Are my lights to bright?

[Huskymaniac]

500 par from an led is a lot of light. Why do you feel you need 300 on the sand bed? Many sps will be very happy with par under 200. I have grown acropra in an area getting 100ish par it did well and had good color. Lower blues to 65-70% and whites to 25-40%, keep uv under 15% it can burn corals if too uv is too strong, reds and greens are whatever 0-5%. Move the maxima up on the rock higher, they love tons of light and live on a rock in the wild. If your nutrients are low then keep your alk near NWS 7-8 dkh, this will help prevent burnt tips and bleaching from strong lighting.

I am running the lights this high specifically for the clam. I should rephrase as it is not directly on the sand bed. Its on small rock island I created and the center peice of the tank. Really cant move the peice of rock the clam is attached to.

 

[Ento-Reefer]

I am running 4 hydra 26 on my 180. It is a mixed reef with quite a lot of sps frags. The lights are mounted about 13-14” above the water. I adjusted them so the highest rocks in my tank were sitting at 300-330 par. I have frags growing well in anywhere from 150- 330. I agree with the others that 500 par with LED is a lot of light.

I am also planning to add a few t-5 down the line when my frags grow to avoid the shading that will likely occur. I have been very happy with my lights thus far, but I will say that the best sps tank I ever had was with a 6 bulb ATI Powermodule running 4 blue + and 2 blue special bulbs.

 

[LMDAVE]

I am by no means an expert since I'm learning all of this, but I have just been reading up a lot on the relationship of light and Alkalinity. Sounds like the high alkalinity is probably your problem, especially with the lower nutrients (as stated above by @ReefFreak@ ). I'm in the process of raising my alk to supplement the lower par I have on my SPS to see how if will help it's growth.

This link was what I was looking at http://reefinabox.com/right-alkalinity-coral-growth/

 

[jda]

The light source matters. I would not get over 300 PAR with any LED, but you can double that with T5 and MH and stuff will not burn or bleach if you acclimate. There is something that is different.

Try and get the clam on a rock and place it up higher in the tank.

 

[jda]

What color is your Maxima? If it is blue or green, then I think that you are right to want to be at 300. You can probably do less with black/white or gold and teardrops do not need a lot of light at all.

 

[Huskymaniac]

What color is your Maxima? If it is blue or green, then I think that you are right to want to be at 300. You can probably do less with black/white or gold and teardrops do not need a lot of light at all.

Its an ultra grade ora blue clam so have to keep this thing blasted. I am going to be ordering the aquatic life t5 hybrid light which will let me scale down these led's a bit. Just waiting to find it in white so it matches the tank.

 

[Ento-Reefer]

Its an ultra grade ora blue clam so have to keep this thing blasted. I am going to be ordering the aquatic life t5 hybrid light which will let me scale down these led's a bit. Just waiting to find it in white so it matches the tank.

The aquatic life hybrid comes in white? I have never seen one. That would be the color I would want also.

 

[Huskymaniac]

The aquatic life hybrid comes in white? I have never seen one. That would be the color I would want also.

Yes, they said it was being shipped to distributors this week.

 

[Ento-Reefer]

Yes, they said it was being shipped to distributors this week.

Now I know what I am getting for Christmas lol.

 

[ReefFreak@]

The light source matters. I would not get over 300 PAR with any LED, but you can double that with T5 and MH and stuff will not burn or bleach if you acclimate. There is something that is different.

Try and get the clam on a rock and place it up higher in the tank.

I believe this has to do with how leds are a more direct beam of light. I am by know means a expert ,but this is what I've concluded with my research.

 

[jda]

Probably not, or else the PAR meter would read higher. 300 PAR on the sensor is still half the "beams" than 600 PAR. It is probably because of high peaks and waves from some diodes that can be harmful at high quantity. This is a quality thing.

 

[ReefFreak@]

My alkalinity is at 11.1. I run it higher to compensate for a lower PH on my tank sue to it being in my basement and running a reactor.

What is your ph value? How do you test it? If everything else is stable in your reef running high alk compounded with low to zero nutrients, and high par you will pale your sps if not burn them. I run a ph range of ~7.9 to 7.79 with a alk of 8dkh-8.5dkh and grow acropora perfectly fine. I have killed some of my favorite pieces though from extremely low nutrients, and high lighting even at 8dkh. I know it can seem strange being told that you need higher nutrients when all you read is keeping extremely low ones. Remember corals are symbiotic with algae, and algae needs nutrients to grow. Just remember to make changes very slowly, especially now that your corals are already stressed.

 

[ReefFreak@]

Probably not, or else the PAR meter would read higher. 300 PAR on the sensor is still half the "beams" than 600 PAR. It is probably because of high peaks and waves from some diodes that can be harmful at high quantity. This is a quality thing.

300 par is 300 par i mean that leds is a more focused type of light with less spread. Thats why you need fixtures across a tank. This more focused hits more on the coral directly below them instead of leaching out of the side of the tank. Also if using an old par meter you could be getting skewed results as older par meters are not calibrated for certain spectrum's that leds produce.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Gads.
Just shorten the peak photo period.
No results , drop the peak intensity of the photo period

 

[Huskymaniac]

What is your ph value? How do you test it? If everything else is stable in your reef running high alk compounded with low to zero nutrients, and high par you will pale your sps if not burn them. I run a ph range of ~7.9 to 7.79 with a alk of 8dkh-8.5dkh and grow acropora perfectly fine. I have killed some of my favorite pieces though from extremely low nutrients, and high lighting even at 8dkh. I know it can seem strange being told that you need higher nutrients when all you read is keeping extremely low ones. Remember corals are symbiotic with algae, and algae needs nutrients to grow. Just remember to make changes very slowly, especially now that your corals are already stressed.

My corals are fine outside of bas

What is your ph value? How do you test it? If everything else is stable in your reef running high alk compounded with low to zero nutrients, and high par you will pale your sps if not burn them. I run a ph range of ~7.9 to 7.79 with a alk of 8dkh-8.5dkh and grow acropora perfectly fine. I have killed some of my favorite pieces though from extremely low nutrients, and high lighting even at 8dkh. I know it can seem strange being told that you need higher nutrients when all you read is keeping extremely low ones. Remember corals are symbiotic with algae, and algae needs nutrients to grow. Just remember to make changes very slowly, especially now that your corals are already stressed.

PH IS 7.8 TO 7.9. Im not trying to keep my nutrients down but am fishless as they are in QT. I am dealing with some turf type algea so even though my checker is showing 0 phosphates it really cant be 0 otherwise it wouldnt grow. Nitrates are less than 5 but not 0.

 

[ReefFreak@]

My corals are fine outside of bas


PH IS 7.8 TO 7.9. Im not trying to keep my nutrients down but am fishless as they are in QT. I am dealing with some turf type algea so even though my checker is showing 0 phosphates it really cant be 0 otherwise it wouldnt grow. Nitrates are less than 5 but not 0.

ph of 7.8 to 7.9 is fine. Nitrates around 5 are fine. Which test are you using to test them? The turf algae could be getting nutrients from die off on your rock if your system is still new. Can you supply a picture of how bad the turf algae is? If the turf algae is consuming the phosphate out of the water column there probably isn't any left for the corals. Test the phosphates early in the morning right when the lights come on and see what you get. If you get a number other than zero you know there is phosphate in your water.

 

[Huskymaniac]

Here are some photos.

 

[Huskymaniac]

Here are also some photos of my corals. They are not bad. I am just trying to figure out how to blast my sandbed without damaging the corals up top. Would using t5's so I can lower my led's help or would I just be wasting my money?

 

[ReefFreak@]

Here are also some photos of my corals. They are not bad. I am just trying to figure out how to blast my sandbed without damaging the corals up top. Would using t5's so I can lower my led's help or would I just be wasting my money?

Corals look little pale but not terrible. There is really no way that i know of that you can have the same par at every level of the tank. The bottom is always going to have lower par then the top. I keep acropora all through out my reef with good results. Flow and nutrients is more important than lighting imo. I would just take that big clump of algae out by hand. I can't really help you with the dsb as i run bare bottom and have no real world experience with them just what i have read in articles.

 

[cooltowncorals]

You can go to the clam forum and confirm but I think if you go lower in light 150-250 your concern is just going to be slower growth by the clam.