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Skyward Imaging View Drop Down
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    Posted: March 28 2016 at 11:19am
I am wondering if my lighting is sufficient the way I have them configured. Here are the facts:

I am running 2 AI Sol Blues on a RSM 250. The lights are in the hood so only about 3" off the waterline. I am controlling them with an Apex and have them setup to follow the sun up and sun down schedule. I have been getting a lot of brown, brown hair and cyano growing in the tank so I turned the intensity of the lights down to the following:

  • AI_Blue 
    • Up with the sun
    • 60 minutes ramp times
    • max intensity 75%
  • AI_White
    • Up with the sun
    • 60 minute ramp times
    • max intensity 55%
  • AI_Royal
    • On at 06:30 am
    • Off at 20:00 pm
    • 60 minute ramp times
    • max intensity 100%
  • Moonlight
    • On at 20:00 pm
    • Off at 22:00 pm
    • On at 04:30 am
    • Off at 06:30 am
and here is a video of the tank itself taken just a few minutes ago.


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Krazie4Acans View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Krazie4Acans Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 28 2016 at 11:25am
Send a PM to Anne_A. She had this same setup for quite a while and may remember what her settings were that she used. Or maybe she will post it here as well. Krazie
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Mark Peterson View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mark Peterson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 28 2016 at 3:04pm

Color and beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but on the other hand, that's more intensity than I would use, unless the fixtures are over 5 years old. LED's do slowly lose intensity with age. I would reduce all channels by half. The color you like will be retained while intensity is reduced to curtail algae growth for a while.

As I recall, this is a fairly new tank. In new tanks algae is more prone to get out of balance and turn into a bloom. It's usually because there are insufficient herbivores for the algae growth fueled by an excess of nutrients.

Remember, testing becomes misleading in showing low nutrient/pollution levels, simply because the algae is eating the nutrients as fast as they become available. Because the bacterial population is not yet fully grown/fully mature in a newer tank (<1 year), initially algae makes up the bulk of the biofiltration.

Remember, the intensity of light from LED's does not register to our eyes (and camera lenses) as bright as it truly is. Unfortunately, this makes videos and still photos less than definitive.

Also, since algae cannot grow when light is absent, don't be afraid to leave the lights off to curtail algae growth. This gives the herbivores a chance to catch up on their job/dinner. Snails, Snails and more Snails is always my motto for algae control. A tropical storm sometimes makes the ocean quite dark for a week or more. It's okay. Smile

We've had some recent threads about brown algae, Cyanobacteria/Dinoflagellate blooms. Have you seen those threads?

Aloha,

Mark  Hug



Edited by Mark Peterson - March 28 2016 at 5:34pm
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Fatman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 28 2016 at 3:31pm
Mark is correct about LED intensity. The figures I have seen show them to lose about 15% of intensity at around 7 years. Which really depends on how long they were on and at what intensity they were run over the years. I have a note to increase my lights from 45% to 52% in 2022.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Adam Blundell Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 28 2016 at 5:11pm
Originally posted by Fatman Fatman wrote:

I have a note to increase my lights from 45% to 52% in 2022.
Fatman

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Skyward Imaging Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 28 2016 at 6:13pm
Originally posted by Mark Peterson Mark Peterson wrote:

Color and beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but on the other hand, that's more intensity than I would use, unless the fixtures are over 5 years old. LED's do slowly lose intensity with age. I would reduce all channels by half. The color you like will be retained while intensity is reduced to curtail algae growth for a while.

As I recall, this is a fairly new tank. In new tanks algae is more prone to get out of balance and turn into a bloom. It's usually because there are insufficient herbivores for the algae growth fueled by an excess of nutrients.

Remember, testing becomes misleading in showing low nutrient/pollution levels, simply because the algae is eating the nutrients as fast as they become available. Because the bacterial population is not yet fully grown/fully mature in a newer tank (<1 year), initially algae makes up the bulk of the biofiltration.

Remember, the intensity of light from LED's does not register to our eyes (and camera lenses) as bright as it truly is. Unfortunately, this makes videos and still photos less than definitive.

Also, since algae cannot grow when light is absent, don't be afraid to leave the lights off to curtail algae growth. This gives the herbivores a chance to catch up on their job/dinner. Snails, Snails and more Snails is always my motto for algae control. A tropical storm sometimes makes the ocean quite dark for a week or more. It's okay. Smile

We've had some recent threads about brown algae, Cyanobacteria/Dinoflagellate blooms. Have you seen those threads?

Aloha,

Mark  Hug


Mark, I followed your suggestions and went a little further. I setup a switch in my Apex for Algae_CTRL so if it gets to the point I need to cut out the lighting I just set it to auto. That will turn off the Blues, Whites and turn the Royal Blues down to about 10%. That way it kills off the algae and I can still enjoy it a little Wink. I have seen those threads BTW Thank you.
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