I added a second AI Sol Blue to my 60 cube for a total of 2. I switched all the optics over to 70 degree. I thought I lowered the intensity enough, but I was wrong. I came home today and the tips of my bali slimmer are white, my red planet isn't looking so good either, niether is my Stellata. So with my sails deflated. What should I do with the damaged part of the corals, remove them or let them recover. I have lowered the intensity even more. Looking for opinions is I should let the corals recover on their own or remove dead and dying areas? All my parameters are great, PO4 -0, Nitrate .5, salinity 1.025, ca 425, alk 8.6, mag 1400. Temp is rock steady at 78 - 79 Degress. :headwalls:
Add me to the idiot AI Sol Club
- Thread starter drw94
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Reefer1225
New member
Are they bleaching or RTN/STN? If bleaching, I would lower the intensity and wait and see. If RTN/STN, I would frag dead parts off.
I just ordered another 2 AI Sols. Sorry about your issues, but thanks for the heads up. I'll be sure to lower the intensity ALOT given I have stock optics. So hard to dial in these LED units. I've bleach a couple of my corals directly under the 40 degree optics. They turned white, I moved frags to sandbed and they slowly turned brown and I anticipate it will take months to get their color back.
Good luck.
I just ordered another 2 AI Sols. Sorry about your issues, but thanks for the heads up. I'll be sure to lower the intensity ALOT given I have stock optics. So hard to dial in these LED units. I've bleach a couple of my corals directly under the 40 degree optics. They turned white, I moved frags to sandbed and they slowly turned brown and I anticipate it will take months to get their color back.
Good luck.
I know it is super easy to bleach corals when switching. I am upset with myself because I didn't learn from others mistakes. As of yesterday the corals have gotten much worse. I don't have a single coral that was not affected. So I removed all the sol's and put my mh back in service. I think my initial plan is to run the mh until the corals recover and gain their color back, then reevaluate if I want to go down the LED route again. I initially wanted to change to save electricity and on going bulb cost. But I am only running a single 250 watt de mh. So my initial thought of saving turned out to be very little. My setting were 30w/35b/35rb. I had two units over a 60 cube. All 70 degree optics. 12" awl. I think I have learned from my mistakes and should not repeat them. I even had a par meter to get close on par levels.
mos90
New member
If u only had 1 250w mh then u probably only needed 1 AI. At 100% a single AI will definately be stronger then a 250w mh. Ive measured and at 40% it's the same as a 150w Phoenix mh. So 2 at 40% is way more then a 250mh
I wouldn't have switched back to the Mh's. I would've just backed the ai's to 20%.
What I do with mine. And I have 4 on a 125g. Here are my settings
10am. 2/5/5. 120 ramp
1pm. 55/55/55. 165 ramp
6pm 0/5/10. 120 ramp
9pm 0/3/3. 30
12pm 0/0/0.
I still my be a little low. But I also bleached a few corals at 80% so I'm being careful.
I wouldn't have switched back to the Mh's. I would've just backed the ai's to 20%.
What I do with mine. And I have 4 on a 125g. Here are my settings
10am. 2/5/5. 120 ramp
1pm. 55/55/55. 165 ramp
6pm 0/5/10. 120 ramp
9pm 0/3/3. 30
12pm 0/0/0.
I still my be a little low. But I also bleached a few corals at 80% so I'm being careful.
xcorallusx
New member
rookie mistake
NatureNerd
New member
Think about this carefully. Any time you change lighting (intensity, angle, directionality, spectrum, ...) you stress your corals. You went from MH's to 1 Sol to two Sol's to MH, and then back to two Sol's sometime in the future. I would be surprised if some corals don't bleach or STN with all these changes.
mos90
New member
We are all rookies when is comes to LEDs.
Yes I have made a mistake and so is the comment you posted. It is my assumption that these forums are to learn from others and lend advice. This comment does neither.
Thanks for the input. I thought about all you mentioned and it still was a no brainier to change back. I did my due diligence to make the ai's work. I tried different intensities and duration, but the corals still got worse. For me my is a known product. You hand 10-12 awl, run for 7-8 hours a day and you get results overtime. With the ai's I could have changed the settings more with just the possibilities of success. At this point in time it was right to save my corals.
Sidwayz
New member
AI Sol here. No bleached corals. Started at 25 % power and slowly ramped up over 2 mo. Period. Now running 14 timers ramping up from 0 to full to 0 again throughout the day. I must say as of right now I am getting explosive growth from all corals in the tank. Mixed reef with the most sensitive ones near the bottom. Hard coral to the top. 0 bleaching. It can be done.... LED = Patience.
Thanks for the input as well. I do plan on setting the ai's up again. I believe LEDs is the way to go and have seen beautiful tanks with them. I just need to get my tank back with a known proven product.
NatureNerd
New member
Hey, the only important thing is getting those corals healthy again. MH are tried and true. There are some challenges with LED's for some tank setups. It is not always an easy transition. Sounds like you thought this through. Let us know how it is going.
I have had ai's on the tank since August of last year. Initially I had great results. Explosive growth. Then things started slowly to happen. My purple rim cap lost all color and had to be scraped, it was the size of a hand. My montipora stellata lost all tissue on the undersides of all branches, but still had great color and PE on the lit area. It slowly lost all of the good remaining tissue. It went from the size of a baseball to an area of about a silver dollar. My clam remained unaffected. I don't think it was rtn or stn because the tissue loss was in the most random places. I know it was not pest because all colors came from same lfs that has exceptional husbandry. The owners are personal friends and have seen the care they take in their sps systems. I know the problem came down to me not being able to adjust lights to my system properly. I am off work tomarrow and will post before and after pics. Thanks for all the input from those you have posted. I definitely want people to learn from my mistakes. I have been in the hobby for 21 years and have always gone through these rough periods when new tech comes out.
So a little update. I did have a little damage from the change back to mh. IMO i would have had the lose of tissue if I kept the AI's at their current settings. So the mh is 12 awl and is a 14k phoenix 250de bulb. Super happy with the color. I do have good PE on the areas of the coral that is not having issue. Here is pic of the system prior to AI's. That purple rim cap in the center has since been removed unable to save it. The green slimers have been cut back due to tissue lose. The clam and orange cap are unaffected. I'll try to post a pic of the damaged coral.
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RyanTurner
New member
I feel you man...I lost all my acros to my radions. I started them at 30%, but I still fried everything. I'm back to my t5 fixture now. Good luck!
mos90
New member
ouch..
