Taqpol
New member
I've been trying everything I can do to rectify this situation on my own, but I've finally come to the conclusion that I definitely need some help. Unfortunately, so many things have gone wrong over the past few months it has become increasingly difficult to pinpoint a single problem, or even the most pressing problem, for me to fix. Here's a brief run down on the system.
Display Tank: 220 gallons
Lighting: 120 Cree XR-E DIY LED Fixture. PAR Readings on this later.
Skimmer: SWC250A
Other filtration: Warner Marine EcoBAK pellets, Carbon (both in reactors)
Cal/Alk: Automated BRS two part dosing
Flow: 2x Vortech MP40's, 2x Tunze 6045's (~1000gph each), ReefFlo Dart
Stats as of 12/10/2010:
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm
Calcium: 440ppm (API)
Alk: 7.8 dKh (Red Sea Pro)
Magnesium: 1140ppm (Salifert)
Phosphate: 0ppm (Salifert)
pH: 8.23 APEX
Fish:
Blonde Naso Tang
Chevron Tang
Singapore Angel (Potential problem)
Carberryi Anthias
3x Chalk Bass
2x Randalli gobies
1x Tailspot Blenny
I know the large majority of this forum probably believes that the LED lighting is to blame for my coral losses, but with so many good LED lit SPS tanks (Sammy113's, for one) out there, I am inclined to look past any LED issues unless they are an issue that would pertain to my tank specifically.
Finally, here's what happened: I added my corals back to my tank at the very end of august once I got my DIY lights hung up. I had heard many stories of people bleaching their corals with LEDs by ramping up the light too fast or otherwise not using proper light acclimation techniques. My LEDs are dimmable (with a range of 0-255, 255 being full power) and after seeing the total PAR output at full power I decided to start my corals under half intensity. My corals had browned out a lot during their stay at a friends house until my tank was setup, but under the LED lights they started coloring up and encrusting. I increased the lights power by about 10 units a week until in the beginning of November I peaked out at 210/255. About halfway through this process I noticed that some corals were beginning to get very light in color. In the beginning of November, at the peak brightness, a large number of my SPS corals got burned tips and I found out that my Alk had slowly risen to over 10 dKh. I don't know if this counts as an Alk spike or not, but my corals definitely had the burned tips associated with high alk in a low nutrient system.
After the alk incident things started to really go down hill. I found red bugs on a colony of ORA tricolor, and instead of treating the tank (because of hard to catch shrimp) I dipped the coral for 1 hour in interceptor. So far I have not seen any more red bugs. On top of that though many corals started bleaching and losing flesh. As if things couldn't get worse, one of my heaters stopped working and I started getting day to night fluctuations of almost three degrees (78 to 75). Needless to say, my tank is not happy with me. Pictures next.
Display Tank: 220 gallons
Lighting: 120 Cree XR-E DIY LED Fixture. PAR Readings on this later.
Skimmer: SWC250A
Other filtration: Warner Marine EcoBAK pellets, Carbon (both in reactors)
Cal/Alk: Automated BRS two part dosing
Flow: 2x Vortech MP40's, 2x Tunze 6045's (~1000gph each), ReefFlo Dart
Stats as of 12/10/2010:
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm
Calcium: 440ppm (API)
Alk: 7.8 dKh (Red Sea Pro)
Magnesium: 1140ppm (Salifert)
Phosphate: 0ppm (Salifert)
pH: 8.23 APEX
Fish:
Blonde Naso Tang
Chevron Tang
Singapore Angel (Potential problem)
Carberryi Anthias
3x Chalk Bass
2x Randalli gobies
1x Tailspot Blenny
I know the large majority of this forum probably believes that the LED lighting is to blame for my coral losses, but with so many good LED lit SPS tanks (Sammy113's, for one) out there, I am inclined to look past any LED issues unless they are an issue that would pertain to my tank specifically.
Finally, here's what happened: I added my corals back to my tank at the very end of august once I got my DIY lights hung up. I had heard many stories of people bleaching their corals with LEDs by ramping up the light too fast or otherwise not using proper light acclimation techniques. My LEDs are dimmable (with a range of 0-255, 255 being full power) and after seeing the total PAR output at full power I decided to start my corals under half intensity. My corals had browned out a lot during their stay at a friends house until my tank was setup, but under the LED lights they started coloring up and encrusting. I increased the lights power by about 10 units a week until in the beginning of November I peaked out at 210/255. About halfway through this process I noticed that some corals were beginning to get very light in color. In the beginning of November, at the peak brightness, a large number of my SPS corals got burned tips and I found out that my Alk had slowly risen to over 10 dKh. I don't know if this counts as an Alk spike or not, but my corals definitely had the burned tips associated with high alk in a low nutrient system.
After the alk incident things started to really go down hill. I found red bugs on a colony of ORA tricolor, and instead of treating the tank (because of hard to catch shrimp) I dipped the coral for 1 hour in interceptor. So far I have not seen any more red bugs. On top of that though many corals started bleaching and losing flesh. As if things couldn't get worse, one of my heaters stopped working and I started getting day to night fluctuations of almost three degrees (78 to 75). Needless to say, my tank is not happy with me. Pictures next.