Can you have to much light?

[kissman]

I have a 55g I have some sps and a few frogspawns. I have very little color in both. I did notice onething tonight as I was cutting Xenias out which I am going to buy a dremel tool and grind it off, lol! When I was cutting some of teh xenia I moved one of my frogspawns and the bottom half that was under very little light has much better color. The part that has a lot of light has very little color. The same for my SPS the ones towards the top have less color that the ones not in direct light. I have a Nova Extreme Pro 6x 54w T5HO ATI Bulbs
1 ATI True Actinic, 2 ATI AquaBlue Special, 1 ATI Coral Plus, 2 ATI Blue Plus. This fixture is not hanging on my tank but sitting on the tank itself. Any suggestions would be very appreciated. Phosphates are .02ppm and Nitrates are 2ppm.

 

[Reef Bass]

Yes, it is possible to overlight corals. A coral exposed to too much light too rapidly will generally bleach or lose color. The bleachng is a result of the expulsion of symbiotic zooxanthellae.

Overlit can be relative too. A particular type of coral may be capable of handling lots of light, but if it has been accustomed to a less bright environment it is possible to bleach it by exposing it to more light, even if the more light isn't off the charts bright. So take your time acclimating new arrivals to your lighting unless you know they come from a similarly bright environment.

Par meters can be very helpful for objectively measuring how much light is actually reaching a particular coral in a particular location.

BTW, if you're dabbling in sps and other stony corals, I suggest becoming concerned with your alkalinity, calcium and magnesium levels. It's very difficult to be successful with stony corals if the levels of those aren't appropriate and stable.

 

[ggrillo]

I have a 55 gallon with 4x T5HO setup and my frogspawn starts losing color when placed in the upper 1/3 of the tank.

 

[Dmorty217]

I would try hanging the light. With it sitting on the tank itself I'm sure your par numbers are much higher then they need to be. Less light is sometimes more

 

[kissman]

I cant hang the fixture but i could run just 4 bulbs the corals were put in tank in Aug. any suggestion on bulbs?

 

[a.browning]

I could grow just about anything in my 55g using 4x54w T5 bulbs. Six bulbs is a lot of light for that size of tank.

 

[kissman]

My calcium stays at 440, alk 9dkh, mag 1350 i auto dose kalk daily with ato i have about 12 sps corals, growth is not a prob they are growing just not putting out the color. I run my lights 10 hours. I think i will cut back to 1 ATI True Actinic, 1 ATI AquaBlue Special, 1 ATI Coral Plus, 1 ATI Blue Plus. Next weekend is my 6 month cleaning where i take out all powerheads, skimmer, etc and soak in a vinegar bath. I think i will drop two bulbs at that point if i get back in town this sunday in time might pull out two then. Is there a better combo to run?

 

[kissman]

Just another thought! Should i go ahead and pull 2 bulbs or just one?

 

[Froggy]

Just another thought! Should i go ahead and pull 2 bulbs or just one?

Your bulb combination seems pretty white to me as well and also give off a lot of PAR. Instead of pulling bulbs, why not mix in more low PAR actinic T5's and improve the visual florescence of the corals at the same time. That way you can tweak the look of the tank and that is easier to do with more bulbs than less.

If your SPS do not respond well to the reduction in PAR with more actinic bulbs, replace one of them with a blue plus and run the other as an actinic. I wouldn't pull bulbs myself. I would change some of them to your needs and taste.

Joe

 

[kissman]

So 1 aqua blue, 1 blue plus, 1 coral plus and 3 actinics?

 

[REEF SMAC]

Can you have too much light?

Beings this is the SPS forum I'll say no, not likely.

For the LPS you ask about, too much light is definitely possible.

So 1 aqua blue, 1 blue plus, 1 coral plus and 3 actinics?

Sounds like a great combo. Just be careful when you change out to new bulbs.

SPS should be able to handle all the light you can give them, as long as they are acclimated to the light gradually.

There are a few that don't ever seem to adapt to a ton of light but not many.

 

[kissman]

I am asking because of the sps thats why i am here. I noticed the difference in my lps. Both are not doing well under the light. When i swap out my bulbs i order all six and change out 2 a week till they are all swapped out

 

[bobkill]

What type of sps do you have? Species can help determine if they like more or
Less light - for example deep water coral not as much light

 

[kissman]

Jedi mind trick monti
Leishmans red table
Pearlberry
ultimates rainbow acro
garf bonsai
orange setosa

 

[kissman]

Jedi mind trick monti
Leishmans red table
Pearlberry
ultimates rainbow acro
garf bonsai
orange setosa

 

[kissman]

I am in the process of setting up a BRS Group Buy "on another forum" for the week after Christmas and hoping for some after Christmas sales and gift certificates ! so I think I order that light combo then and see what happens.

 

[kissman]

just ran all tests. I use Red Sea Pro kits except for Alk I use Hanna, Phosphates I use ULR 736 Hanna, PH use a hand held Milwaukee

Salinity 1.026
PH 8.2
Alk 8.4 dkh
Cal 430
Mag 1480
Nitrates 0
Phosphates .03
temp 79

 

[kissman]

Would to much light cause no polyp extension while lights are on?

 

[Overgrown]

Seems like your params are solid and you have good testing equip. Maybe raise your lights for a bit. I personally found that my SPS does just fine with less lumens over the tank, and actually threw out some new, richer coloring. Obliviously that will be variable depending on the species in your tank though

 

[mayjong]

simple answer- no

more complicated answer-yes

"in the wild" many sps/ lps /zoas are found very shallow and are exposed to much more light than we can recreate in our tanks. the issue is the "wild"coral was spawned/ attached/ grown there and always exposed to that much light. "our" coral is not used to that much. if you were to acclimate them slowly (like over a period of months or more) we could not reproduce enough light to bleach any coral in our tank.

but that is not how it happens, is it?