All my corals not doing so good?

[Jollyg97]

Hey everyone, I'm a little new to all this and I'm getting a little worried about my reef tank. I've had it for about 2 months now and everything was doing good until I made the jump from a cheap Chinese led fixture to a Current USA marine led fixture. I keep the lights on for about 10 hours just as (I think) I should. However since then my xenia is getting smaller and my Kenya is always wilted. I just recently got Dragon eye zoas. They opened the first day and now about a week and a half in they refuse to open and it seems a tiny bbitof green algae is growing on it. I use aquavitro salt at a salinity of 1.024, ph 8.4, calcium 421, alk 3.6

 

[travis9791]

what intensity is your light set on? I found I had to adjust mine to 50 percent.

 

[Jollyg97]

Both the white and blue are set at 100

 

[djbon]

You need to tune your Blue/White and other spectrum correctly. If the fixtures does have full spectrum channel on it (red/green/violet or UV combi), do not turn these bulbs to full intensity. It will encourage nuisance algae, especially if your water is rich in nutrient. Mine is a China made LED, i run my blue 75% and the full spectrum 45% max. My Kenya seems to love it

 

[Jollyg97]

Hm okay.. can I get your on and off times?

 

[djbon]

Hm okay.. can I get your on and off times?

My China LED dimming is controlled by a DIY arduino controller.

Blue - Turn on at 6am from 0% and max at 10.30AM and slowly down to 0% at 5.30pm starting from 12.30pm.

White/Fullspectrum - Turn on at 7am from 0% and max at 11.30AM and slowly down to 0% at 6PM starting from 1.30pm.

 

[Jollyg97]

Okay so this should fix my problem? Was I just basically frying my corals because of the amount of light given?

 

[djbon]

I think the amount of lights are too much for the type of corals you have. They need moderate lighting. One thing I discovered (by running my full spectrum at the same level with my blues) is coral color morphing. They tends to change color to green hue. Just tweak your blue to 65% and other spectrum to 35% and see how it goes.

 

[Jollyg97]

Okay will do. Does too much light cause zoas to close up like in my picture, do they look okay?6

 

[djbon]

From the pictures it seems like your light penetration is quite low for 100% LED intensity. How deep is your tank?. Does your LED have individual lens?. My zoas will close up when there is not enough light (night time). But sufficient amount of light will surely wake them up. The picture was taken early morning when my secondary light is on at 5am (10w blue diy led).

 

[Jollyg97]

I think it was just the focus of my camera, this is full blast light. It's only a 10g so that fixture should be plenty I think. Now I'm worried that it's just too much for everything. Would too much make zoas close? I've had them for a week and a half and I really don't want them to die on me. I've been after Dragon eye zoas for as long as I've had the tank

 

[djbon]

I think it was just the focus of my camera, this is full blast light. It's only a 10g so that fixture should be plenty I think. Now I'm worried that it's just too much for everything. Would too much make zoas close? I've had them for a week and a half and I really don't want them to die on me. I've been after Dragon eye zoas for as long as I've had the tank

Try reducing the intensity as suggested. Let it acclimate to the new light. Check your water parameter as well, probably there is something is off the chart somewhere.

 

[Jollyg97]

Okay, one more thing. Judging by the picture do you think the zoas are dying or just kind of stressed?

 

[djbon]

Look like they are stressed. If you are not running a good filtration system, your water parameter might be the problem. Some LED will produce some amount of heat when fully on, make sure your water temp is okay. I personally keep my temp around 27 celcius.

 

[thelawnwrangler]

Isn't your Alk low? Very much a rookie, but might mean your mag is low too

still trying to understand the interplay between the big 3.

 

[Jollyg97]

I use a 20 gal filter, 15lbs live rock with good flow. I also do weekly water changes with a great salt mix (according to a high regarded store) so I think they should be okay. I will test tomorrow however.

 

[Jollyg97]

My alk is measured meq/l and the correct range is 2.5-4 so I think it okay. Last time it was checked was a week ago about

 

[thelawnwrangler]

My alk is measured meq/l and the correct range is 2.5-4 so I think it okay. Last time it was checked was a week ago about

Newbie mistake on my partI always use other measurement