What am I doing wrong?!?!?!?!?

[reefman13]

Here's the story...
In May of this year I setup my first saltwater tank- a 50 gallon breeder tank with a 10 gallon sump. Then after about a week I added a colony of Zoas. From there, about 3 weeks later I added a clown, and then after about a month of having everything up and running, with my little O.clownfish in it, I setup a 250W MH pendent. After that I waited about a week and then bought a Acropora Formosa frag and that has grown significantly. So after adding a bunch of SPS corals, and getting them to be really happy, I decided to add an Acan frag. That frag completely melted within 72 hours. After about a month I added a Favia Brain colony and I have had that now for about a month, and it is now showing clear signs of severe bleaching. I also have an open brain that is turning from its normal florescent green, to white. I am going to do a complete tank overhaul tomorrow where I am going to do a 30% water change and probably re-aquascape. I will also test my parameters then.

I decided to ask the experts. I am really puzzled as to why I can keep SPS but not LPS, and BTW, I have a frogspaun that is as happy as can be in the same tank, just getting a little bit lower amount of light.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Benny Z]

it sounds like your lps is simply getting too much light. try a more shaded area. ime you can slowly move them out from the shade over time, but you should always place new lps in the shade unless you know it's already been acclimated to more powerful lighting. i don't know the dimensions of the 50br, but if it's anything like the 40br it is pretty shallow. a 250w halide over a short tank might be way too much for a lot of lps, depending on bulb/ballast/reflector combo.

 

[craig813]

Like Benny said, you probably have too much light hitting the lps, your light should be at least 12" off the water. I have a 40b that is 16" deep. If your 50 gal is less than 19ish you should probably raise the light more than 12"

you could also try having a shorter light cycle if you have vho/t5.

side note a lot of lps like less flow than sps also.

gl, craig

 

[reefman13]

Okay, thanks guys. So when I aquascape tomorrow, I will place them in the same area that my frogspaun is in.

 

[Sheol]

Are you using Metal Halides on a fairly shallow tank? Many of what we hobbyist call LPS are from turbid lagoons/deeper water/ or shaded areas. They don't tolerate intense light. Many favids like bright, but indirect light. And acans don't like bright light at all, nor do red Trachyphyllia..

Matthew

 

[reefman13]

I have my 250W MH about 4" off the water, on a 19" high tank. But as I said I am going to move both a little further away from the light. So we shall see how everything goes.

 

[G.SMITHII]

hmmmm. hijack question.

i have an acan lord frag at the very top of my tank, but neve really thought it to be too much light, being i have PC,s.

should I move him down too?

 

[reefman13]

From what I gather, if it is growing and happy leave it, but some more tank info would help..

 

[reefman13]

I have moved everything around in the tank (LPS wise) and they seem to be much happier.

 

[Serioussnaps]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11007388#post11007388 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by G.SMITHII
hmmmm. hijack question.

i have an acan lord frag at the very top of my tank, but neve really thought it to be too much light, being i have PC,s.

should I move him down too?

No, you basically have NO light in comparison to any other lighting fixture.

 

[silvers]

I have a 250w mh with a new hamilton 14k bulb 6'' over a 22g finnex 18''max depth with a ton of LPS and no problems but it went from a 175w 10k ushio ,to a old 250w 20k xm then to the 14k hamilton so change has been gradule. But IMO its not from light.