Too much PAR ?

EricTheRed

EricTheRed

No, I'm not a communist..
So a couple weeks ago I upgraded my reflectors to LumenMax Elite's and I'm running radium 20k bulbs now. I have them mounted inside my canopy 9" from the water surface.There is a very visible difference using these reflectors. Not only is it much brighter but there is also more pop from the 20k bulb. There is OVER 1000 MORE PAR at the surface and my sandbed went from 160 to 400!!!! I was able to take these new par readings this morning (Thanks Crooks!!). A couple days ago I noticed a few of the corals starting to bleach. Stupid me, I didn't think there would be such a massive increase by simply upgrading my reflectors so I didn't acclimate the corals to the new lights. I was running Phoneix 14K's which are supposed to have a higher par rating than the Radium 20k's but I was running them in a sub-par reflector. I figured I'd gain some par from the new reflectors and lose some with the Radiums. I underestimated the impact of these reflectors and never expected such an increase.

I've dropped my light cycle to 4 hours and will get some window screen to dissipate the intensity. Hopefully I haven't done any permanent damage. Unfortunately a few sps started bleaching within the last 48 hours.

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Since the reflectors are mounted in my canopy I cannot raise them. My understanding is that there are very few sps that require 600-1000 PAR

Will my sps eventually acclimate to these high PAR levels or do I need to go back to my previous setup?
 
Wow. Are these 400w?

SPS would be fine with acclimation. Even though they dont "need" 600-1000 par it wont hurt and you should get some great colors out of the higher demanding light species. Just know to shade your LPS or they'll be toast.

Time to get all those common sps out and go all high end! :googlyeyes:
 
poidog said:
Wow. Are these 400w?

SPS would be fine with acclimation. Even though they dont "need" 600-1000 par it wont hurt and you should get some great colors out of the higher demanding light species. Just know to shade your LPS or they'll be toast.

Time to get all those common sps out and go all high end! :googlyeyes:
Click to expand...

Nope 250W.

Thanks for the info :) As time goes by and real estate become more scarce, I have been rotating out the less attractive pieces and the non-acro's.
 
mlreef said:
That is an amazing amount of light out of a 250!
Click to expand...

Brand new bulbs, best reflectors on the market and only 9" from the water surface. That'd be my guess.
They are way closer to the surface than they should be. You can tell they're close becasue the outsides of the tank are barely getting hit. Ideally I should have these raised so the light could reach the far corners. Oh well, that'll keep the LPS from cooking.
 
mlreef said:
That is an amazing amount of light out of a 250!
Click to expand...

Yes. Very impressive. I run a 250 and get no where near that. Re-test the bulbs in 30 days. I but you'll see a good drop. I remember testing a brand new Phoenix bulb and the PAR was about 150ish higher than after it was broken in.
 
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