AI PRIME SETTINGS

[Ariel'sMom]

Hello
I have a 47 gallon saltwater reef tank and I’m using 2 AI primes for lighting. My corals are not doing well and I’m confused about light settings and intensity. What do the experts suggest? I’m also not sure if my placement of the corals isn’t right. I’m waiting for a coral holder to arrive for some new corals that I bought which are separated right now so they don’t get full of sand from my goby. I’m just stumped. I don’t make a lot of changes because I don’t know what to change to. I’ve had this tank for one year. Thanks for any recommendations.

 

[Ajayabb]

Can you give us a screenshot of your current settings

 

[Ariel'sMom]

Hello
I have a 47 gallon saltwater reef tank and I’m using 2 AI primes for lighting. My corals are not doing well and I’m confused about light settings and intensity. What do the experts suggest? I’m also not sure if my placement of the corals isn’t right. I’m waiting for a coral holder to arrive for some new corals that I bought which are separated right now so they don’t get full of sand from my goby. I’m just stumped. I don’t make a lot of changes because I don’t know what to change to. I’ve had this tank for one year. Thanks for any recommendations.

Hello! Here is a snapshot of my settings.
Thank you

 

[Ariel'sMom]

Hello! Here is my snapshot of AI Prime settings.
Thanks!

 

[crazyfishmom]

Hello! Here is my snapshot of AI Prime settings.
Thanks!

What height from the top of the water are your lights? What’s your tank’s depth?

 

[Ajayabb]

Ariel. Can you provide us with your water parameters too?

 

[Ariel'sMom]

What height from the top of the water are your lights? What’s your tank’s depth?

What height from the top of the water are your lights? What’s your tank’s depth?

Ariel. Can you provide us with your water parameters too?

 

[crazyfishmom]

Thanks for sharing all of this information. Based on the height and tank depth it is possible that the PAR for some of the Coral I’m seeing (LPS) in particular might be a bit high.

The other thing that might be a little off for a tank this age is the phosphate level (if it is 0.9). I know most people shoot for 0.03-0.1. I would say that 0.2 and 0.3 are normally not a huge deal if the algae is not going insane in the tank but 0.9 may be pushing it a bit. There are super well established tanks that run high phosphate and get away with it but again those are systems that have been running for years with a pretty high bioload and bullet proof rocks that can consume nearly anything you throw at it. I would consider lowering that a bit.

I would also consider Coral warfare a possibility. If you have leathers they may be releasing toxins into the water that might be upsetting your other Coral. Do you run any carbon? That can help with that problem.

As with anything, making any sudden changes normally causes bigger issues especially if you make several at a time.

If you have access to a PAR meter, I would consider starting there. LPS generally does best at less than 200 PAR and most hammers and torches for example tend to thrive at 75-150. You can adapt them to higher PAR slowly over time. Are you able to run a conditioning cycle with your primes? If you can, it would give you a bit of an idea as to whether your lights are too much for the Coral you are raising. If you see things get better when you start the cycle that would give you a clue that the lights are too high. I would set it up such that you start at 50% of where you are now and it runs for 60 days. Within 3 weeks or so you’ll start to see the Coral react either positively or negatively. Unfortunately there’s no good way to test on live animals and patience and small gradual changes are key. I think probably the combination of high phosphate with high lights might be causing the issues.

Just thoughts. I’m sure others will offer more/better advice!

Good luck!

 

[Ariel'sMom]

Thank you so much for your thoughtful advice!
My phosphate level is always high but I hadn’t worried too much since there is hardly any “seeable” algae. I do weekly to every other week water changes . Otherwise I don’t know how to lower it. I do use charcoal and change it monthly.
I will rent a par meter. Will also lower the lighting by 50%.
Thanks again!

 

[crazyfishmom]

Thank you so much for your thoughtful advice!
My phosphate level is always high but I hadn’t worried too much since there is hardly any “seeable” algae. I do weekly to every other week water changes . Otherwise I don’t know how to lower it. I do use charcoal and change it monthly.
I will rent a par meter. Will also lower the lighting by 50%.
Thanks again!

Normally for phosphate GFO or some of the other phosphate medias tend to be most effective way of reducing.

I also forgot to ask whether you are definitely using RODI water to make your salt water and was also wondering whether you might consider lowering no your salinity a tiny bit. My salinity went up a bit too high a few months ago and all my Coral just looked off. Brought it down to 1.025 and all started puffing up and looking beautiful again.

 

[Ariel'sMom]

Normally for phosphate GFO or some of the other phosphate medias tend to be most effective way of reducing.

I also forgot to ask whether you are definitely using RODI water to make your salt water and was also wondering whether you might consider lowering no your salinity a tiny bit. My salinity went up a bit too high a few months ago and all my Coral just looked off. Brought it down to 1.025 and all started puffing up and looking beautiful again.

I do use RO water from my LFS. I ordered a par meter so we’ll see what my levels are. Exciting hobby but always worrying that I might kill one of these precious little guys!

 

[crazyfishmom]

I do use RO water from my LFS. I ordered a par meter so we’ll see what my levels are. Exciting hobby but always worrying that I might kill one of these precious little guys!

I understand! They’re our babies!

 

[ryanjohn1]

We all loose coral occasionally.

 

[Salty2021]

We all lose coral. I've been running Saxby setting. It's a little too much as you can tune it down.

 

[Ariel'sMom]

We all lose coral. I've been running Saxby setting. It's a little too much as you can tune it down.

I’ll check it out!