How much is too much?

[ripped tide]

I got a new reflector and ballast today for my 30rimless frag tank.

It's the Luxcore select a watt 250-400 watt electronic ballast. The reflector is the lumen bright mini pendant. After hooking it all up and firing it up, there is a HUGE noticable difference in visual light. With the old set up, I had been getting about 350-400 par in the bottom center.

I just put the meter under the new set up and the numbers have doubled, if not trippled. I'm getting above 1000 par.

First of all... W T F? Does a new ballast and reflector make that much of a differance?

Secondly, I'm afraid I am going to start bleaching things. I don't want to raise the light a lot, because of spillage and the tank is right next to a window.... Don't wanna give the neighbors the wrong impression

The crazy part is that the ballast has an over drive option. I don't think I'll need it, but that option was the reason that I bought that ballast.

 

[grouper therapy]

what watt bulb are you running?

 

[picoreefguy]

well ive never worked with halides i went straight from t5s to led's so i cant really comment on anything in this post but i will say (im sure youve already thought up a solution to the bleaching but ill throw in my 2 cents anyway) that if you have access to some black screen mesh get about 5 or 6 layers and lay them over the tank to block out some of the light and take a layer away every 5 days to a week till theyre all gone that should aclimate the corals well enough to keep them from bleaching.

 

[ripped tide]

Dave, it's a 250 radium.

 

[ripped tide]

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I raised it about 4 inches and got it to drop down some.

 

[cedzaquaddiction]

:wow2:

 

[ripped tide]

It's hard to tell in the pic, but the sensor is resting on the rock that the acro is growing on.

 

[kzoo]

How deep is the tank? And have you checked the meter to see if its reading right?

 

[jmaneyapanda]

You really need to be careful. Corals can suffer from too much light just as easily as not enough. 850 Par is too strong for many corals IMO.

Btw, yes a ballast and reflector change can cause a HUGE difference

 

[ripped tide]

The tank is only 12" deep. I'll probably raise the light some more until I can drop back down to around 400-500.... Or I'll go back to my old reflector that spills a lot more light out of the sides.

Edit: Or put the old ballast back on until the corals adjust to the new reflector.

Edit:

Picoreefguy;813229 wrote: well ive never worked with halides i went straight from t5s to led's so i cant really comment on anything in this post but i will say (im sure youve already thought up a solution to the bleaching but ill throw in my 2 cents anyway) that if you have access to some black screen mesh get about 5 or 6 layers and lay them over the tank to block out some of the light and take a layer away every 5 days to a week till theyre all gone that should aclimate the corals well enough to keep them from bleaching.

That would probably work really well, I just don't have any black plastic mesh.

 

[ripped tide]

Alright folks, I know that you guys were just hanging at the edge of your seats.... Fixed!

I just decided that I would jack it up about 8 inches which dropped the center par back down to around 500. That will be a little more than they were used to, but not much.

 

[tbryan]

nice to know it does that well i have basically the same combo over my 60 cube.

 

[ichthyoid]

Inverse square law Dylan, means if you doubled the distance you'll get ~1/4 the light/PAR.

If the tank is only 12 inches deep, you're not getting much scattering from suspended particulates either.