AI Nano Settings SPS Corals

[mskurdah]

Hi all:

I have two AI Nanos about 4" from the top of the water of my 19" deep aquarium. I'm wondering what settings people are using W/B/B and for how long who have had success with SPS corals?

Settings? (length and %)?
Height of fixture over aquarium?
Depth of SPS corals within the aquarium?

Really appreciate the info.

Thanks.

 

[Veganbrian]

I'd like to hear a success story myself. Ive tried acro, monti, and milli and i always kill them with my AI nano by bleaching. Ive kept the setting very low and very high and in between and havnt found a solution. My lvls are perfect. Ill be running 2 AI nanos on my new setup also.

 

[mskurdah]

<sigh...> well at least I'm not alone.

 

[Veganbrian]

I found this:

I have been playing around with my light settings for months now trying to figure out the right balance.
I just wanted to share what I have found so far and what issues I was having as well as what works for me.

1) I originally had my AI fixture 6 inches from the top of the water and had my lights around 50-60% when I first got it thinking it was not as bright as a Metal Halide 400watt. I was wrong! the coral frags bleached.

2) found some research to start around 35% W/B/V and bump it up 5-10% each week. This worked a little but frags were still bleaching.

3) I then raised my light to 18 inches from the surface of the water and started at 20% W/B/V. My original thinking was this is not going to be enough light for the corals. Each week I raised the light percentages only 3% and my corals were living, growing and I was getting great Color from them.

I have since raised them to 30% white, 40%blue, and 40% Violet but I noticed the corals were loosing their colors so I backed the light back down into the 25%, 30%, 30% range and the corals are doing great.

Just thought I would post this because it was frustrating trying to figure out what I have learned.

 

[mskurdah]

I know this is an old post but thought I'd share my experience in case anyone is interested.

I slowly started bumping up the lighting configuration. Right now I'm at:

2 hours: both blues 35%
9 hours: both blues at 94%, whites at 55%
2 hours: blues at 15%, 0 white -- just to enjoy the tank in the evening.

I'm continuing to slowly (every few days) bump the whites up even more. I lost a bunch of SPS in the beginning life of this tank because I was so worried about the intensity being too high. Once the #s got higher suddenly I did experience SPS growth and my pink b---ies chalice rim colored up to match the pink of the body. Also, a couple of zoa colonies (about 10% from the bottom) started growing new polyps.

Even now, I get minimal polyp extension of the SPS and my red planet is still dull looking.

I have noticed that my miami hurricane (which is on the bottom) looks a little faded during the lighting peak. I guess I'm willing to live with the trade off.

I'd be curious as to whether anyone has a similar experience and/or is running these lights at 100%?

For what it's worth when the SPS were dying (before I turned up the intensity) it was from the bottom up. I about lost my mind wondering what was wrong. I had so much success with T-5 fixtures and read so many stories about LED burning corals that it didn't even occur to me that it was too little light.

 

[Ross33]

I have an AI sol over a 14g cube. I have mine up to 70/75/75 for 6 hours. I bumped it up slowly over a couple of months.

 

[Nami_Dori]

This is a bit late, but fwiw.

My tank is a 12" cube, SPS tank, with 15 gallon sump, with a bubble magus nac3.5. The tank is bare bottom. Water depth is 10" with tons of flow. Koralia 240, and a rio 6hf return. I run a carbon bag, and vodka dose. Supplementation is 2 Part Bi-Onic, and Red Sea 3 part, but I only use the Mag, to Red Sea regular salt and RODI. I also spot feed aminos(Red Sea). There isn't a fuge on this tank, just a few pounds of rubble in the sump, and a sock, along with the carbon bag, heater, skimmer and return pump.

Parameters are a bit odd, but stable.
Mag1380(Red Sea pro)
Ca 420(Red Sea Pro)
Dkh 8(Red Sea Pro)
Nitrate .25(Red Sea low range)
Po4 .23(Hana)
SG 1.026

Water changes are 6 gallons weekly.

Livestock:
Line spot Flasher
Springeri Dottyback
Lemon Peel Chromis

Mermaids:
1 turbo snail
3 Trochus Snails
Handful of Stomatella Snails

This tank has been running for a year, and has one AI Nano, on the arm, which was modified so the light would hang centered on the tank.

When the corals were first placed into the tank, they were already browned out. Light settings were first set for an 8 hour period. R ramp up for 90 minutes, B begin to ramp an hour after, then W an hour after, to reverse the sequence for ramp down.
I initiated the light settings for a 3 week period, R35, B28, W17. Corals were still brown, but polyp extension

I bumped the blues up 5% every month for 6 months, and the whites 3% for 3 months. Where everything finally started to color, polyp extension was pretty good, and corals were basing over plugs very well.

Having not seen much growth after basing, I decided to bump things up, majorly. I ran the Royals at 90%, Blue at 80%, but bumped White at 27%.

Colors began to intensify on most all coral, except for a couple. Polyp extension was through the roof. But still lacking in growth.

2 weeks ago, I went for the Hail Mary. Royals at 100, Blue at 100, whites at 35. I have crazy polyp extension, the not so colored corals are starting to show more color, and am just waiting out growth. I have noticed I need to clean the glass more often with the whites bumped up, cleaning the glass on this tank is tough due to it's size, and the amount of coral I have.

I'll bump the whites another 5% every month until coloring, polyp extension, are maintained, and growth becomes apparent.

 

[M.r.ducks]

Appreciate this thread guys/gals. My nano will be in today but my tank is still cycling. So it will give me time play with the lights. I'm going to have a combo lps,softies, and sps in an 8 gallon nuvo with the ai bracket.

 

[awdjosh]

I have a AI Vega Color over my Nuvo16 that is slap full of SPS, a couple LPS and a zoa garden and haven't lost a single piece of coral nor have had any color loss/bleaching. I did set it up to acclimate over a 4 week period scaling it back 30% of my current settings.

Here below is a screen shot of my setup with the Director.