Hydra 26 par

[Elmorenicholas]

Good morning everyone. Thought I would share some info. After getting the club par meter and checking my lights I was very suprised at the results. The entire time to the eye I was thinking I had them way too high. To start I have a red sea reefer 250 with two hydra26 lights mounted 14 inches off the water. Each light is centered 13 inches from the side of the tank and exactly in the middle front to back. I was originally running the lights full power on uv, rb, b, and violet. 10%w 6%r 6%g. Using the par meter I was only achieving a max par of 200 at the very top of the water. 8 inches down a max of 150 at the brightest point. Very surprising to say the least. To get a par level of 300 at the top of my rock structure which is 6 inches below the water line I had to max out all uv, violet, and blue channels along with turning the whites to 60%.  Not exactly the look I want but to get the par levels it was necessary.  

I also went to the AI site and looked at the par levels that are stated on the site. I must say they are pretty dead on. The par meter was reading almost exactly with the graph they had. I believe the future has a t5 hybrid fixture coming to my tank so I can have the par levels and look I want in the tank. When finished I was reading 350 just below the surface of the water. 300 6 inches below. 150 mid tank and a mix between 130 and 85 at the bottom. I will also post a picture of the settings now.

I hope this helps a few people out because after hours of searching it has been difficult to find par levels for these lights. Happy reefing!! 

[CrabbyCrabs]

Wow. That makes me think my lights are way low. I max my ai primes at 75% on my nano and similar on my girlfriends nuvo 20 with a hydra 26. Wonder if that's why my zoa's don't grow, although my sps seem to grow fine a few inches higher. Would too low a par cause sps bleaching from bottom up? What does your light schedule look like?

[Elmorenicholas]

As far as the sps I think that would be a question for some others on here to answer. This is my first tank trying sps also and I'm still trying to get it dialed in. However I have my zoas on a frag rack maybe 6 inches below the waterline on the side and they are doing great. May have to move them now. 

My light schedule starts at 1030 and ramps up to the settings in the picture by 1pm. The settings stay the same until 9pm then ramps down to 2%rb and 1%b at 11pm. More of a moonlight than anything. Everything zeros at 4am.  

I have seen quite a few forums posting about the primes. BRS also has a video with the par testing for those. Everyone seems to skip the hydras lol. After comparing to the AI website I'd check that out also. The levels they posted are accurate. 

[The ReefBox]

To answer question the best I can on two questions brought up. 1. Are sps bleaching from base up because not enough oar?  In my experience the answer to that question is no. Typically sps if not getting enough light with brown out. If the bases are  shaded because of overgrown colonies then they often times lose color. It sounds to me that you have a case of STN (slow tissue necrosis) that can be cause by several different issue like parameter swings,  detritus build up on coral bases lack of flow and bacterial infections, question 2.  Are zoas not growing much because of low par? I will preface this by saying I am more of a stick guy but in my experience your zoas if not getting enough light typically start stretching out like they are reaching for the light. The re are guys out there like @MrBret, @dodge and others that can probably chime in with more info on this. I can say in my experience with zoas, they prefer a lot of blue light and, lower flow and dirty water!  Hope this helps

[youcallmenny]

I just made this discovery about my Reefbreeder LED too.  I had been running at <200 par for almost a year at the top of my arch.  Things weren't going well.  Using a par meter I had to turn mine up just like yours and it's really white looking.  It also didn't make things happy with that spectrum.

Why am I telling you this story?  Because I turned around and ordered 4x Hydra 26's to replace mine.  Yikes.  This thread is very concerning to me.  I'm really starting to wonder if I should have gotten Radions or Orpheks.  

[CrabbyCrabs]

Yeah, not a fan of the white look, or the Windex look either. Too much white seems to wash out the colors. Would adding more lights up the par even at the same settings. Like have 3 hydra 26 on the 250 vs 2 but lower the % of the channels? Seems like over driving the LEDs, especially for the long hours the lights are on, will shorten their life. 

[xmas_one]

Turning your whites up isn’t going much for you. There is a huge difference in PAR and PUR, especially in a reef tank. I mostly use my PAR meter to match lighting levels from moving a coral from one tank to another, or if I swap out lightning over a tank, honestly that’s about all it’s good for. 

[Deuce00]

Good info thank you. Been running my hydra 26s at about what you’ve had yours originally. 

[youcallmenny]

40 minutes ago, xmas_one said:

Turning your whites up isn’t going much for you. There is a huge difference in PAR and PUR, especially in a reef tank. I mostly use my PAR meter to match lighting levels from moving a coral from one tank to another, or if I swap out lightning over a tank, honestly that’s about all it’s good for. 

Can you elaborate on this and what the correct answer for upping/utilizing PUR is? 

[The ReefBox]

This may help

https://orphek.com/understanding-kelvin-lux-lumens-par-and-pur/

[xmas_one]

Basically, there is no correct answer. I could put a Chinese black box of green leds above your tank and increase your perceived PAR to 2000(the meter is dumb and will read 532nm green as PAR), but this would do zero for plants or corals and look ugly as hell.

PUR is phontsynthetically useable radiation, there’s no PUR meter, because it’s different for everything. 

My point is you can not use a PAR meter to dictate your lighting choices. “My corals aren’t doing good, PAR meter says I need moar PAR.” Not a good way of doing things.

Water quality/stability in my opinion is a much more worthwhile obsession. Take a look at guys tanks online that are obsessed about lighting, that should tell you a bit about how important reef lighting is. 

[The ReefBox]

7 minutes ago, xmas_one said:

Basically, there is no correct answer. I could put a Chinese black box of green leds above your tank and increase your perceived PAR to 2000(the meter is dumb and will read 532nm green as PAR), but this would do zero for plants or corals and look ugly as hell.

PUR is phontsynthetically useable radiation, there’s no PUR meter, because it’s different for everything. 

My point is you can not use a PAR meter to dictate your lighting choices. “My corals aren’t doing good, PAR meter says I need moar PAR.” Not a good way of doing things.

Water quality/stability in my opinion is a much more worthwhile obsession. Take a look at guys tanks online that are obsessed about lighting, that should tell you a bit about how important reef lighting is. 

I think par and pur actually go hand in hand  take a pro corals rainbow for instance  it is clearly proven colors and growth are effected by where in tank this coral is placed. In higher light it loses its rainbow colors and growth slows down. In lower light just the opposite happens  thus  imo showing that if you follow some of the light manufacturers programs for corals (extensive research done) you can use there PAR recommendations to achieve adequate PUR  I also believe by upping your PAR gradually you can pull out colors (morphing) not normally seen in a specific coral (sps) 

but xmas you are right the PAR Meter by itself is not completely accurate to measure corals needs 

[CrabbyCrabs]

Can anyone chime in on the UV setting of these lights. Some say low 20% some say high 70+% or does it really matter? 

[Elmorenicholas]

2 hours ago, CrabbyCrabs said:

Can anyone chime in on the UV setting of these lights. Some say low 20% some say high 70+% or does it really matter? 

I know most around here run the uv higher. 

[Elmorenicholas]

3 hours ago, xmas_one said:

Basically, there is no correct answer. I could put a Chinese black box of green leds above your tank and increase your perceived PAR to 2000(the meter is dumb and will read 532nm green as PAR), but this would do zero for plants or corals and look ugly as hell.

PUR is phontsynthetically useable radiation, there’s no PUR meter, because it’s different for everything. 

My point is you can not use a PAR meter to dictate your lighting choices. “My corals aren’t doing good, PAR meter says I need moar PAR.” Not a good way of doing things.

Water quality/stability in my opinion is a much more worthwhile obsession. Take a look at guys tanks online that are obsessed about lighting, that should tell you a bit about how important reef lighting is. 

Agreed on the water quality but one question. And definitely more of a question than argument.  If I'm using the par meter to get a reading it should be reading all spectrums or at least the highest output spectrum correct?  Which in turn means if my par is low and I turn my whites up as I did to get the par up i would at least have more of a chance to have the useable spectrums at the par numbers i need?  If the meter is reading low then i know for a fact I'm not hitting the par levels on any spectrum.

[The ReefBox]

I think one thing to note is that LEDs are much  more intense than our eyes lead us to believe  SPS should grow anywhere at the 150 par level and above I shoot for 250 at a minimum. Some corals in my tank are fine in 500-600.  White light tend to “bleach” or burn SPS  I would personally turns my blue, royal blues violets and UV up before I got too carried away with white. If you insist on turning them up go slow like 5% per week to let things acclimate 

in my Radion g4 pros I run following

blue 100

rb 100

violey 95

UV.  100

red and green 8

and whites at 15

with overall intensity of 63%