Duckhams' 75G Reef Build - Eurobraced/BeanAnimal

Duckhams · #1 03-09-2016, 06:56 PM

So this week I switched to the wide angle 120˚ lenses on my Radions. After taking some PAR readings, I switched back to the standard 80˚ lenses as the PAR was so low on the wide angles, even at 100%. As I have 3 x XR15PRO's above my tank, the standard lenses do the trick and I get great coverage and now great PAR too!

Below are my readings/settings. Im running them at 70% right now, but you can see what sort of PAR range I have up to 100% intensity. Obviously there is some variation in the readings as you go further toward the back glass/front glass. But all these readings were taken within the 6" center of the tank (front to back). PAR readings on the Apogee MQ-200 actually read <2% low, according to the manual.

At 70% they are incredibly bright already! I really love the Radion's. Im getting good growth from my SPS and i've kept colouration on 95% of them, but still expect to see improvements in colour as my SPS settle in and light intensity/feedings increase.

70% INTENSITY:

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100% INTENSITY:

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Duckhams · #2 03-09-2016, 07:15 PM

I also took a few readings at 100% on all channels just to see what the difference would be. The Radion XR15PRO's put out a LOT of PAR. However, I dont think many aquarists will run all channels on 100% percent as we tend to favour the blue 20,000k look over the bright 5,000k sunshine look. Though for heavy SPS tanks it may be worth ramping up to the 100% on all channels for an hour or so a day just get that extra bump in PAR. How effective, necessary or worthwhile that would be, i don't know. But I like that it's an option.

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Duckhams · #3 03-09-2016, 07:31 PM

My actinic settings on Radion XR15PRO's. In person the tank is a brilliant blue with serious pop on the coral colours, the picture doesn't really show how bright and blue it is, but you get the idea. PAR readings are low but acceptable given the color spectrum.

With the UV channel set to 0% the sand bed reading drops from 50 to 10. The other readings stay around the same and drop very little.

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Bugger · #4 03-09-2016, 09:06 PM

What program did you use to make the picture.
Wasen't it a pain to change the lens

Duckhams · #5 03-09-2016, 09:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bugger

What program did you use to make the picture.
Wasen't it a pain to change the lens

I did it all in Pages on my mac. Changing the lenses took me about 2 minutes on each unit. It's really easy.

Bugger · #6 03-09-2016, 10:23 PM

Really you can do that much on pages