AI Vega Advice

[Tinpanva]

I picked up one of these for my 29 gal BC HQI. I had upgraded the stock bulb to a 14k phoenix bulb but it blasted the top of my tank with UV so I went back to the stock bulb and now to the Vega. Going from stock I can already see great color returning on a couple of SPS, polyps are extending really good also. I have the LEDs dialed back to 35% white, 45% blue, 40% everything else. I'll keep it here to acclimate for the next 30 days then raise 5% across the board every 10 days or so until I'm around 60% unles the corals tell me differently.

My question is really about the timer functions. I have it set on the easy timer for sunrise at 730am and ramping up (4hrs) to the above values, maintain until 5 where it ramps back down (4hrs) and it "should" end at 9pm. I have the Lunar cycle enabled but not starting until 10pm and ending at 3am.

I've noticed that between 9 and 10pm the deep blues never go out (between sunset and lunar start) and when I was up a 4am this morning (because of brand new puppy) the lunar lights were still on (should have gone off at 3am).

Is there a step I've missed somewhere? Does it have anything to do with the other timer functions like the reef places (Florida, GBR, Caribbean, etc). I don't see where I can disable those, or do I even want to? Someone told me they think once the 'easy' timer is set you have to go into the manual times to fine tune, but I haven't looked at that yet. I will once I get home tonight. Any advise?

[twiddle]

If you are using the Easy Timer..look on your night percentages..you will probably see it on at 5%. It is the default easy timer setting.

[Tinpanva]

Its at 1%, should it be at 0?

sent from my badarse Note II

[Tinpanva]

I set it to 0 but now I don't have any lunar light, should be at 62% tonight

sent from my badarse Note II

[twiddle]

The Lunar setting is totally different then the Easy Night setting. The easy night setting would be for every evening and not follow a moon phase. Zero on the night setting means total darkness at night. I am not familiar with the Lunar settings.

[liquidfunk]

I think if you go into Timer Setup (manual) and add a timer for 9:00pm with everything off, and again at 3:00am for everything off it will fix your problem.

The lunar cycle only dims the nite lights according to the cycle, so I think your probably at max nite intensity when the lunar cycle isnt going.

[ReeferGil]

This is one of the issues that sucks with the Vegas. The short answer is that if you are using easy timer mode, your night lights will stay on all night long. But from 10-3AM your lights will be in "lunar" mode and follow the lunar cycle (full moon brightest/new moon no lights). But at 3:01AM your lunar mode will turn off and default to whatever you have your easy timer night mode set at (ie 2% royal blue). The night light will stay on until 7:30am, which is when your sunrise (ramp up) will start. I have kept my lunar cycle on from the time the lights go off all the way through the night till sunrise, but I recently just went with total darkness. Best to do what liquidfunk recommended if you really want your blues on at night, I just don't think manual mode can do a "lunar cycle."

[Tinpanva]

Thanks, for the input, I'm sending out a quick email to their support folks to verify, but I really think you hit it on the head. I think the easy timer mode overrides the lunar cycle. I have no concrete evidence of this, but my corals and "stuff" just seem happier with a few "lights out" hours to chill-lax.

[ReeferGil]

Cool. Let us know what they say.