Kessil Lights and Coral Growth

[kosh]

I have a have Kessil A360 on my JBJ now for about 4 or 5 months, I don't do any dosing but I do keep up with water changes. The problem is I do not see much growth with my corals. What have other kessil users found works best as far as settings for coral growth? Do you run them at 100%? Do you run them mostly blue or mostly white light? I just do not know what the best setting is for this light, I have kinda played with it a bit but nothing really changes.

I am now trying an experiment with additional light, ambient sunlight from my window next to the aquarium. This is not direct sunlight but I thought it would be worth trying, so I can possibly get some better growth.

 

[Eckolancer]

I run mine at 100% for 14 hours going from all blue to all white then back down. Each hour it changes to a new spectrum. I also dose and don't do water changes (not recommend). Growth has been great with mine and colors are closer to t5 then my DIY setup was.

 

[Bjreef562]

I had mine at 100 while I was only running the intensity at only 80%, I was getting pretty good growth in my sps lps and softies, what are your parameters ?since your not dosing.

 

[kosh]

what do you dose? how big is your tank? do you have a killer filtration system to make it so you don't do water changes?

 

[kosh]

sorry didn't see your parameters question, I haven't tested in a while , lately I have gotten a little lazy with the actual testing. I have been just keeping a close eye on all my inhabitants, everything looks healthy mushrooms open up big, Zoas are always open nice except when a stupid crab crawls on them. the poyps eat, the 2 bubble tip nems eat, fish all eat, water is clear best i can describe my parms right now, is everything is very healthy, just the only growth I have had is my omen fuzzy mushroom made a baby fuzzy mushroom and my blue mushroom has about 4 babies. The rest are just the way they have always been.

 

[Bjreef562]

I dose ESV b-ionic 2 part calcium and alkalinity and kent magnesium everyday to get my parameters up to par, I dose kent strontium and molybdenum and kent iodine every couple days. I have a JBJ 28gallon HQI nano cube, but I recently replace the metal halide lights that it came with for some kessil A360w LEDs and I upgraded the protein skimmer to an eshopps hang on back protein skimmer. I'm far from a killer filtration system, everything is stock on the filtration system only thing upgraded was the protein skimmer which I feel like isn't even doing a good job cause it's hardly pulls any gunk out of the water and I'm sure that my water isn't that clean that the skimmer isn't able to pull anything out. Your problem might be in the cal, mag and alk, your parameters might be too low in those areas.

 

[CUNAReefer]

I have a Kessil A350W. It was used to light a 20g SPS only section of my sump. The corals were grown under an ATI 8x80 Sunpower and the frags were placed in this 20g area. Over time, the corals lost their color and slowed in growth. When I placed the frags back in my display, the color was HORRIBLE. I eventually had to replace the Kessil with a 150 DE MH pendant. The Kessil now lights another area of my sump with Favias, Acans, and Mushrooms.

 

[Eckolancer]

Zoas sometimes like less light or more, as well as less/more water movement. Try moving them around and not adjusting the lights.

BRS Cal and alk dosed every 90 mins, one pump of mag every other day, a capful of amino acids every couple days, and every so often I will dose iodine, strontium & molybdenum. My cal is 420-430 alk is 9-9.2 mag 1350-1450, sal is 1.027, phosphates .02-.03 with hanna checker

Like I said I dont do water changes, but run about 3 times the recommended biopellets with a vertex 150 on a 108 gallon rimless and have a 40 gallon DIY sump that holds around 15 gallons of water, as part of it around 8 gallons is blocked off for my ato water. Also tank is a bare bottom setup.

Feeding pellets 3 times a day, frozen cube (of all the frozen cubes for saltwater mixed together), algae always in the tank, feed reef roids every other day, and the other days feed phytoplankton. I'm sure im missing some of the foods I feed randomly. Zoas (high end) grow great as well as sps (mostly acro and millis) and lps (mostly acans)

Everything in the tank was started from frags from last tank or bough as a frag since setup. Few pics

 

[Finnaddict]

I run mine for 12hrs a day. Starting at 5% intensity all blue and ramping up to 80% intensity and 50% blue then back down. I have had some corals almost double in size in just 3 months

 

[Jimbo662]

+1 what Finn said. 12 hrs, ramp up for 4, steady for 4 and ramp down for 4. Mine are set at 63 intensity and 55 color and I'm seeing growth on everything. My superman rhodactis just split for the 2nd time in less than 2 months. An orange monti has almost trippled since May. SPS's are all showing growth and a blasto and acan are both growing more that 3 heads / polyps each. I've got a 75g tank with the lights about 10" above the water.

 

[reggaedrummin]

You need to test your water. Just monitoring the animals will lead to failure. By the time they start reacting to poor water quality, you may find your parameters are much farther from excellent then you'd prefer and it can be a long hard road back to stable with losses along the way. Learn from my experience and test your water. It's the most important element in your reef! Alk, mag, and calcium need to be inline for you to have good growth and if all three drop to low levels, your first sign will be slowed growth. The next sign will be bleaching, and at that point you have an uphill battle.

 

[kosh]

Ok, took some advice, the only test kits I have here are Calcium and Carbon Hardness I was at a 380 on Ca and a 6 on KH. I guess i should start dosing a little bit. I have some of the aqua vitro calcium, Fuel, and vibrance that my LFS sold me a while ago, I opted not to dose because I was not testing enough to be doing it correct. I was just sticking to testing nitrates, nitrites, and phos, those are all good and always have been. I just hooked my apex neptune back up and used some of the ides for my light programming, saw my PH to be 7.76 a little of but I think acceptable.

Are you guys familiar with the aqua vitro line? I would hate to pitch if it is junk.


Nice Pics Ecolancer, do you have one of the whole tank?

 

[reggaedrummin]

I'd keep those bottles on the shelf and focus on your alk and ph...to much change is hard on everything and your calcium is on the low end of just fine. Your corals ability to use calcium through calcification increases as your ph rises. I'd go get an alk buffer and start there. Get one that only targets alk so you don't inadvertently swing your other parameters too far while trying to raise your alk. Work slowly. Alkalinity adjustments can be harder on the critters than just having it too high or too low so take your time. Once you get your alkalinity in line, you can use kalkwasser in your top off to maintain it but realize that kalk can raise your calcium too. There are some great reads on reef keeping dot com that explain all in more detail. Do your research and take your time. Also you should test your magnesium. Your corals need mag to complete the calcification process so if that's off it'll slow your growth too.

 

[Eckolancer]

Aquavitro is pretty good for most people. I just like the plain instant ocean and dose 2 part from BRS for a cheaper route.

 

[kosh]

Does the BRS 2 part dose require anything special like dosing pumps or calcium reactor or can I just mix and add to the tank? I haven't read too much on dosing as things have seemed to have worked so far minus the huge coral growth explosions with just regular water changes.

I don't want to add a sump or anything to this Nano, I am working on a 125g tank that i would rather put money that isn't standard maintenance into.

Thanks for taking the time to farther introduce me into this part of the hobby.

 

[reggaedrummin]

A 2 part dose should be introduced directly into the tank. No reactor is involved. Each part is mixed into water, then poured into a high flow area. To be clear, you do not mix the two parts together prior to dosing. This will cause instant precipitation and ruin your dose. Stick to the recommended doses and take your time. Raising your levels too quick can be really hard on your animals.

 

[reggaedrummin]

BRS has a good video on 2 part dosing. You should go check it out

 

[Coralfornialiving]

I run mine at 100% for 14 hours going from all blue to all white then back down. Each hour it changes to a new spectrum. I also dose and don't do water changes (not recommend). Growth has been great with mine and colors are closer to t5 then my DIY setup was.

No water changes? How long have you had your system going for?

 

[sevens_up77]

I run a mixed reef sps, lps, and Zoas in a 20gal tall. I run a kessil 350w and I run it at 75% on both blue and white for 10 hrs a day. And I have had about 50% growth on everything except my sps which is more like 25%

 

[BigSofty]

very new to the kessil community...i have 3 A360WE's over my 220 gallon tank...it is 28 inches deep... I have only soft corals with zoas and would like to know if I can run the intensity at 100% for a 10 hour stretch and go up in spectrum to say 65% for 4 hours then back down...would this be too much? thanks for all info i do appreciate your time.