- Today on the Five Minute Saltwater Aquarium Guide,
we laser target an LED solution for a new saltwater tank.
Not just selecting the right light, but the actual details.
And getting it set up correctly,
so lighting will never be an issue.
And a few lighting tips that every reefer needs to know.
All that's coming up.
(upbeat music)
Hey I'm Ryan, your host to BRStv
and the Five Minute Saltwater Aquarium Guide.
This is a clear, simplified, direct path
to setting up that fist successful reef tank.
This is episode 13, it's time to talk reef tank lighting.
There are four things we need to know to get this right.
Number one, above all else, light is here to provide energy
to the corals and the primary source of nutrition.
Every discussion about reef lighting should start
with optimal health for the corals.
Second, and just short of that,
is the reason we own saltwater aquariums.
It's because we want them to look cool.
So the light needs to make the tank
and corals look awesome, with ideal coloration.
Close to that, we also want it to
at least look decent above the tank.
Preferably a nice, clean install that adds
to the tank, rather than takes away from it.
And lastly, I think we all want a reasonable price.
Solid, reliable lighting options which meet those goals
won't be the cheapest thing for your tank,
but you shouldn't have to get a second mortgage either.
The most important thing you need to know
to get this all right, is your own goals.
Identify what they are, a process similar
to what we just did, and then manage to those goals.
So with that in mind for the 40 gallon breeder,
I believe two AI Prime, 16 HDs are the best choices
out there for the balance of those goals.
And there are a few distinct reasons why we chose it
for the Five Minute Guide for this tank.
Aqua Illuminations is one of the most
established reef lighting options out there,
has all the important spectrums for coral growth.
The size or wattage is balanced for a tank this size.
Meaning you'll have the power you need,
but not overdoing it.
The spread from two will adequately cover 36 inch tank.
And I can confidentially say this light is suited
to the purpose of the types of corals
that we want to stock here.
Also, upgradable down the road if you want to add more pucks
and space them close for more advanced corals.
The spectrum the AI Prime puts out also highlights
the corals natural fluorescence really well,
and produces a high contrast, visually interesting tank.
There are two mounting arms,
the Flex Arm and the fixed mount.
We ended up going with the fixed mount here,
because it looks sharp.
And again, these low profile lights are
what accents the outside of the tank,
so the entire thing looks sharp.
They're around 200 bucks a module.
They're not free, but they're also much lower cost
than many other popular options.
With the Red Sea E-170, you don't have to shop for light,
because it comes with its own reef LED and mounting kit.
In this case, because the tank is closer to a square,
it can be lit with a single, but higher powered light.
I mentioned this in an earlier episode, but included gear,
like lighting, is one of the reasons why the
all-in-one tanks, like the E-170, end up being not all
that much more expensive than their standard counterparts.
The easiest way to set up lights, like the ReefLED
and AI Prime, is to listen to those reefers who've come
before you and already learned the hard way.
In this case, I'll just give you the exact settings
for the spectrum and intensity that I would use
for both the Red Sea and AI Primes.
In this case, tuned to the specific tanks for the type
of corals that we're going to be adding to the tank,
if you tune these lights to these settings,
in about a ten hour light cycle,
lighting will not be a challenge on these tanks.
Blues are often one of the dominant lights here,
because that's the spectrum peak
that matters the most to the corals.
Add in white until it looks good to the eye.
I'd be careful with the reds and greens,
because they can end up unnaturally high.
In most cases, no more than 20%,
but that depends on the light.
Notice the photo period ramps down at both ends.
That's not because the corals require
that gradual change, but done so you can see
the tank longer at lower intensities.
Even some cool visual effects, like dusk or moonlights.
If you're doing a different shape tank, or different lights,
or different corals, and this is your first tank,
the best advice is rent a PAR meter,
which measures the strength of light, for 50 bucks.
Then tune them intelligently, rather than guess.
The success rates of tuning using a tool
to measure to a goal are just dramatically higher
than guessing, for your first time.
Avoiding common challenges just puts you
into a higher success pool.
With the LPS corals, polyps, and (mumbles),
like we're doing here, we're often looking for 75
to 150 PAR in as much of the tank as possible.
When you're ready for more advanced corals,
like SPS, the sweet spot is often between 250 and 350
in as much of the tank as possible.
I mentioned last week, that the Five Minute Guide's gonna
have some tips that change the way that you reef
and dramatically increase your success rates.
I do have some for lighting.
First, PAR is not horsepower, where more light is better.
In fact, you 100 times more likely to kill your corals
with too much light than not enough.
So resist the temptation to ride the edge,
the edge isn't leading you anywhere good.
PAR's also not something you can
measure accurately with the human eye.
The spectrum of light the human eye perceives as brightness
and what is usable PAR for the corals is totally different.
And the human eye also auto irises to brightness.
Some reefers may get close by luck, intuition,
or solid advice, but it's far from easy for a new reefer
to estimate PAR with the human eye.
That said, you can guess and watch what the corals tolerate,
and even thought it's a lower percentage path,
it's by far the most common path.
If the light is too bright or the PAR too strong,
the corals will shrink up and retract tissue
to protect themselves from the intense light.
Best advice here is just start low
and work your way up, not the other way.
If you don't have enough light, the corals will get puffy,
stretch out, reach and/or expand themselves to try
to create more surface area to capture more light.
If you only hear one thing today, let it be this,
because it will help you more than anything else.
My good friend Victor, at World Wide Corals, once said
to me, "Corals are amazingly adaptive creatures.
"And will adapt to almost any of our mistakes,
"if you just let them be."
That means you don't have to get
this perfect to be successful.
But you do have to resist the temptation
to flip the sliders on your LED app all the time.
The manufacturer designed it like it's a game or toy,
but it's life support for an organism
that thrives in stability.
Success doesn't come from tweaking,
it comes from leaving things alone.
So resist the temptation, and then set it and forget it.
One of the benefits of using these two tanks here
and the lights we selected today, is you can skip all that
and just input the settings that we showed you earlier.
And know you got this lighting thing covered
without even thinking about it.
Leave the exploration for the next tank upgrade.
Lighting's now covered.
The next step is one of the most popular components
of the filtration, called a protein skimmer.
This tool mixes air and water, to strip out the excess food
and fish waste, to maintain clean water in the tank.
The entire Saltwater Aquarium Guide
is always available here.
But if you wanna know how a protein skimmer works
and how to set them up on tanks like these,
that's coming up right here.