Too much light??

[SSalty]

I am having trouble with the coloration of my SPS. When I add a new peice to my tank they will retain their color but within two weeks they lighten in color, not necesarly bleach out. This not only happens to my SPS but any other LPS that I have.

I have the Aquatinics TX5 (5 bulb individual reflectors) over my 55 gallon. My bulb combo is: (3) ATI Blue Plus's (2) ATI Aquablue special's. After working hard at maintaining my parameters and still no luck, I am wondering if I have too much light over my 55 that may be causing my corals to bleach. All the bulbs are on a total of 7 hours. Actinics come on 15 minutes before, and stay on 30 minutes after the daylights turn off.

My parameters:
PH-8.2---Seachem
Magnesium- 1400---Salifert
Calcium- 440---API
DKH- 8---ELOS

I use RO/DI water and do a 7% water change per week.

Feed Mysis shrimp everyday, and Rod's twice a week.

I am running no media, and Dose B-Ionic 2-part as well as magnesium.

I am running out of ideas as your advice is appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[sgwill122]

What is your salinity? Do you have two different measuring devices? My tank went hypo due to reliance on a cheap hydrometer, most of my sps went light, took a couple months to figure out. After salinity got figured out colors returned.

 

[swhaley40]

Maybe try cutting down the fixture running full blast. Maybe 8 hours for 2 bulbs and 5 hours running all five. I run my constellation full blast for 4 hours per day and I'm beginning to think it's too much. T5s are intense!

 

[Reefun]

I had or have the same prob with my 75 with a 8 bulb T5 tek light I took out one one of the blue plus and one of the aquablue and replaced them with actinic for a drop in par the actinics have less than half that of the other blue+ and aquablue. I have also moved the lights from 10h actinic and 8 hr main lights to 7hr and 5hr. It's been about 4 days and the colors are better already. I think the T5s in the right fixture give way more light than thy are given credit for. Try less light and see what happens. And then let us know

 

[dancewithethan]

hmmm...this is a tough one. it may be the light or maybe not. My tank is about the same size as your tank and I have 2x 36 T5 plus 400 W SE MH light and my corals love it.

IME I did have the experience where after each time I did water change and my corals would loose their color and looks very pale. It turns out that I was mixing my salt and let it seat for too long and I'm talking about weeks and month.

another factors could be the Alk instability, sometime it's very difficult to manually dose two parts without causing a dramatic shift in your Alk and Cal. as a result, corals stress out and loose their colors. Now, nothing here is scientific, I'm just speaking from my own experiences.

What salt do you use?
What is the level of Alk in your salt mix?
you should test for Alk each time you do water change.
and how soon do you add Alk after each water change?

How about some pictures of you corals

Good luck

 

[BrassMonkey]

i have a 5 bulb retro overdriven on my 40b. same bulb combo. 10hours 2 blue+ six hours all on. and dont have a problem with any coral bleaching, not even the mushrooms frogspawn or ricordia. was actually thinking of adding another bulb.

 

[SSalty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14763142#post14763142 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dancewithethan
hmmm...this is a tough one. it may be the light or maybe not. My tank is about the same size as your tank and I have 2x 36 T5 plus 400 W SE MH light and my corals love it.

IME I did have the experience where after each time I did water change and my corals would loose their color and looks very pale. It turns out that I was mixing my salt and let it seat for too long and I'm talking about weeks and month.

another factors could be the Alk instability, sometime it's very difficult to manually dose two parts without causing a dramatic shift in your Alk and Cal. as a result, corals stress out and loose their colors. Now, nothing here is scientific, I'm just speaking from my own experiences.

What salt do you use?
What is the level of Alk in your salt mix?
you should test for Alk each time you do water change.
and how soon do you add Alk after each water change?

How about some pictures of you corals

Good luck

Thanks for the reply.

Here are some pics of my SPS.

ORA Blue Tort

ORA Green Birdnest

ORA Blue Voodoo

To answer some of your question:
-I use Insteant Ocean (original formula)
-Unsure about the Alk of the salt mix, I don't have any mixed at the moment
-I usually add 2-part the day after a water change.

Now, a question about dosing:
Would it be better to dose Kalk via a auto-top off to help with alkalinity stability?

Thanks.

 

[SSalty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14763054#post14763054 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reefun
I had or have the same prob with my 75 with a 8 bulb T5 tek light I took out one one of the blue plus and one of the aquablue and replaced them with actinic for a drop in par the actinics have less than half that of the other blue+ and aquablue. I have also moved the lights from 10h actinic and 8 hr main lights to 7hr and 5hr. It's been about 4 days and the colors are better already. I think the T5s in the right fixture give way more light than thy are given credit for. Try less light and see what happens. And then let us know

Could I just remove a bulb permanently? Or is it bad on the fixture by having a missing bulb?

 

[swhaley40]

You don't add two part daily? I know a ton of people here might disagree, but I'll never use instant ocean again unless it's fish only. I've had much better experiences with TropicMarin and the best most recently with Seachem reef. Too big of a pain to supplement IO to water changes. Is the fixture directly on the tank or raised? How high are the corals? Do you carbon dose?

 

[swhaley40]

Another thing, what sgwill said....make sure your testing salinity with a refractometer. My corals got really light about 3 months ago, bought a refractometer and figured out my salinity was 1.31.

 

[mordibv]

Don't know if this is a factor but IO is low in potassium . The tort is supposed to be blue and the vodoo too .
I know tests are quirky but adding that supplement may help or change to a salt like Seachem Reef salt . That monti looks a little washed out too .
BTW u have great polyp extension .

 

[sps1-2-b]

I too have heard that potassium is correlated with the blue color in sps. Anyone have a K test kit that could test for you in your area? Not saying that's the problem but something to look into.

 

[SSalty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14768064#post14768064 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by swhaley40
You don't add two part daily? I know a ton of people here might disagree, but I'll never use instant ocean again unless it's fish only. I've had much better experiences with TropicMarin and the best most recently with Seachem reef. Too big of a pain to supplement IO to water changes. Is the fixture directly on the tank or raised? How high are the corals? Do you carbon dose?

Fixture is directly on the tank. SPS are a little higher the mid tank. And I don't dose carbon and I use a refractometer. And yeah, I dose daily to keep my parameters.

Another note. My Zoanthids that are at the bottom of the tank will not grow on top of the rock they are on. I got a frag and glued them on the top of the rock. The Zoas manage to grow through a slit on the rock and are thriving on the under side of the rock away from the light. This is another reason why it think it's the lights.

 

[SSalty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14768175#post14768175 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mordibv
Don't know if this is a factor but IO is low in potassium . The tort is supposed to be blue and the vodoo too .
I know tests are quirky but adding that supplement may help or change to a salt like Seachem Reef salt . That monti looks a little washed out too .
BTW u have great polyp extension .

I am having NO issues with growth and polyp extension like you mentioned. And yes the Monti is washed, all my corals are washed:mad2:

 

[mordibv]

I learned this tip from a Zeovit forum .
Monti Caps and Birdnest looking so called washed out are indicators I use for low potassium . I think it's the salt . I have zoo's here and there in my tank . GRR . I have 8 t-5's on a 20 inch tall tank and they do not hide from the light at all .

 

[Reefun]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14767251#post14767251 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SSalty
Could I just remove a bulb permanently? Or is it bad on the fixture by having a missing bulb?

as long as they are on the same ballast it will be ok to take them out or just don’t turn them on if it is the light you will see a difference in a few days a week at most. It is not going to hurt anything to run less light for a week. Especially if they are a little bleached to start with. If they still look the same after a week then you have your answer. I would run a aquablue and two blue plus for 6-7 hr a day for a week if the coral looks better then switch one of the blue plus and one of the aquablue for actinic and if you can move the light up a few inches of the top of your tank (6-8in) that might be a good idea as well.

Good luck and let me know how it goes

 

[Reef Bass]

Sounds like a water chemistry issue or too little lighting to me. Pale / pastel sps color up intensely under my 400w MHs and T5s.

 

[Santoki]

They look fine to me.
Are you getting growth?
It may be more of a preference issue rather than something problematic...
You could try feeding your fish more if you want your corals to be darker.

 

[SSalty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14768740#post14768740 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reefun
as long as they are on the same ballast it will be ok to take them out or just don’t turn them on if it is the light you will see a difference in a few days a week at most. It is not going to hurt anything to run less light for a week. Especially if they are a little bleached to start with. If they still look the same after a week then you have your answer. I would run a aquablue and two blue plus for 6-7 hr a day for a week if the coral looks better then switch one of the blue plus and one of the aquablue for actinic and if you can move the light up a few inches of the top of your tank (6-8in) that might be a good idea as well.

Good luck and let me know how it goes

Thanks for the advice. I am going to try that.

 

[SSalty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14768413#post14768413 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mordibv
I learned this tip from a Zeovit forum .
Monti Caps and Birdnest looking so called washed out are indicators I use for low potassium . I think it's the salt . I have zoo's here and there in my tank . GRR . I have 8 t-5's on a 20 inch tall tank and they do not hide from the light at all .

So Instant Ocean and Reef Crystals are low in potassium? I use to use RC but switched to IO.

How about SeaChem Reef Salt?