Can Low intensity light bleach corals? how low is too low?

[Rcunning8]

Hey Guys so I have a 48 inch inch orbit marine proin the back of my tank that is growing mostly SPS with blues at max 55% and whites at max 25 percent 2 inches off the water, everything looks great under this light. I have another light in front of this one that is used to grow everything else in the tank, this is a 48 inch reef breeder photon full spectrum with the max blues reaching 55% and whites reaching 20% for only one hour out of the day and ramping up and down surrounding this maximum intensity period. the light cycle lasts 11 hours with moon lighting flanking the on off period of an hour each side making the total light period 13 hours.

For the past 2 months I have been decreasing and decreasing the light intensity on the reefbreeder as it appeared that the corals were all losing color, and becoming more pale. So they used to be as high as 80/40 blue/white and now they are all the way down to 55/20 blue/white. My question is, is this light too low in intensity now? Is it possible to drop the intensity of the light so low that the corals bleach out because of the lack in intensity of the light or would you think they would brown out because of the low intensity light? Im thinking that the only way I would be able to really figure out what is going on is to rent the par meter here on CR unless you guys can come up with something else.

Alk:9
Ca:450
Mg: 1400
Salinity:1.0255
Nitrate: 8ppm (due to increased feeding for my new potters wrasse)
Phosphate: .04

Thanks guys!

Ryan

 

[IHaveCrabs]

Hey Guys so I have a 48 inch inch orbit marine proin the back of my tank that is growing mostly SPS with blues at max 55% and whites at max 25 percent 2 inches off the water, everything looks great under this light. I have another light in front of this one that is used to grow everything else in the tank, this is a 48 inch reef breeder photon full spectrum with the max blues reaching 55% and whites reaching 20% for only one hour out of the day and ramping up and down surrounding this maximum intensity period. the light cycle lasts 11 hours with moon lighting flanking the on off period of an hour each side making the total light period 13 hours.

For the past 2 months I have been decreasing and decreasing the light intensity on the reefbreeder as it appeared that the corals were all losing color, and becoming more pale. So they used to be as high as 80/40 blue/white and now they are all the way down to 55/20 blue/white. My question is, is this light too low in intensity now? Is it possible to drop the intensity of the light so low that the corals bleach out because of the lack in intensity of the light or would you think they would brown out because of the low intensity light? Im thinking that the only way I would be able to really figure out what is going on is to rent the par meter here on CR unless you guys can come up with something else.

Alk:9
Ca:450
Mg: 1400
Salinity:1.0255
Nitrate: 8ppm (due to increased feeding for my new potters wrasse)
Phosphate: .04

Thanks guys!

Ryan

Totally possible. Check out my thread. Myself, along with the community, thought it was too high a light or water issues. Rented the community PAR meter and found my lights were way underpowered and as soon as I moved the coral under the ATI's and moved them up slowly, they are coloring up.

http://www.chicagoreefs.com/forums/showthread.php/29550-SPS-Experts-Assistance-Needed!

My recommendation.. rent the PAR meter and adjust by +10-20% increase in the PAR it gives you under the LED's if you have a lot of blues.

 

[madjoe]

Im more confused by the two lights one to grow sps one to grow everything else? Both on at same time ? Same tank right idk haveing two lights on at same time can be to little par unless they totally crap lights . Maybe im missing something . Ive never seen sps or had sps pale from low light turn brown even light brown but never white thats always been to high of light or a nuterient issue or both easy way find out borrow the par meter

 

[Rcunning8]

Im more confused by the two lights one to grow sps one to grow everything else? Both on at same time ? Same tank right idk haveing two lights on at same time can be to little par unless they totally crap lights . Maybe im missing something . Ive never seen sps or had sps pale from low light turn brown even light brown but never white thats always been to high of light or a nuterient issue or both easy way find out borrow the par meter

Hey Joe!

Thanks for chiming in man. The lights run on the same lighting cycle and are on the same tank. The reason for the two lights is due to the depth of my tank. it has a 2 foot depth and I felt like my initial light (the orbit marine pro which is a fantastic light IMO) was not enough to light the whole tank. In order to get enough spread on the entire tank I bought an additional light, the reef breeder 48 inch photon full spectrum which IMO is an average to higher end light as well. Since I have most of my SPS high up in the back of the tank I placed my orbit marine pro right snug with the back wall. The reefbreeder is placed about four inches in front of the orbit marine pro (i.e. right in the middle of the tank) to light up the rest of the tank.

The SPS which are lit by the orbit marine pro are not pale, color is looking great, growth is adequate (although I wish it were more like I see with people with MH/T5's). Basically everything being lit by the orbit marine pro is doing very well!

The problem lies in some not all of the other corals mostly LPS, chalices, cyphastrea, mycedium and tachyphillia that appear bleached to me. These corals are not under the orbit marine pro, they are under the reefbreeder photon. over the past 6 weeks I have consistently been lowering and lowering the reefbreeder to see if the coral colors would come back but it appears they are getting worse. Currently I have my reefbreeder incredibly low 55/20 max for 1 hour blue/white with 120 optics. Other people on this forum with the same LED are running theirs at 100/50 blue/white and they are not having these bleaching issues.

IMO its not a nutrient/trace elements issue, as I have also read that too low of nutrients/trace elements can cause bleaching issues and I feel like my nutrients are adequate and I dose the recommended trace nutrients as well. I really feel like the issue is the light.

I have decided that I'm going to take the recommendations given so far and rent the par meter to see if I can get a handle on this thing cuz it is annoying to say the least!

Thanks for the help so far guys keep your suggestions coming if you think you have something more to add to the discussion!!

 

[madjoe]

The corals u having problems with r pretty low light corals my chalices r at like 80 par and do fine ive seen them bleach out at little over 150 par fast think u should borrow par meter so u have a direction to go in

 

[IHaveCrabs]

The corals u having problems with r pretty low light corals my chalices r at like 80 par and do fine ive seen them bleach out at little over 150 par fast think u should borrow par meter so u have a direction to go in

Agreed. If you don't want to wait for the PAR meter, move one of those chalices or acans into a shadow of rock work or an overhang and see if it improves.


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[Rcunning8]

[MENTION=1217]madjoe[/MENTION]

Wanted to take a pic and show you how the lights are set up so you can see how it looks visually since my description may have been confusing

Also pasted below are the lights I use in case you are not familiar with them

48-60 inch of this orbit marine pro
http://m.marinedepot.com/products/cu04110/current-usa-orbit-marine-pro-led-aquarium-light

48 inch of this reefbreeder
https://www.reefbreeders.com/shop/photon-48/

Thanks again!


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[madjoe]

I see what u did and get it now didnt read the specifics on the front lights but im gonna guess they have 90 degree optics which will penetrate deeper so u probably have more par down there . Its all speculation of course if u get the par meter it will tell u . If anything u could remove optics so it dont pentrate as deep will lower your par

 

[Rcunning8]

I see what u did and get it now didnt read the specifics on the front lights but im gonna guess they have 90 degree optics which will penetrate deeper so u probably have more par down there . Its all speculation of course if u get the par meter it will tell u . If anything u could remove optics so it dont pentrate as deep will lower your par

They have 120 optics but yes I agree par meter will answer these questions


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