How much par is to much par or is there such a thing?

[pizzaguy]

Just a discussion. We measured my par last night. I'm getting around 500 on the sandbed. 600 to 700 halfway up. And 800 at the top and this is with 2 bulbs out since I have a ballast out. I have a 8x80 ati led powermodule. We tested in numerous locations throughout the tank. There are also two 60 inch blue xho reefbrites on the fixture. 

[YHSublime]

That's some good light! I'm super curious to see what my tank is at once I get the par meter, I literally have no idea what kind of par I'm getting. 

 

I'm sure there is such thing as too much, however, what are your corals telling you?

[WheresTheReef]

When I saw your tank it all looked great. I would let your corals answer that for you. The main problem might be introduction of new corals which would need to adjust to such high intensity lighting. You could start them in the shade and move them up slowly as needed. Worst case you can raise your lights a little, but I wouldn't make changes unless it truly becomes a problem.

[pizzaguy]

Well it might explain why most new introductions take excessively long to acclimate 

[ReefdUp]

I think Dana Riddle had some interesting articles a while back on photosaturation and photoinhibition levels of different species of coral. If I remember correctly, there wasn't a photoinhibition level of clams or soft corals, but I think it was like 400-600 for Acropora.

It has been about six years since I looked into PAR versus PUR of LEDs, so maybe someone else has more recent knowledge. But I don't think PAR of LEDs is directly equivalent to PAR of metal halides or other lights. I think PUR is more applicable there, which is more difficult to measure. Recommend looking into this as well.

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[pizzaguy]

Most of this par is definitely from the t-5's. The led pucks are relatively small and my par measurements were a decent distance away from the centerline of the fixture which is where the LEDs are

[Sneeze]

Well it might explain why most new introductions take excessively long to acclimate 

I have a similar problem. I keep my ai Vega at 100%.

Right now, I’ve got a BTA tank, so they just crawl around to where they’re comfortable. The ones that have been there the longest, have slowly crawled to the highest ricks and are happily bubbled up. They sort of auto-adjust to the lights.

When I keep corals though, I never light-acclimate them. My thoughts are that if the coral can’t take it, I don’t want a sissy coral in my tank anyways.
Didn’t work out too well when I tried chalices and jawbreakers a few years ago...


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