Browning

[DustinB]

How old are the bulbs? Did this happen after you switched to 20k? Just a thought, but 20k has a significantly lower PAR value from 10k.

 

[divewsharks]

No pests. I had red bugs a while back but treated the tank with intercepter. I have not seen any red bugs in 2 years and no flat worms of any kind. There is some burning on the acro in the pic. Dont know if it was from me adding kalk to fast or from my new bulbs.
I tried the phoenix 14ks and had really bad burning just from the bulbs. Corals went from nice health, good color and PE to bleached almost over night. A few days after putting my old 20ks back in I saw my sps coming back. I did use some Coral Life 14ks (about 2 months old) for about a month and everything seemed to be fine, other than the acro in the pic. Just to yellow for me. I almost last that acro while using the phoenix bulbs. On Coral Life ballasts they are to overdriven, Ice Cap or Galaxy ballasts work best with the phoenix bulbs.

If you when you changed to the PH 14k's, you experienced burning and bleaching it was likely because of the great increase in PAR; you need to acclimate your corals when you change bulbs.
And as mentioned, if your chaeto is growing like mad, highly likely you have plenty of nutrients, your test kits shows 0 because chaeto is consuming it.

 

[allsps40]

How old are the bulbs? Did this happen after you switched to 20k? Just a thought, but 20k has a significantly lower PAR value from 10k.

When I switched to the Phoenix 14ks my old 20ks where about 13 months old. It happened when I switched from 20k to the Phoenix.

 

[allsps40]

If you when you changed to the PH 14k's, you experienced burning and bleaching it was likely because of the great increase in PAR; you need to acclimate your corals when you change bulbs.
And as mentioned, if your chaeto is growing like mad, highly likely you have plenty of nutrients, your test kits shows 0 because chaeto is consuming it.

Yeah thats what happened. I did try to acclimate the corals to the new lights. I moved my lights up, about 12 inches from the water. Even tried cutting the time down, had it down to 3 hours by the end of it. I tried for a month and burn/brown city. It doesnt grow crazy, I harvest once a month growth on the chaeto is good. Also a fuge is used to export any nutrients, thats the point of it. I would concider my system a ULNS in a natural way always 0 nitrates and phose. I feed very lightly so I just dont see any way for extra nutrients to build up. Even when I only ran my fuge light after the main lights and chaeto growth was slower I still had 0 nitrates and phose. It has never been a problem in the 3 years I have had this tank.
Thanks for all the input everyone. Please keep it coming I will be updating this thread as things progress. I am putting my 3 month old Coral Life 14ks back in and removing the new 20ks. Things seemed to improve with the CL 14ks. I am also getting a Reef Optics III 250 and Icecap ballast in the net few days, totally changing lighting.

 

[adambirk]

i think i would stick with the 150s but deffinently go back to the 14k pheonix bulbs. they do have incredible par compared to 13month old 20ks. just have to take it slow from the begining. just another thought. if you are willing to switch lights why not go with t5s? you will get perfect light spread over the whole tank and you can get great color and growth.

i switched from 2 250halides to a 7 bulb t5 fixture and it was one of the best upgrades i have done for my tank. color and growth are amazing.

 

[allsps40]

I just sold the Phoenix bulbs. I tried several times to acclimate my corals to the bulbs but I never could. I put my Coral Life 14ks back in for now. I would love to upgrade to a 6 bulbs TEK light but they are expensive and then you still need to buy bulbs for it. I think its lame that TEK fixtures dont come with bulbs. I am getting the 250 for $125 from a guy on FRAG.

 

[RockinSmall]

About a month ago my sps totally browned out on me. Turns out my alk was a bit low. i began dosing baked baking soda and the colors were back in as short as a week!

Maybe you can try that?

 

[allsps40]

Update. I had a alk spike from 7 to 10 in like 2 days. Getting it back to around 8. The acro in the pic from my earlier post is doing even worse. Its so weird that was the hardiest coral up until all this started. I took out my new 20ks as they where causing bleaching once again. So back in with the old 14ks. I picked up the 250 watt reef optic 3 and icecap ballast today. It looks good over the tank, I dont have it set up yet just held it over the tank. The bulb is a Phoenix 14k, 3 months old I hope I dont have the same issues as I did with the 150 watt Phoenix. Being 50 watts less I hope that the corals will adjust better. It will cover well at about 8-10 inches above the water. I will be getting an icecap vho setup to make up for the lost 50 watts and to add actinics to the spectrum. But for now I am going to run the 150s until things get better.

 

[allsps40]

Update. Things are looking good. All of my sps are coming back for the most part and showing better PE and color in some. The 250 watt light is really working out well. I also started to dose iodine again to help with the bleaching and color along with strontium and potassium. I have also started a 1/2 dosing of vodka to reduce cotton candy algae and some bubble algae and hope to get better colors as well. Been keeping the parameters in check ph is up a little 8.2 alk 8 ca 500 letting come down on is own, nitrates 0 phos 0 all on API. Skimmer has really kicked in since the start of vodka and I only 5 days in dosing .2ml.

 

[RickMartin]

How did we ever keep colors in SPS without potassium? Its mind boggling.