3 Month Old Shallow Reef

[Greybeard]

Best I can do with Iphone video but the tank is starting to really color up. I was running all 8 bulbs on the ATI fixture and most of the coral were struggling which appears to have been to much light from all 8 bulbs. So couple weeks ago I switched to running just 6 bulbs and it has made a huge difference. Coralline aglae is starting to cover the rock and most of the SPS seem to have accelerated their growth and much better color. Just to much par for the shallow tank.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjQJzuI4oNA

I also have been having slow growth, even some bleaching, in my corals. I cut the light duration, but haven't pulled any bulbs yet. May well do so in the near future. From BRS's video on ATI T5 light, 8 bulbs at a shallow depth was giving them 450-550 PAR ratings. Mine is high off the water, but I'm starting to think I've got too darn much light.

I may rewire the thing, so that the center two bulbs run on the same ballast. Currently, the 4 center bulbs run 1-2, 1-2. If I can pull the center two, some sort of LED strip in the middle to give a bit of shimmer becomes a possibility at some point in the future.

 

[Orr2003]

I also have been having slow growth, even some bleaching, in my corals. I cut the light duration, but haven't pulled any bulbs yet. May well do so in the near future. From BRS's video on ATI T5 light, 8 bulbs at a shallow depth was giving them 450-550 PAR ratings. Mine is high off the water, but I'm starting to think I've got too darn much light.

I may rewire the thing, so that the center two bulbs run on the same ballast. Currently, the 4 center bulbs run 1-2, 1-2. If I can pull the center two, some sort of LED strip in the middle to give a bit of shimmer becomes a possibility at some point in the future.

Exactly what I was experiencing...slow growth and some bleaching. I am using the ATI 8x54w fixture but now I am only running 6 bulbs not all 8. The 8 bulb fixture runs bulbs 3 and 6 on the same ballast and the rest of the bulbs 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 and 8 are on one ballast. My new light schedule is bulbs 3 and 6 from 7am to 8am, then they turn off at 8am and the other 6 bulbs turn on at 8am and run until 6pm, then bulbs 3 and 6 run again from 6pm to 7pm. The fixture is 13.5 inches from the TOP of the fixture to the water surface. My rocks were just bleached white looking and everything was looking really bleached and as soon as I changed to 6 bulbs pink and purple coralline is exploding on the rocks and the coral all seem to be coloring up some and doing much better.

This is the first tank I have ever used T5 lighting on and the first ATI fixture.
My last system I ran four 400w Halides 1600watts total (radiums) in Large lumenbright reflectors and I never once had a problem with to much light....so these ATI fixtures are PAR monsters. My tank has definately taking a turn for the better over the last 2 weeks and the only thing that has changed is lighting intensity.

Greybeard are you using the 8x54w ATI fixture? Nevermind I see where you said you are using 6 bulb fixture. How far from the water surface are your lights?

 

[Greybeard]

Greybeard are you using the 8x54w ATI fixture? Nevermind I see where you said you are using 6 bulb fixture. How far from the water surface are your lights?

Don't know where you saw me using a 6 bulb unit... I'm using an 8 bulb TEK fixture. Bought it used, replaced the ballasts and bulbs with ATI. Saved a bit of money that way, and I _really_ disliked the idea of hanging a SILVER fixture over my tank. The TEK is black... better fits the look I wanted.

Odd that the ATI splits the bulbs 6/2. My TEK splits them 4/4... that's 4 bulbs per ballast... Don't guess it really matters. Each ballast is on it's own power cord, so I can time them separately.

I pulled 2 bulbs this weekend, one blue+, one aquablue special. Leaves me with 3 blue+, one aquablue special, 1 actinic, 1 coral plus. I'll be watching it over the next few weeks, see what results that has. New tank... could be any number of things causing my issues... but too much light is a definite possibility. After re-watching BRS's video on ATI / T5 lighting... 8 T5's on a shallow tank may well be an issue.

 

[Orr2003]

Cool Nice looking system. You appear to be about 3 months ahead of me... and with a very similar system.

Mine is 60x30x18" peninsula, 6 bulb T5, Vertex 180i... See what i mean by similar? My bio filter is just getting stable, added first fish last night.

:beer:

I'm doing the Triton thing with this one. We'll see how it works out. If it doesn't, well, refugeum, skimmer, carbon, GFO... all I'd really have to do to change it back to what I'm used to would be to pull the Core7, buy some BRS 2 part, and start doing water changes.

 

[Greybeard]

Well... just shows you can't believe that guy

8 bulb, 48", 54w TEK (Sunlight Supply) T5 light... now operating with 6 bulbs... but it was 8 when that guy posted his lies

 

[Orr2003]

Well... just shows you can't believe that guy

8 bulb, 48", 54w TEK (Sunlight Supply) T5 light... now operating with 6 bulbs... but it was 8 when that guy posted his lies

Haha no worries.....I am seeing a huge improvement since switching to 6 bulbs and even better improvements in color on the SPS that are located on the bottom outside edge of the tank not even directly under the light. Leads me to believe it would be possible to get by with 4 or 5 bulbs if you could spread them out a little more across the 36" front to back width. The top of my ATI fixture is 13.5" from the water surface and still a ton of light. I may need to switch bulbs? Wonder what the lowest par bulb is? Blue plus?

 

[Greybeard]

Wonder what the lowest par bulb is? Blue plus?

I have one ATI True Actinic. Certainly the least visually intense bulb of the ones I own. I don't know what the par rating is, can't find it published anywhere, likely since it depends so much on the fixture, but in between two blue plus bulbs, you can barely tell it's lit.

 

[Orr2003]

Little update on the tank. Tank is now 7 months old and frags seem to be growing well. I had a bunch of new frags on the rack that I placed the other day so now its time to sit back and watch them grow.....oh wait what am I saying?!? I need more SPS haha....its an addiction as most of you know.

Still using my iphone for videos but hoping Santa will bring me a Nikon D3400.

Enjoy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O950PrrFKwc