Coral Growth with Kessil A360s

[Thraciandrummer]

I have 3 Kessil A360s on a 125G 6-foot long tank. The lights are on Goosenecks sitting about 8 inches from the water surface. I have not seen much in the way of coral growth since I got these lights. In fact many of my Zoas have died and two candy cane heads have completely died on me. I have some lobo heads and some Acans as well that appear to be doing just fine. I also have a few colonies of Zoas that are also doing fine.

My question is what are the best settings to use on these lights to get good coral growth? Right now I have the light intensity under 70%. I have heard of people going at a full 100% and others that never go above 50%. I am also not sure whether to go mostly blue or mostly white, or whether I should switch back and fourth. I am currently doing more of a ramp up/ramp down method where I start the lights mostly blue with low intensity and then ramp up the intensity and white light. Once it hits around the 6 hour mark the lights begin to then ramp back down. I have the tank lit for 11 hours a day.

Dosing - I have just started dosing using the BRS 2-part system. Current levels are...
Ca - 425
Alk - 10.4 (Ideally I want to get this down to 9 dkH)
Magnesium - 1,020
Salinity - 1.024 Should this go up to 1.026?
Temperature 78 degrees F

 

[nelson.jdautobody]

I had mine set at 60%blue and 30% whites. I switched to radions because I just didn't get good growth with the kessils either. But recently went to t5 again with the led blue strip for some pop and that's where it's at. Now I get crazy growth...but the colors are alot better with the radion for sure

 

[nelson.jdautobody]

And if your magnesium is correct then ur gona want to bring that up to at least 1350

 

[mcarroll]

Can you get a lux meter and measure how much light you're putting in your tank right now?

You can download a free app for your smartphone that'll use the camera as a meter. If you're on iPhone, try "Galactica Luxmeter"...but there are a ton of options on iphone and android. Just make sure whatever app you pick is using the right camera on your phone....and double check your results the first time using it. Not all apps do the right thing with the camera and will give you low-ball results.

Later, get a handheld lux meter for about $15...most online places like ebay or amazon will carry the LX-1010B, which is the most common meter people are using.

Ditto others' comments on the Mg level....get that back up the right range before you mess with the lights. Then retest Ca and alkalinity as they might change due to the Mg change being so large....make adjustments if needed.

THEN mess with the lux meter app and measure lights...and post back here!

 

[Thraciandrummer]

What was your lighting schedule though? Did you ramp up and down or did you just do 60% blue 30% the entire light cycle? Also what intensity level did you use?

As for the Magnesium, I am following the instructions from BRS. What they said to do was daily dose Calcium and Alkalinity and then once you go through an entire jug of Ca and Alk to then dose the Magnesium. Is this not the proper way? should I be making daily magnesium adjustments as well? If I did that I feel like I would go through Magnesium solution like crazy because it take a lot of that solution to bring the Magnesium up.

 

[Thraciandrummer]

Ok, I'll download the iPhone app. So again my question is should I follow the BRS instructions which are to only dose Magnesium when I finish the Alk and Ca jugs or should I daily dose Magnesium as well?

 

[mcarroll]

Well.....re-test and verify that you Mg has really fallen that far.

Typically waiting till the end to dose won't hurt anything, but I think reading the instructions too closely might prevent understanding what's going on some times. It's definitely OK to dose Mg along the way....even preferable. However, Mg is much more expensive to test for and there is a much larger reserve of Mg in the water to begin with. I suspect this is why the more conservative approach to dosing in the instructions.

Around 1000 ppm is very low, however....low enough to be a questionable test result. So retest....and get started on the correction to Mg a.s.a.p. If the initial test result is correct, it might take 2-3 days to safely dose all the Mg you need to add.

 

[nelson.jdautobody]

I had a lfs owner/friend describe magnesium to me like this (I never tested mag and had poor coral growth and he asked what my mag levels were and of course I said "I don't know"). He said picture magnesium as a door for your corals to take in the alk and calcium and grow...if the mag is to low or too high then the door will be closed and you will not see coral thrive. If it's in the proper range (between 1350-1500) then the door will be open for your corals to absorb the calcium and alk and they will thrive and grow

 

[Thraciandrummer]

I will make that my weekend priority.

 

[mcarroll]

If you're growing a lot of stony corals very quickly, then indeed you will be going through all three "parts" relatively quickly. Testing along the way should prevent this from being a surprise in most cases though.

(If you're not growing a lot of stony corals not very quickly, then we're back to a questionable test result...or something else going on.)

 

[Thraciandrummer]

I'm using a Salifert magnesium test kit. This was recommended to me by a close friend that owns a LFS. Is this a suitable test kit for magnesium? I am also using Hanna checkers for Calcium and Alkalinity. I have recently purchased a Salifert Alkalinity checker as I got informed by Hanna that their alkalinity reagents were bad (I was part of the bad lot and have not received my replacement yet).

 

[Thraciandrummer]

Right now I have no stony corals at all in the tank, and honestly a small amount of LPS soft corals. I have one medium colony of zoas and then a few other zoa frags on plugs. Not sure what else could be draining Magnesium in the tank though. I don't dose anything else, I run a Reef Octopus Skimmer, and a BRS dual reactor with carbon and GFO. That's it. I have 120 pounds of live rock and sand.

 

[TheEngineer]

I agree with everyone. Magnesium tests in my experience are the least accurate. I would redo that test and ask your LFS friend to do one for you too. If you don't have a lot of coral you shouldn't be that low. I don't know about the BRS two part but most add the proper amount of magnesium as well. Magnesium gets depleted very slowly so if your Cal/Alk levels are holding steady with your dosing then so should your Mag.

That said, if you don't have a lot of corals, why are you dosing? We're your levels dropping between water changes?

 

[Thraciandrummer]

I am beginning to add corals now. I don't have a lot but I have enough apparently for my levels to start depleting. Water changes alone were ok for a little, but not anymore. Right now I have to add 90ml per day of calcium solution to the tank to maintain 425ppm.

 

[Eckolancer]

Deep blue is 100%blue midblue is 80% high white is 100% white.

Sps, lps, and zoas all grow like weeds in my tank. Tank is 48"x28"x20"deep. Cal 490 alk 8.25 mag 1550 sal 1.025 nitrate 12 phosphates .01

 

[Thraciandrummer]

This is perfect! Thanks a lot. I will try to replicate this in my tank as well. I need to get myself an APEX too.

 

[Thraciandrummer]

I tried to change up my lights schedule a little and this is what I came up with. Thoughts? Again I am not using an APEX so I have a little less control.

12 pm - 0% color 10% intensity
1pm - 80% color 35% intensity
3 pm - 100% color 65% intensity
5 pm - 80% color 65% intensity
9 pm - 5% color 5 intensity

 

[reid429]

I love my 360 compared to the radion I had

 

[Eckolancer]

I tried to change up my lights schedule a little and this is what I came up with. Thoughts? Again I am not using an APEX so I have a little less control.

12 pm - 0% color 10% intensity
1pm - 80% color 35% intensity
3 pm - 100% color 65% intensity
5 pm - 80% color 65% intensity
9 pm - 5% color 5 intensity

I would change the 1 and 5 times to have 0% as that would be full blue. As for intensity just adjust to what works for you.

 

[Thraciandrummer]

So 1PM and 5Pm should be 0% color?