Will SPS eventually adjust to higher intensities?

[xtlosx]

So I am having some color issues with some of my acros and I am not sure if it is light intensity, or nutrients. I feel like I have a good grasp on nutrients, now that I have gone through almost a year of cyano, phosphate, nitrate, etc to now a relatively low nutrient system. I don't carbon dose or anything like that. My growth is explosive on all of my acros.

I am running Radion Gen2s, at 65% intensity on Radiant Color profile with Radions hung about 8.5-9" above the water line.. I have a raspberry lemonade that is at the top of my middle pillar probably 6-7" under the water line that is showing some purple, but the yellow\green body is very slow to come to fruition. I can see some of it, but not even close to being enough.

I also have a Mother of Pearl about 3" off the sand bed on my rock that is now developing a beautiful green tint all over the body and base, while branching blue. So that is actually the color I am looking for.

So the question is, the Raspberry Lemonade came from a no name cheap chinese LED set at who knows what intensity, to my Radions. Other than screwing with my intensity weekly or bi-weekly and observing changes, will new corals eventually get used to the intensity and color up accordingly or will it stay the same bland color it is now until I find the perfect spot?

This weekend I am getting ORA PearlBerry & Blue Iris, and will actually start it on the sand bed and slowly move it up.. I've been bad at that actually.

Thanks in advance everyone for any guidance and params below...

Alk - 8.7-9.0
Calc - 450
Ph - 8
Temp - 79F
Mag - 1300
NO3 - 0
PO4 - .00 (Hanna checker)

 

[Wazzel]

SPS can handle some really intense light if they are acclimated to it slowly. Does the radion have an acclimation function? I use the one on my hydra every time I add a coral. I just reset it yesterday since I added a clam and hammer. 30% reduction with a 2 month ramp. Your coral will adjust to the conditions in your tank, just give it time.

 

[xtlosx]

SPS can handle some really intense light if they are acclimated to it slowly. Does the radion have an acclimation function? I use the one on my hydra every time I add a coral. I just reset it yesterday since I added a clam and hammer. 30% reduction with a 2 month ramp. Your coral will adjust to the conditions in your tank, just give it time.

They do, I just haven't used it... I really should have. oh well, I am seeing purple coming through on the coralites and a faint yellow\green color in the middle base'ish area.. It'll get there.

This weekend, I will make sure to put my new frags in the sandbed for at least a week or so until they can get used to our intensity.

 

[Wazzel]

You should use it. It is a lot easier than remembering to move frag until you get them where you want them.

 

[jda]

I used to keep SPS outside in shallow tanks from May to Sept when we lived in Missouri. Par over 1100-1300 depending on the time of day. I also will put a pair of HQI fixtures with 6x 250W 14K phoenix over my 120G tank and the SPS just thrived and looked even better.

You cannot give them too much high quality light.

If they are having issues, then it might be quality, or not enough.

 

[xtlosx]

I used to keep SPS outside in shallow tanks from May to Sept when we lived in Missouri. Par over 1100-1300 depending on the time of day. I also will put a pair of HQI fixtures with 6x 250W 14K phoenix over my 120G tank and the SPS just thrived and looked even better.

You cannot give them too much high quality light.

If they are having issues, then it might be quality, or not enough.

Understood, that's what I thought. Initially I had great colors last year, then had a huge bought of PO4 problems... had cyano for a year, couldn't get it to go away with any available methods. Finally figured out the issue, and now it's been a few weeks of steady happy parameters and colors are beginning to bounce back.

I just think I shocked a couple of pieces by putting them a bit too high too quick.

 

[jda]

I am beginning to believe that PAR is a near worthless measure of light for coral. Radiated watts might be better. If so, then that panel is putting off about 2/5 to 1/3 of the radiated watts of a 250W metal halide. I honestly think that it is probably a quality thing, so check your light channels against what other *successful* SPS keepers are running.

That being said, nutrients matter too. If you had, or still have, PO4 issues, then all bets are off. Be careful that you don't drop them down to near zero. A good place to aim is for N and P to be "clear" on salifert test kits where you know that you have some, but not enough to measure at .01 on their kit.

 

[Wazzel]

If you had to starve you tank to deal with the cyano it could be a nutrient issues like jda said and not a light issue.

 

[xtlosx]

If you had to starve you tank to deal with the cyano it could be a nutrient issues like jda said and not a light issue.

yea, I am leaning toward a nutrient issue. I literally starved the tank for almost a year. At one point i was going through 1-1\2 cups of high capacity GFO almost weekly to deal with phosphates. I then one random day decided to clean my skimmer (as I heard several times it's underpowered for my system) and realized I had put the bubble plate on wrong almost 1.5 yrs ago. Once I realized that, within weeks the cyano was gone, NO3 was 0, and PO4 was .00.. Now I feed much heavier, and still can't get my nutrients to rise no matter what I do.

Initially when I got my skimmer working properly... finally, i got about 2 gallons of skimmate (dark) within a month. Now it's since calmed down and is normal, much smaller amount.

To add to nutrients, I added a couple of fish and that has helped a bit..