Is there such thing as to much light?

[Bobtail1075]

I have gotten a few peices of coral lately and am wondering if I have put to uch light on my tank. I have a 44 Pentagon. it is 24" from top to bottom. I have put the bulb about 10" above the tank water. I am not real sure why thee corals have died. It started with some softies and I put a few SPS corals in there and they all bleached. I am running 400 watt and the bulb is a 14k bulb. Is there such a thing as too much light?

Thanks
Jeremy

 

[RyanM]

Well yes there is such a thing as to much but I dont think to much light is your problem. A 400w over that 44 is way over kill IMO. 175 or 250 is more than enough for that tank. When I had it running I ran a 250w. Like I said tho the 400 probly isnt your problem. Heat and water temp may be a HUGE issue tho. I had heat problems with the 250

 

[Bobtail1075]

I have a 50 gallon sump in the "fish room" and have a fan blowing on that water and one behind the bulb. My temp i preyty much stable between 79.3 and 80.1. I am gonna get a poly filter tomorrow just in case. The bulb I was using was fairly old too. I just got a new bulb. Could an old bulb cause the bleaching? By the way, Thanks Ryan, I love this tank...

Jeremy

 

[RyanM]

Here is that tank when I had it. lit with a 250w. I loved it to. At time Im sorry i sold it. But makes me feel better that you like it.
If all else seems fine change the bulb.

 

[drbronx]

There is such a thing as too much light in terms of lighting intensity and duration and how the coral was adapted to a specific lighting scheme. Of course lighting requirements and tolerance parameters are specific to the species of coral. Certain corals can be actually burned by too high lighting or they can engage in photoinhibition (a reduction in photysynthetic response). In your case since you are using a fairly blue light with relatively low par (even at 400w), I would suspect other factors as being the culprit.

 

[drbronx]

BTW, old bulbs can definitely create problems. In my experience, 14K bulbs undergo very significant spectral shifts in a brief period of time. Those are essentially a 6 month bulb. Older bulbs can gradually effect coral health. Nonetheless, I would still recommend checking water parameters and other factors.

 

[Bobtail1075]

I think that the only level tat seems out of place is my calcium. i just checked a few different things and everything is within normal specs, except the calcium.. My calium only reads at 350. I just added some of the calcium for the 2 part solution. I will retest in the morning. Could beeing that low on calcium bleach coral? I have no amonia, nitrites, or nitrates. Ph is 8.2 and Alk is 2.9. I have not checked the phosphates but I have no issues with algae yet. Should I check for anything else or is there anything I can do? I am gonna try to get a poly filter just in case there is any sort of metals or anything odd in the water. i just wanted to make sure I was not just burning then. I had a fairly old bulb on there until this week. I put a new coralife 14K bulb on there tuesday. I have not put anything in there since to check. I just do not want to keep spending money on frags just to see them die. It is kinda sickening me to be killing the things we are all trying so hard to keep.

Thanks
Jeremy