chuckdallas
Tank Tinkerer
I had this piece of coral about 18 inches below the top of the water line, under some 3-month old HO T5 bulbs sitting 3 inches above the water for 3 months and it was doing well with that light and with twice weekly spot feedings of ground up mysis. I disassembled the Algae Turf Scrubber about 2 months ago and inserted a refugium with chaeto as well as a NextReef Solid Media Reactor with Warner Marine ECO-bak pellets. There was a couple of weeks where the phos got high, but I got that under control with weekly, and sometimes daily, water changes and LOTS of GFO during that transition period.
Now the phos is around 0.03-0.1, depending on when I fed mysis to the Sun Polyps last. When I purchased new 2 X 60 watt OCReef LED pendants two months ago, I was afraid of burning everything in the switcheover from T5s to LEDs, so I mounted the pendants about 3 feet above the tank on a chain. I wasn't getting the great response from the LEDs at that height, so I lowered the LEDs over 2 weeks to a position that is about 12 inches above the water (and compared Luxmeter readings of my LEDs with the LF Stores). Because the tank is a peninsula tank, we built the mound of rocks in the center, so there's an "alley way" along the front edge on both of the long sides for low light items and to be able to clean the sides of the tank. Now, since I lowered the LEDS to about 12 inches above the water line and with the mound of rocks, the "strip" of sand on the long sides doesn't get the full LED light and there are some shaded areas on the sand bed. Initially after the switch to LEDs, I thought I should move this piece of coral down to a spot on top of a rock about 2 inches from the bottom of the tank (about 20 inches from the top of the water). I thought this was more like a Wellsophyllia and needed to be near the bottom. I wasn't seeing great responses on the bottom line at the sand bed, so I added a single all-white 37 watt ReefBrite LED strip to ensure that light would reach the spots that the rocks in the center blocked. There are two Koralia Hydor powerheads on one of the short ends pushing water from left to right all the way down this side of the tank. I'm starting to get STN on the left and lower right (as seen in the pictures), so I want to feed mysis each night, but that keeps driving up the phosphates. The outer ring used to be a nice pink and white and the inner portion was a nice neon or lime green. The color you see is the color of this piece. It's about the size of my hand, so I don't want to lose it.
Okay, to the point: What is this coral? Are the LEDs (ReefBrite and OCReef pendants) causing it to bleach and for RTN to occur or....is it reacting to the spikes in phosphates? Where in my 22 inches of water column should I go from where it sits now near the bottom in medium flow? Should I move it up? Would this type do better in lower flow?
Now the phos is around 0.03-0.1, depending on when I fed mysis to the Sun Polyps last. When I purchased new 2 X 60 watt OCReef LED pendants two months ago, I was afraid of burning everything in the switcheover from T5s to LEDs, so I mounted the pendants about 3 feet above the tank on a chain. I wasn't getting the great response from the LEDs at that height, so I lowered the LEDs over 2 weeks to a position that is about 12 inches above the water (and compared Luxmeter readings of my LEDs with the LF Stores). Because the tank is a peninsula tank, we built the mound of rocks in the center, so there's an "alley way" along the front edge on both of the long sides for low light items and to be able to clean the sides of the tank. Now, since I lowered the LEDS to about 12 inches above the water line and with the mound of rocks, the "strip" of sand on the long sides doesn't get the full LED light and there are some shaded areas on the sand bed. Initially after the switch to LEDs, I thought I should move this piece of coral down to a spot on top of a rock about 2 inches from the bottom of the tank (about 20 inches from the top of the water). I thought this was more like a Wellsophyllia and needed to be near the bottom. I wasn't seeing great responses on the bottom line at the sand bed, so I added a single all-white 37 watt ReefBrite LED strip to ensure that light would reach the spots that the rocks in the center blocked. There are two Koralia Hydor powerheads on one of the short ends pushing water from left to right all the way down this side of the tank. I'm starting to get STN on the left and lower right (as seen in the pictures), so I want to feed mysis each night, but that keeps driving up the phosphates. The outer ring used to be a nice pink and white and the inner portion was a nice neon or lime green. The color you see is the color of this piece. It's about the size of my hand, so I don't want to lose it.
Okay, to the point: What is this coral? Are the LEDs (ReefBrite and OCReef pendants) causing it to bleach and for RTN to occur or....is it reacting to the spikes in phosphates? Where in my 22 inches of water column should I go from where it sits now near the bottom in medium flow? Should I move it up? Would this type do better in lower flow?
