Purple acro colors more intense underneath??

raynist

raynist

New member
I have some purple acro's in my 75g tank (BB, tunze wavebox, 2x6100 and 7095 controller) that are about mid level that are sort of browning/fading on the tops, but are vibrant purple on the undersides, does this mean I have too much light??

My lights are a Tek-5 fixture with 3xAquaBlue Plus and 3xUVL Super Actinic.

Thanks
Ray
 
Sounds like you might have too much for those corals. Several people have noticed lightening of corals from T5's usage, others have good results. There is a fairly lengthy thread on it in this forum:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=852587
You might be able to just move the corals down some to solve the problem if that is indeed what it is. FWIW some corals will color up better under higher light and some will color up better under lower light. Sometimes you just have to experiment and see what works best.
Chris
 
I would say no, I think you don't have enough light. The actinic bulbs don't put out much PAR at all. Try to mix it up, this combo has given me great growth and color. I don't use the Super Actinic but I do use the old actinic bulb which in my opinion, isn't that much different.

I would try this combo:
Front:
Super Actinic
Aqua Blue +
Actinic +
Aqua Blue +
Aqua Blue +
Actinic +

Good luck!
 
At first I was thinking that there was not enough light, but then I saw the underside of the coral. Why would not enough light brown the tops, but keep the underneath colorful??

This all started happening when I added more flow to the tank by adding my wavebox. Do the corals need less light when you have better flow?

--Ray
 
The bottoms may not be showing the stress yet that the tops are? Or the lack of light is discoloring the top and slowly making it's way to the bottom?
Those actinic lights have really nothing to add but color and half your lights are actinics. Get some light in there and I'm sure you'll start noticing your acros coloring up.

I've been using the Tek light for 1 1/2 years now with great success. I've never noticed acros or LPS bleaching, and don't subscribe to the T5's might be too powerful craze going on. They are good and powerful lights but not the sun spots that I've been hearing about in all the lighting threads. That's my take and I'm not trolling for a T5 debate on raynists legit thread.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7807368#post7807368 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by raynist
At first I was thinking that there was not enough light, but then I saw the underside of the coral. Why would not enough light brown the tops, but keep the underneath colorful??

This all started happening when I added more flow to the tank by adding my wavebox. Do the corals need less light when you have better flow?

--Ray
Click to expand...

YES!


Better flow means more crap gets to your skimmer, which means cleaner water, which means you need less light :)
 
Nope, have to disagree with RichConley in raynists example.

What raynist has done in MH terms is put 2 250 MH bulbs over his 75 and then cut the power in 1/2 on both bulbs. He's lighting his tank with two 125 bulbs now and actinic lighting. What would your stonies do?
 
How has he cut his power in half. He never said anywhere that he was running anything else.

There was no change in bulbs mentioned here. The only thing that has happened was a change in waterflow.

Newschool, I've seen 120gal tanks running 4 bulb Teks with SPS everywhere, and looking great. IMO, hes got plenty of light.
 
I think what newschool is saying is the he is runnig 3 uvl pure attinic and only 3 ab. Since the ab are giving him the most par he is under lighting stuff. Since the b+ are higher par then the attinics he would get better results of he used at least 1b+ or 2. Rich look at it this way if you have a 250w mh and coverd half of it your only getting half the light. The attinis are more for looks then actual growth or color.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7807583#post7807583 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mchava
I think what newschool is saying is the he is runnig 3 uvl pure attinic and only 3 ab. Since the ab are giving him the most par he is under lighting stuff. Since the b+ are higher par then the attinics he would get better results of he used at least 1b+ or 2. Rich look at it this way if you have a 250w mh and coverd half of it your only getting half the light. The attinis are more for looks then actual growth or color.
Click to expand...

I agree that 3 AB and 3 UVL are less light than 6 AB.

I dont agree that his lighting isnt enough. Corals photosynthsize blue light pretty well. You can grow SPS with a 4 bulb Tek in a 75, and get decent color. Do you really think 3 AB + 3 UVL is less par than 4 AB? I highly doubt that.
 
Rich, I'm not here to get in an argument. I'm giving advice, advice that I think is useful since I use the same light and have the same sized tank as raynist. If raynist wants to listen or not, it's his choice.

As I said before, I use this exact light on this exact tank size and I don't think he's putting enough light into his tank for acros. The actinic bulb is like using no bulb. It floresces corals, it's nice to balance out light but it's not something you're putting on your hood to grow or even maintain SPS. It is what it is.

I do know what I'm doing. . .

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=728429
 
The T5 god has spoken! :p

Everytime I see those those T5 sps growth pics and color you got from them, im amazed.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7807702#post7807702 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NewSchool04
Rich, I'm not here to get in an argument. I'm giving advice, advice that I think is useful since I use the same light and have the same sized tank as raynist. If raynist wants to listen or not, it's his choice.

As I said before, I use this exact light on this exact tank size and I don't think he's putting enough light into his tank for acros. The actinic bulb is like using no bulb. It floresces corals, it's nice to balance out light but it's not something you're putting on your hood to grow or even maintain SPS. It is what it is.

I do know what I'm doing. . .

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=728429
Click to expand...

Do some research on photosynthesis. Corals can photosynthesize 420nm and 450nm light, so in no way is having an actinic bulb like using no bulb. Its not like having a 10K bulb, but 3 actinics will put out more usable light (in most cases) than a single 10k.

That being said, lighting requirements are a completely sliding scale based on nutrients and flow. Just because YOU need that much light, doesnt mean he does (and doesnt mean he doesnt). Plenty of people keep 400w halides on 58/65 gallon tanks. I keep 250s, and if I put anything up the top, it bleaches out and dies, no matter how slowly I move it.


Every tank is different. I've seen tanks running 4 vho actinic bulbs and growing SPS. I've seen normal output striplights growing acros. Just because your tank needs a large amount of lights, doesnt mean everyones does.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7807702#post7807702 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NewSchool04

I do know what I'm doing. . .

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=728429
Click to expand...

Sorry to get off topic guys, but that's frickin' unbelieveable!!! I've never seen that thread before! (and I don't think I miss much on this forum)

That being said, what are the corals in question, or is it ALL your corals? Things go brown in my system too, if I get lax with waterchanges, don't change my carbon, dose too much of one thing... etc. Usually, when I see it happen, I know what I did (or didn't do ;) ). In my case, I've got a 'canary' coral that gives me plenty of notice.
Was the wavebox the only change?

E.
 
The wavebox and the addition of a few new frags.

I'll do a full water test tonight and see if something is off.
 
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