Just sharing an experience that might help others...
My little reef is just over a year old. Primarily SPS. Corals are all healthy, nicely colored. My water parameters are very stable, and all within range of current best practice. The only possible exception is alk, which I keep in the low 8's dKH. Very low NO3 and PO4. All good, right? Wrong. My single problem is that my SPS grow REAL slow. Always have.
My lights are DIY LEDs, running at 100% most of the day, hung 15" from the water surface. LED's are notorious for looking dim while toasting coral, so I've been really hessitant to hang the lights any lower. But out of desperation to increase growth rates I lowered them 2".
All I can say is WOW!
First I lowered the LED's 1 inch. Then another inch 5 days later. It's 15 days since the first light drop and the change in growth is dramatic. The increase is unmistakable. And my SPS colors - which were nice before - are getting even brighter. Especially my Strawberry Shortcake. Needless to say, I'm thrilled!
So I guess that the lesson learned is that if everything else with your SPS is good, but they grow slowly, maybe they just want some more light.
Sounds like a Blinding Flash of the Obvious (a BFO) I guess, but I took me quite a while to figure it out.
My little reef is just over a year old. Primarily SPS. Corals are all healthy, nicely colored. My water parameters are very stable, and all within range of current best practice. The only possible exception is alk, which I keep in the low 8's dKH. Very low NO3 and PO4. All good, right? Wrong. My single problem is that my SPS grow REAL slow. Always have.
My lights are DIY LEDs, running at 100% most of the day, hung 15" from the water surface. LED's are notorious for looking dim while toasting coral, so I've been really hessitant to hang the lights any lower. But out of desperation to increase growth rates I lowered them 2".
All I can say is WOW!
First I lowered the LED's 1 inch. Then another inch 5 days later. It's 15 days since the first light drop and the change in growth is dramatic. The increase is unmistakable. And my SPS colors - which were nice before - are getting even brighter. Especially my Strawberry Shortcake. Needless to say, I'm thrilled!
So I guess that the lesson learned is that if everything else with your SPS is good, but they grow slowly, maybe they just want some more light.
Sounds like a Blinding Flash of the Obvious (a BFO) I guess, but I took me quite a while to figure it out.
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