With a Kessill A360 on a tank that small, I'd start at 10% with the light 10-12 inches above the water and not go above 30% increasing it weekly over 4-6 weeks. AI has an acclimation program built in. I assume that Kessil and Radion have the same thing, but the begining and ending intensity must be cautiously set by you the user. 

Also, a bit of useful trivia. The best LED's do lose about 5% intensity per year so every year we may want to turn them up by about 5% just to keep the same intensity over our tanks.

**Note **
If a low intensity of blue still seems too dim, give it a little more white and maybe a tiny bit more red and green. That will make it look good to your eyes, but won't burn the coral, then as you gradually increase the blue over the next weeks, the fluorescent colors will become more brilliant.

Aloha,
Mark  Hug
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mark Peterson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 30 2017 at 11:23am
I realize that I'm suggesting starting at 10% where Marcoss suggested 20-30%. If Marcoss had seen your nano tank, like I have, he might agree with my suggestion.

What I have seen is that stock lights on most manufactured tanks are not the best for a true reef aquarium. Many of these are made to work as freshwater tanks, yet if the the freshwater hobbyist wants to do a planted tank, the stock lights don't quite cut it for that either. Stock LED lights are usually white and blue. White light by itself tends to make some colors less vibrant, often washing out the color popping effect of the blues. 

Aloha,
Mark  Hug

P.S.
After further consideration, I may have spoken in error earlier about changing the intensity separately of blues, whites, etc. As I understand it, a major difference between the Kessil A360 and the AI Prime HD is the ability on the Prime to totally control the different channels of spectrum emissions.
The other difference, for us here in the WMAS is price. AI lights can be purchased from Boxfish for half the price of Kessil lights. Boxfish runs a company that acquires Amazon returns and sells them on EBay. In the last 6 months I have bought and/or arranged for other hobbyists to buy about 6 Prime HD lights and 4 or more Hydra 26 HD lights. All were new, many in unopened boxes. Here is the thread: http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=82679
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sleepingdeep Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 31 2017 at 10:53am
i have the evo 13.5 with an ai prime hd over it and its more than enough light. may want to save your money. im sure it'll look great with either light though. If you have any questions, let me know!

EDIT: Just saw that you already purchased! Good luck!


Edited by sleepingdeep - August 31 2017 at 10:54am
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jdinchak View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jdinchak Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 31 2017 at 11:21am
The Kessil pucks look great too.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote chuckfu5 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 07 2017 at 12:24pm
She gave in and let me keep it. It will eventually ramp to 30% output but is set up on its acclimation program to start at 15% and move up over 14 days.

Talk about night and day difference. It's like I have a brand new tank!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kevin.st Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 07 2017 at 12:33pm
yeah, that's a helluva light over that tank.  Best of luck!

Glad she let you keep it.
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