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My First Reef: Redsea 525XL

My sump skimmer chamber is 10.5" deep but my skimmer specs is 7-8.7". So I made a little stand out of scrap acrylic and PVC.
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Took some PAR measurement last night. This is with only one light unit in place.

At 60% blue, 20% white, this is the first and last 2 hours of my photo period

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At 60% blue 60% white, the middle 4 hours of the photo period

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Light at full 100% all channels

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The chemistry is settling in, Alk 7.8, Mag 1200, Cal 400. I'll need to do some adjustments

Brown diatoms spots are appearing. Yay

Trying to confirm my cycle but my just expired API kit is not helping. Ammonia test look the same between NSW and NSW + some ammonium chloride.
 
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not too shabby for a single light.

Is that 150 being shaded by the rock near 400? Hard to tell the direction it's pointing.

The spot I measured was not being shaded. It is a bit closer to the center (where the light is) than the 120 spot on the other side but a bit further from the center than the 180 spot on the floor.
 
Very good PAR numbers. About double what my main tank has. (Mostly softies)
But looks like a pretty tight beam angle, so not a huge coverage.
How many lights were you planning?

I am thinking it might be overkill, and you might want to raise the lights a bit, and get better spread.
Something to play around with when you get more lights. :)
 
Took some PAR measurement last night. This is with only one light unit in place.

At 60% blue, 20% white, this is the first and last 2 hours of my photo period

View attachment 6247


At 60% blue 60% white, the middle 4 hours of the photo period

View attachment 6248

Light at full 100% all channels

View attachment 6249


The chemistry is settling in, Alk 7.8, Mag 1200, Cal 400. I'll need to do some adjustments

Brown diatoms spots are appearing. Yay

Trying to confirm my cycle but my just expired API kit is not helping. Ammonia test look the same between NSW and NSW + some ammonium chloride.
Those numbers don't look bad to me...
 
My ORP probe is still in its break in period so it might not mean much but I noticed something interesting last night. I added about 70 drops of ammonium chloride (to get 1ppm ammonia) and saw ORP tank immediately and then slowly recovered over the night.

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