My T5 55g tank....and coral lightening

[dvanacker]

Ok...here is the back ground. This is my 55g tank. It is just over one year old. I have a ASM G3 skimmer which is pretty oversized. I dont really dose anything and feed the fish NLS pellet and nori. I have a ca reactor,auto top off and ranco temp controller so the tank is really stable. I have a SSB. Recent I have been overfeeding and there is definately some nutrients in there....I have 9 fish.

I run 4 54w T5's (aquablue and blue+) with IC SLR's. I have been running my light period for 11 hrs. But have cut down. The daylights are only on for 6. But this change was very recent. Anyway here is a pic of my tank

Well I have noticed that my pink and blues are excellent ...but my greens are light and never is a spot of brown to be seen on an SPS. I recently went back to the place were I got some of my corals like this slimer. The bottom peice is new out of his tank and the top is my slimer which is turning yellow.

Also here is a olive green acro I bought in December.

And here it is now

Here is another acro....that has gone light

And this is a couple of frags of the same peice I picked up last night

I wondered if all this is from too much light.......or just not acclimitizing them to the light right. Not really sure. They where all either aqua culture or out of a 250wMH or 400wMH tank.

Any idea...?? Or do I just need to hone my SPS skillz.

 

[Horace]

I have a strong feeling that the T5s are simply too bright.....I have the EXACT same problem in my tank and my water quality is very good. I also run Zeovit so my tank is very low nutrient. I have ordered a different bulb combo this time around to reduce the overall intensity of PAR. Im switching from:

B+
AB
B+
GE
B+
AB

To the following:

UV SA
AB
B+
AB
B+
UV SA

I think this will reduce the intensity a bit and hopefully will start coloring up my corals more. I was just talking to Masterswimmer yesterday about this issue and he said that he raised his T5s to 12" off the water. He said it didnt take long for his greens to start coming back. One big reason I think its the light intensity is because I have a buddy who has VHO and his colors were much richer than mine, and my tank is like 2-3x as bright. I am 99% sure that we are simply over lighting our tanks with T5 in most cases. People just do not realize how bright these things are!

 

[dvanacker]

anybody else have any ideas??

If it is light intensity......will shortening my light period help??

 

[sneeyatch]

don't really know - growth looks good - can you dial down your skimmer some? you say it's oversized as it is - maybe cut it back a little.

here's some shots of my 75 mixed reef with the 4 bulb nova fixture and their standard bulbs - (2) 10k's & (2) actinics - almost no fish (ich outbreak) - crappy prism skimmer and a canister filter

 

[dvanacker]

I cant believe no else has an idea....

I feel growth is good...and color is good on some corals. Even the olive green acro that turned yellow looked pretty good. It is kinda floresent yellow but that doesnt show in the pic. However I do feel my slimer needs to be darker.

 

[Horace]

I feel the EXACT same as you Dvan....Try raising your lights..I have backed off on my photo period and that didnt seem to make much difference. backing down on photo period wont change the intensity....height will. One thing that is clueing me in as well is that I have two SPS that are low in the tank (only about 4" off the sand bed), those two SPS are not only growing well, but they have great color. I wish I had my Slimer down low in the tank to see how it would do. Another thing that makes me think its the light is the fact that on my Green Birds Nest, on the BOTTOM sides of the coral actually have brighter green than the rest of the coral. The exact opposite should be true. Typically the bottom is all brown and the top has great color. Well the top is all bleached and very pale green while the bottom definitely has a more metalic green color. I really think adding more actinic and raising my lights is going to make a difference. I will let everyone know in about a month

 

[dvanacker]

My lights are in a canopy....they are as high as they can go which is probably only 3-4in away from the water.

I dont understand...I mean the guy who I got the slimer from has two 20k 400w bulbs plus actinic and his slimer is at the waters surface just below the bulb. Do I really have more par then that??

 

[elephen]

Somebody needs to get a PAR or LUX meter and do some testing with the TEK and SLR reflectors and different ballast (icecap and the others out there)

 

[dwdenny]

elephen it is out there The Grim Reefer did it. I will look and see if I can find it and post it. There is a big difference in the TEK and IC refelctors some thing like 15%-20% at 12" or so. The GE has the most PAR out of the tested ATI lamps then the AB, then the B+ and the ATI sun has about the same as the AB. Let me do find some threads and post them here.

 

[dvanacker]

I have that thread...here it is

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=724967&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

I have to say that every setup is going to be different though.

 

[ctreefer]

Dvanacker, I have the same issues. I've seen some of your posts with thoughts of increasing feeding and have been running in parallel with similar results (some color up on some frags). I don't think its the intensity of the lighting. Some of my frags I've gotten from a local guy with T5s as well and his colors are much better than any of mine. The frags I've received from him have slowly lightened. The only real differences between his lighting and mine is his are 48" overdriven bulbs and and mine are only 24" overdriven so in reality my lighting is less than his.

Another difference is he is running a DSB. I think this might be a major contributor to what's going on.

For comparison sakes, he has a 55gallon with something like a 30 gallon sump while mine is a 29 gallon with 10 gallon sump. Both are autotopoff with Kalk. Not sure of his turnover, but mine is about 50X. and the only other major difference is DSB vs BB.

Also, no matter where my corals are placed (bottom, far ends of tank or top) colors fade.

I'm going to keep trying the more frequent feeding method along with increase fish load approach in hopes it will eventually turn around. Not sure how long to continue this as its been about 3-4 weeks now with some improvement.

 

[ctreefer]

Actually, one more difference between his and my tanks is age. My system is fairly young (8 months) while I believe his is at least 2 years in the making.

 

[dwdenny]

Reflector information
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=536358
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=461202

IC Ballast information
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=732591

T5 Ballast compared
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=724967

WH ballast information
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=553381

Hope this helps I will look some more tonight when I get home from work. I know I have some more bookmarked on my laptop and home.

Doug

 

[coreno16]

If your bulbs are 24" overdriven, then they are alot more intense than his. Your bulb overdrives to around 50 watts, which is a 100% increase. Also, his 48" bulbs are putting out about 1.72 watts per inch, and yours are putting out 2.12 watts per inch.

I don't have a T5 setup as of yet, but plan to get one. These are just some observations of mine. Just trying to help.



- Cory

 

[ctreefer]

Coreno, yes, you're right. Forgot about that. Even though, now that I think about it he does have a 4 bulb system while mine is only 3. So probably still pretty close.

 

[dvanacker]

OK...Im starting to believe its the intensity of the lights.

I took a small frag of green slimer and put it on the sand about 3-4 days ago. I looked at it today and it is definately showing more color.

Also I picked up the blue tiped acro (the one that has turned white body) and the back side of it that isnt exposed to the light is somewhat brown....when the rest is light.

I think all this may be because I switched my coralvue reflectors and bulbs for icecap SLR's and Giesmann bulbs at the beginning of january. The corals just probably bleached out a bit from the huge change in par.

 

[Horace]

I am 99% certain it is the intensity......Yes I do believe that you were getting more par with the T5s than those 20k halides. 20k are VERY VERY low par bulbs. Even 400w 20k are still pretty low. Like I said, the under sides of some of my corals actually have more rich color than the top sides....this should never be the case. Just as a comparison on brightness, my 75g tank with 6 T5s is about 2x as bright as my buddy's 240g tank with 4x400w XM 20k on magnetic ballasts + 220w VHO + 108W overdriven T5 B+.....Hard to believe I know...but it is true.

 

[hskim]

I just got a acro in my tank and it started to bleach out at the base where it gets full blast of my T5s and I did not know why. I have 2 aqua blue and 2 blue plus. Should I go with 3 blue plus and 1 aqua blue? Could this help or should I just raise the height of the lights?

 

[highquality]

are t5's that bright? are they much different than vho? i mean, i dont know, just wondering!

 

[highquality]

All corals change color sometime in diff conditions.