Stressed Euphyllias and Faded Blasto

[EnderTurtle]

I have a 16" deep 40 gallon breeder with two Kessil 350W's on top. The Kessils are attached using a gooseneck allowing them to be 8 inches from the top of the tank. Total height from the kessil to the bottom of the tank is 24 inches

Kessil settings are 40% Blue and 15% White light for 8 hours a day.

This torch coral I got about a month ago has decreased significantly in color. It's tentacles are not green anymore but the mouth is still green. He is sitting at the bottom of the tank. Tentacles are shorter than usual. This coral came from a shallow frag tank sitting under Radian Gen 3 lights (almost no white light)

My Hammer coral was doing awesome for a while and then nose dived. I had him half way up the tank in full light. He reacted great for about a month and then shrivled to nothing. I put him in the shade and he recovered but not to his original extent. The hammer's tentacles are shaped like a torch now. They use to be hammer shaped and his tentacles do not appear to be fully extended. He is sitting in full light approximately 2 inches off the bottom.

My Red and Green blasto was vibrant red when I got him and is now a dull red. He was on the sandbed and i moved him 2 inches up. He expelled zoxanthelle so I put him in the shade where he's been for the past month and has not regained his vibrant color.

Also my I have Montipora undata and Montipora cap at the highest point in the tank and the undata has browned out, while the capricornus has dulled in color, turning a brownish red.

Tank Parameters are:

SG: 1.024
pH: 8.0
Calcium: Ranges from 400-450
Alkalinity: Ranges from 8 to 10
Nitrates: Close to 0
Phosphates: Close to 0

Too much light? Not enough light? Calcium and alkalinity swing slightly but within the acceptable ranges.

Overview of Tank

Picture of Torch when I got it.

Picture of Torch Now
IMG_9233 by buyandsellstuffmike, on Flickr


Picture of Hammer at Beginning



Picture of Hammer Now


Picture of Red-Green Blastomussa




Zoanthids are growing fine. I have a skimmer that keeps my tank very clean. Though I don't think the tank is too clean for coral growth because I have minor hair algae and chaeto growth in my sump.

 

[Tweaked]

This tank looks new to me. Things will come around as your tank matures. Also, alk should not "range" with a 2 point swing. GL

 

[SaltyWalter]

Yes, I also say tank is new, however I also think you need more light. Both the pale lps and and browned out montis points me to that conclusion. If you have enough nutrients they might hold color better under low lighting. Have any fish in there? What are you feeding?

I'm not familiar with the kessil so I'm not sure what the setting should be but 40% blue sounds like about half of what I would be keeping it at. I have used other LEDs at 70-100% blue and they were fixtures that stretched over most of the tank, which seems like even more light than just 2 pendents. Maybe someone using kessils can help out with this?

 

[Flexin5]

are you feeding them? or the tank?

 

[EnderTurtle]

I spot feed the corals. My acans are doing good on sandbed. My dragon eye and ring of fire zoas are doing great and theyre halfway up the tank. Duncan 3/4 up tank and is doing good.

There is a cuc in the tank.

 

[triggreef]

I can't understand kessil for the cost. Such a narrow beam of high intensity light. Doesn't make sense to me. I would try to grab a par meter and see where your at. I would say probably a lighting issue but it could also very easy be not enough nutrients.

 

[Flexin5]

I noticed your nitrates and phosphates are close to 0. Are you running carbon and gfo?

Reason I ask is because when I was running my tank wayyyyy too clean (sps misconception) and my torches looked like that. It was only when I took carbon and gfo offline and started to feed the tank (oyster feast worked great) that the colors came back.

 

[EnderTurtle]

No carbon or gfo. I have a good skimmer and do water changes. The tank is 5 months old and i only fed fish once a day when there was fish. I try not to overfeed. Even now i spot feed.

I just grabbed a salifert nitrate kit and hanna checker phosphates today so will be testing water later.

 

[justthewife]

Where did your fish go?

 

[EnderTurtle]

Theyre being treated for the ich. The lovely fish disease.

Nitrates 0
Phosphates at 0.10
Calc 400

I dosed calcium yesterday will test today. Light intensitys are currently 30% blue and 0% white

 

[SaltyWalter]

It's gotta be the lighting... 30% sounds very very low with such a small light, not to mention no whites? How are these corals going to get the full spectrum they need? (Not to mention the spectrum is already limited from LEDs compared to other lighting.) Also there can defiantly be some broadcast feeding to the tank, don't be afraid of nitrates with a good skimmer, you don't have any fish poo so the tank won't dirty up with more feeding.

 

[SaltyWalter]

Let me just add... The corals seem perfectly healthy. They can survive at that light since see are deeper water corals where the light spectrum is mostly blue light anyway. However, if you wanted better colors out of your corals, as we all strive to do in our home aquariums, then more lighting would be required. Too much light would yield bleaching, and that's unhealthy, so your in good shape.

 

[burkhart.5150]

I have a kessil 350w over my 10 gallon and have blue on 80-90% and white at about 25-30%

 

[burkhart.5150]

The kessil 350 vs the 350w has a wide angle of light and not a concentrated beam

 

[burkhart.5150]

+ 1 on lighting turn up both whites and blues all corals in my tank are perfectly fine with the amount of light they have although I did have a favia near the top of the tank that started bleaching but I moved it down and a week later already looking great

 

[ReefCowboy]

I disagree, and must say the LED dilema that lots of people get wrong is percentage of intensities...a fixture with 50% doesnt mean its only "half way of what it should be" in your tank. Its at 50% of its maximum capacity, which maybe can bleach anything not properly placed/acclimated. The fact that we can dim it down or raise it up to 100% doesnt mean that you will need that light at its top to keep your corals happy...Those Kessils have tons of par and your tank is not deep (some frag tanks are 16" tall!)so you could have enough light for the time being that the corals were put in the tank.
People trip way too much with Led intensities, and 99% of the tanks here have no color because of way too much intensity and no acclimation period. Did you acclimate your corals?
Your parameters are spot on, LPs are not that sensitive to the swings you are having. If that was the case no one could have Lps successfully, even less Sps.
Faded blastos and loss of color here is due to light shock, and if you place your corals towards the edges or raise your lights, the colors should come back in a few weeks.
I have two Hydras 16" high over a 24" tall tank, with intensities of blues at 45% and whites at 10% and have been acclimating high end chalices and wellsos over weeks and color is at their bests at 3 months now. Be careful with whites, reds as they are sometimes too much for corals that were not used to high intensities in the tanks they came from.
Good luck

 

[mcfa2403]

I have a single kessil a350w over a 60 cube (24" tall) 8" over the water with that same toxic green torch (the kind with thin tentacles like what you have) about 16" below water surface with blue at 100% and white at ~35% and it has great coloration (brighter than under the 8 bulb t5 it was under at the LFS) FWIW

 

[SaltyWalter]

I disagree, and must say the LED dilema that lots of people get wrong is percentage of intensities...a fixture with 50% doesnt mean its only "half way of what it should be" in your tank. Its at 50% of its maximum capacity, which maybe can bleach anything not properly placed/acclimated. The fact that we can dim it down or raise it up to 100% doesnt mean that you will need that light at its top to keep your corals happy...Those Kessils have tons of par and your tank is not deep (some frag tanks are 16" tall!)so you could have enough light for the time being that the corals were put in the tank.
People trip way too much with Led intensities, and 99% of the tanks here have no color because of way too much intensity and no acclimation period. Did you acclimate your corals?
Your parameters are spot on, LPs are not that sensitive to the swings you are having. If that was the case no one could have Lps successfully, even less Sps.
Faded blastos and loss of color here is due to light shock, and if you p
lace your corals towards the edges or raise your lights, the colors should come back in a few weeks.
I have two Hydras 16" high over a 24" tall tank, with intensities of blues at 45% and whites at 10% and have been acclimating high end chalices and wellsos over weeks and color is at their bests at 3 months now. Be careful with whites, reds as they are sometimes too much for corals that were not used to high intensities in the tanks they came from.
Good luck

Sorry, I have to disagree. I have seen LOTS of blastos suffer from 'light shock' and they simply don't open up, flesh looses color and eventually sloughs off the skeleton. I read a great thread once, suggesting wild blastos should be kept in sumps to acclimate to water conditions for a week before being acclimated to lighting, and have had tons of success with this ever since.

On a second note, why say to raise lights up higher? That makes it less light, and what these corals are suffering from is lack of light.
Over lighting = bleaching
Under lighting = browning