Too much light

Yes there certainly is such a thing as too much light. I scorched my corals badly when I switched from MHs to LEDs. I ended up losing a couple of good sized acro colonies. I learned the hard way to be very careful with LEDs.. I highly recommend getting a PAR meter.

 

Is there a standard for recommended par values for a tank? Values for the top, values for the sand bottom? Etc?

 

It depends on what you have in the tank. I have an SPS reef and dialed it to around 300 PAR at the sand bed. That should be enough light for most SPSs even at the bottom. I took a ton of different readings throughout the tank at different dim settings. I started off at about 50% of the power needed to produce 300 PAR at the bottom and graded it up over a period of a few months.

 

you need a par meter.

Also it might be too late but it would help if those LEDs are dimmable. If they are most people start them at 50% or a little higher and then ramp it up 5% or so per week. I run AI over y frag tank and I think they are at 75%.

 

Be careful you could easily fry your corals with the light you can't see.

 

if you were a girs member there is a par meter out there for you to borrow.

 

What kind of LED unit did you get? What size tank?

If you do need to dim some, and your LEDs aren't dimmable, you can cut some screen material and layer it. Put it between the lights and your tank and it will filter the light. More layers means less light making it into your tank. FWIW, just looking at the LEDs and nitcing they are bright is not likely to tell you whether you are giving your corals too much or too little light.

 

Hmm, I am running 5 SOL BLue AI Modules on my 180.. 6ft long... Mixed tank.. Sps, lps, softies... the works...Should I be checking my PAR as well?

 

It would definetly be advised...leds can be misleading....you may think there not bright enough and you may be frying corals