LPS Corals Aren't Opening Fully

[Nico the Reefer]

I have been having some LPS corals (hammer, brain, torch, frogspawn, etc.) for about a year now and I have been having trouble getting them to open up fully. I have recently made some changes to my light spectrum to try to fix this issue but it hasn't worked. My lights run about 8 hours a day at 80% actinic and 40% white. I have my corals placed mainly in my sand bed as they were very stressed out up higher. I run one 36 inch Orbit Marine Current LED light strip that has been growing my coral fairly quickly up to now. It seems as though ever since I began to address my Bryopsis algae issue, I have began to see a decline in coral health. I have been wondering if my flow and/or lights are not set to my coral's liking. Also, I just got an aquarium controller that has been keeping my tank at around 78 degrees. I am thinking that my temperature is off since it is really the only thing I've changed recently.Should I increase temperature or decrease or does it even matter that much?

Alkalinty: 8
Mg: Around 1600 (dosing Kent Marine Tech M to eliminate Bryopsis)
Calcium: 380

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[scooter31707]

That Mg is high..dosing and let it come down own it's own to around 1320-1400. I guessing it might still be too much light or too much flow.

 

[rt67ghy]

What are your NO3 and PO4?

 

[andrek787]

I am having a similar issue. My color spectrum changes through the day, going from mostly white in the morning and mid-day to primarily blue in the evening.
My acans and frogspawn shrink up when the lights transition to blue over about 5 hours. Is this normal?

 

[organism]

Dial down the intensity on the whites and see if it helps. Also the intensity will stack during the transition, if you have the whites and blues on at a high percentage at the same time then it's a huge blast of light.

 

[andrek787]

Dial down the intensity on the whites and see if it helps. Also the intensity will stack during the transition, if you have the whites and blues on at a high percentage at the same time then it's a huge blast of light.

I have my hydras peak at 75% white, 80% blue from 11am to 4pm. The white channel dims at a quicker rate then the blue to create the transition. I have a few SPS in the tank (birdsnest, monti and pavona) which is why the lights are cranked up so high. LPS are all near the bottom of the tank and SPS are few inches from the water surface. How far should I drop the white levels?

 

[organism]

I didn't notice there were two people posting lol, I'd recommend you both turn down your lights.

Andrek787 that is a ton of light, you don't have any acros and pavonas prefer lower light so they don't need to be that high. I'd turn them down to 30% for a bit, your colors will be better too and you can slowly turn them up if you want to change the spectrum.