I love being right!

[Bblinks]

Hey Brad,

Congrats on the switch over, I know it was a heavy hit but it will be well worth it in the long run.

As far as for the spread, I have mine at 4 inches awl since I added another unit. I kept the lens stock just like yours so I can blast the sps on the sand bed like my efflo. To be honest I don't see much of separation from the lighting, although the shimmer on the sand bed does have a distinct difference then the shimmer from halides. You said you have your lights sitting at 6-7 inches which in my mind will give you the spread and the coverage around 10X16 area and if you left it up a bit maybe another inch or so then you can increase that to 10.5X18. If you do supplemented with some T5's, you might be able to get away with 3 for a while.

I think you know my stance when it comes to LED intensity, LED's will produce more par when you compare them to 250 MH but I highly doubt that the a brand new 400 halide are putting out anything less then 1000 par at the water surface which is similar to the sols and that par from the halide is evenly distributed across a large area even on the sand bed. I am not telling you to blast your corals right away but instead lift the sols up a bit and have them around 10-12 inches awl but keep them on the same schedule as your halides so if you run your MH for 6 hours a day then run 100% for those 5 hours on your sol and see how everything reacts to it then lower it in a week or two as the coral transitions over to LEDs.

Let me know how it goes, I am hoping to see you on this side of the water soon.
Rich

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Bblinks

Hey Brad,

Congrats on the switch over, I know it was a heavy hit but it will be well worth it in the long run.

You said you have your lights sitting at 6-7 inches which in my mind will give you the spread and the coverage around 10X16 area and if you left it up a bit maybe another inch or so then you can increase that to 10.5X18. If you do supplemented with some T5's, you might be able to get away with 3 for a while.

I think you know my stance when it comes to LED intensity, LED's will produce more par when you compare them to 250 MH but I highly doubt that the a brand new 400 halide are putting out anything less then 1000 par at the water surface which is similar to the sols and that par from the halide is evenly distributed across a large area even on the sand bed. I am not telling you to blast your corals right away but instead lift the sols up a bit and have them around 10-12 inches awl but keep them on the same schedule as your halides so if you run your MH for 6 hours a day then run 100% for those 5 hours on your sol and see how everything reacts to it then lower it in a week or two as the coral transitions over to LEDs.

Rich, just checked, they sit at exactly 6 inches. I don't really have a way to raise them, so they'll stay there. The coverage you estimate sounds about right, maybe a bit less.
For me, the 40' optics sit directly over the peaks of the 3 main structures, so there are colonies about 12 inches or less from the lights. They even appear lacking. I've got them at w/100%, B/80, RB/80...nice color, but much of the tank looks like a creepy deepwater scene..kinda neat, but not conducive to growing corals.

I honestly didn't think 3 would work, just more "hoping" to not spend that kind of money. Dez' tank gave me some hope, but it is a bit smaller and he supplements with LED strips, which might work in my case, or not. It was a tough guess though, as there are very few full SPS tanks where someone tried less than the 6 recommended by everyone.
Luckily, as I built my retro rack mount, I built it to accommodate 6 units...

as for blasting the corals, I'm going to do exactly that in hopes of keeping them happy

[Aquattro]

Oh, another unexpected expense. I'm gonna need a bigger heater

[Borderjumper]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Oh, another unexpected expense. I'm gonna need a bigger heater

Isn't that cool! When I changed over to my LEDS I had to put in a second heater

[justincgdick]

Didn't see it mentioned in the thread... did you take any par measurements? Not sure how you know if you have enough light.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by justincgdick

Didn't see it mentioned in the thread... did you take any par measurements? Not sure how you know if you have enough light.

No, no par meter. I know I don't have enough light because I can't see all the corals. They're in the dark. The areas just below the lights are fine, but still not what came out of the 400w bulbs.

[justincgdick]

Aha, in the dark... that won't work.

[Rice Reef]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Oh, another unexpected expense. I'm gonna need a bigger heater

Sell the chiller and you can buy another Sol and heater.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Rice Reef

Sell the chiller and you can buy another Sol and heater.

I'm going to keep the chiller inline until I've gone a summer and not need it.

[Dez]

DON'T run 'em at 100% to start...... I think your corals will adjust better starting at 30-40% and then going up. I've blacked out my full sps tank for 5 days before with no effect on the corals. Leds look dimmer to the eye, but for some reason, it's super easy to bleach the sps not even full power.

Consider DIY as opposed to another 2 SOL units. That way you won't get spotlighting. That's what I did and I'm loving it and think I got the best of both worlds.