# SB Reef Light Freshwater?



## Kampo (Nov 3, 2015)

for the tank you got its really a great option. have it 6-8 inches above the water and should be set. full blast would prolly be too much still, but that gives headroom for control over getting the color temperature you want and really dial it in.


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## SingAlongWithTsing (Jun 11, 2015)

you'll need the lights to be at least 9" above the water surface for the 90 degree lenses to cover your 18.5" depth.

I have my red channel set at 40% and the blue one at 20%, getting about 176 PAR at the center measured at 30" high (in air measurement)

both channels at 10% will give you about 93 PAR iirc


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## mattsoccer20 (Nov 8, 2011)

Kampo said:


> for the tank you got its really a great option. have it 6-8 inches above the water and should be set. full blast would prolly be too much still, but that gives headroom for control over getting the color temperature you want and really dial it in.


Awesome thanks! Do you own this light aswell?

Bump:


Kampo said:


> for the tank you got its really a great option. have it 6-8 inches above the water and should be set. full blast would prolly be too much still, but that gives headroom for control over getting the color temperature you want and really dial it in.





SingAlongWithTsing said:


> you'll need the lights to be at least 9" above the water surface for the 90 degree lenses to cover your 18.5" depth.
> 
> I have my red channel set at 40% and the blue one at 20%, getting about 176 PAR at the center measured at 30" high (in air measurement)
> 
> both channels at 10% will give you about 93 PAR iirc


Awesome thanks. Do you know how high up the mounting legs put the light about the tank? Or do you think I will have to mount it from the ceiling? 

There are only 2 channels correct (red+blue)? I am confused on what you mean about the 30" high part too?

The 93 par will be the result from placing the light directly on top of my tank? Or from placing it at least 9" above the water surface?


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## SingAlongWithTsing (Jun 11, 2015)

mattsoccer20 said:


> Awesome thanks! Do you own this light aswell?
> 
> Awesome thanks. Do you know how high up the mounting legs put the light about the tank? Or do you think I will have to mount it from the ceiling?
> 
> ...


yep, i own 3 lol. the legs will only give you about 6~7" above the water surface. i ditched the legs and built a rack.

yep only 2 channels

sorry, didnt clarify earlier. 30" above substrate will be 91~93 PAR, if both channels are set at 10% each. 

i lost the data for 50%~90% but i doubt anyone would need to push that high lol

```
Measured at 30" above substrate
Blue    Red 	Lux Min	Lux Max	Avg PAR
10	10	6782	7101	91.87276554
20	20	7316	8120	102.1499682
30	30	10010	12158	146.6999544
40	40	13054	15434	188.5234708
50	50			
60	60			
70	70			
80	80			
90	90			
100	100	25082	30413	367.2462093
```
drew up a pic since i suck with words lol:


you wont lose much coverage by only going with 6" above the water surface. you only lose a bit at the top. personally i hung mines 10" above the water surface because i wanted my stem plants to grow as straight up as possible and i needed room for maintenance. @ 20% blue and 40% red i'm getting about 164 PAR directly underneath the light, 54ish PAR at the front and back corners. Lights are 30" above the substrate.

whether to hang it up or just the legs really depends on how much space you need for maintenance imo


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## mattsoccer20 (Nov 8, 2011)

Kampo said:


> for the tank you got its really a great option. have it 6-8 inches above the water and should be set. full blast would prolly be too much still, but that gives headroom for control over getting the color temperature you want and really dial it in.





SingAlongWithTsing said:


> yep, i own 3 lol. the legs will only give you about 6~7" above the water surface. i ditched the legs and built a rack.
> 
> yep only 2 channels
> 
> ...


Wow awesome thank you so much for the help! Those pics really helped !  Im strongly leaning towards getting this light. This light is performing good for you so far and is worth the investment then? Im surprised they made a light so powerful lol, ill only need 10% of its power!


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## Kampo (Nov 3, 2015)

mattsoccer20 said:


> Wow awesome thank you so much for the help! Those pics really helped !  Im strongly leaning towards getting this light. This light is performing good for you so far and is worth the investment then? Im surprised they made a light so powerful lol, ill only need 10% of its power!


the light is basically a Chinese black box reef light with freshwater spectrum lights(some of those if you just use the white channel is a cheaper option if your fine with just using half the light) so there designed to provide the 100-200+ par colorals need in big tanks.


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## Botia dude (Feb 6, 2005)

SingAlongWithTsing said:


> yep, i own 3 lol. the legs will only give you about 6~7" above the water surface. i ditched the legs and built a rack.
> 
> yep only 2 channels
> 
> ...


Thanks for posting your PAR numbers. I was going to borrow the SFBAAPS meter but your data about covers it.


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