Bleached acros at 200 par?

[Murraydar]

Quick question. Sps in my tank look good besides for my acros. I have a no name blue and green one and a green slimer, both have little to no polyp extension and they've lost most of their color. The blue and green acro is sitting kind of horizontal and the bottom half has more color than the top half that's exposed to light.

I have the reefbreeders photon v2, had 200-250 par on them until they lost color. I jogged it down to around 150 at peak. Could those par levels bleach acros? It didn't seem that high to me and my other sps are doing pretty decent. I don't see red bugs or anything either.


Parameters:

Calcium 450
Alk 8.7
Mg 1300
Sg 1.026
Temp 78
No3 15
Po4 0.1

Thank you.

 

[glb]

I think it might be your nitrates.

 

[BestMomEver]

Nitrates maybe. Also consider your lights. If the bottom side of your SPS look ok then that would be my suspicion. Except for disease or parasites, the greatest cause of coral bleaching is too much light. Move them down some and see what happens.

 

[WillB]

What percent is that on your reefbreaders? I use them too and my peak is about 60% blue 15% white.

 

[WillB]

Also wouldn’t high nitrates cause uniform brown color?

 

[WillB]

My guess is alk swing? What do you use to dose?

 

[jda]

250 PAR from a V2 Photon can be a problem depending on how you used it. If there was too much white in there, then it could be causing a problem for acropora. These are not great acropora lights, but you should be able to get OK growth and color if you mostly use the blues and keep them low.

15 N is not a huge deal yet, but I would get it down to under 10 and closer to 5.

 

[Murraydar]

Nitrates will come down a bit, although I've never heard of nitrates or phosphates causing bleached coral and unhappy polyps.

No alk swings, dosing two part.

I do believe my lighting was too high for a while and I know the Photons are deceptively strong. It's hanging around two feet above the tank, whites were at 15% max and blues.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Did you use a par meter or are you guessing?

 

[Murraydar]

Did you use a par meter or are you guessing?

Seneye par meter.

 

[jda]

You are right about high N not causing death. High N can inhibit calcification and blah-out some colors, but death does not usually happen. The only time that I am really convinced that high N will cause quick death is if a coral/invert from a low N tank is all of a sudden dropped into a high H tank. It seems like even if the N is allowed to rise slowly, then the inverts in the tank can kinda adapt.

Regarding the RB and intensity, it is a quality thing, not a quantity thing. There are plenty of other light sources that can go 250, 300 or even 600+ PAR without harming corals. The diodes that they use in the RB are not one of them - primarily the white ones. There are likely peaks too high in them that can fry corals and they need to be turned way down.

 

[Murraydar]

You are right about high N not causing death. High N can inhibit calcification and blah-out some colors, but death does not usually happen. The only time that I am really convinced that high N will cause quick death is if a coral/invert from a low N tank is all of a sudden dropped into a high H tank. It seems like even if the N is allowed to rise slowly, then the inverts in the tank can kinda adapt.

Regarding the RB and intensity, it is a quality thing, not a quantity thing. There are plenty of other light sources that can go 250, 300 or even 600+ PAR without harming corals. The diodes that they use in the RB are not one of them - primarily the white ones. There are likely peaks too high in them that can fry corals and they need to be turned way down.

Interesting. I know I've read in the past about the white leds on the photons being super strong. I'm thinking maybe ill turn down the whites even more to see what happens. My par should still be plenty with the blues.

Any idea how long it should take before polyp extension / color returns (assuming lighting is the issue) ?

 

[jda]

No, sorry.. It all depends on SO many factors. I have never harmed a coral with light so I do not have a lot of personal experience (I have only used MH, VHO and T5s and the few LEDs that I have tried never burnt anything).

Again, this is not a "strength" thing... it is about the wrong kind of light. I would keep the whites below 20%.

 

[rkpetersen]

Surprised that your green slimer isn't doing well, those things are typically indestructible and grow like weeds (too fast, really.) Hows's your flow? When you see PE on these acros, is your flow enough to keep the polyp tentacles moving all the time?

 

[madweazl]

Some of the differences between the Radion and RB diode selections. Not sure you can blame the diodes in this case.

Radion Pro (Gen3): Source

White: Cree XT-E Cool White, none provided
Red: Osram Oslon SSL Hyper Red, 660nm
Yellow: Osram Oslon SSL Yellow, 590nm
Green: Cree XP-E Green, 520nm
Blue: Cree XP-E Blue, 468nm
Royal Blue: Cree XT-E Royal Blue, 442nm
Indigo: SemiLEDs UV, 415nm
"Ultraviolet": SemiLEDs UV, 405nm

Reefbreeders (V2): Source

White: Cree XT-E Neutral White, 55000K
Red: Osram Deep Red, 660nm
Yellow: N/A
Green: Semi LED Green, 520nm
Blue: Cree XP-E Cool Blue, 480nm
Royal Blue: Cree XT-E Royal Blue, 450nm
“Violet”: Refond or Semi? LED Violet, 420nm
“Ultraviolet”: N/A

 

[Murraydar]

Surprised that your green slimer isn't doing well, those things are typically indestructible and grow like weeds (too fast, really.) Hows's your flow? When you see PE on these acros, is your flow enough to keep the polyp tentacles moving all the time?

Honestly I don't see much polyp extension on them. On the slimer i can just see the tips of them sticking out a bit. I have a 70 gallon display with a maxspect gyro at around 30%, enough to toss the polyps around on my other corals.

 

[TexasTodd]

I agree, most likely the lights. What was your exact schedule and intensities by color? I also think PAR meters don't pick up all of the PAR on LED. I have clams thriving at measured levels below 70 and Monti's vaporize in the 80's PAR. Agree white on that light seems to be a factor.

 

[Velcro]

250 PAR from a V2 Photon can be a problem depending on how you used it. If there was too much white in there, then it could be causing a problem for acropora. These are not great acropora lights, but you should be able to get OK growth and color if you mostly use the blues and keep them low.

15 N is not a huge deal yet, but I would get it down to under 10 and closer to 5.

I think @Battlecorals might have something to say about the photon v2 being not a good acropora light I also had great success with them.

 

[WillB]

I think @Battlecorals might have something to say about the photon v2 being not a good acropora light I also had great success with them.

In an e-mail I got from Adam I got the other day he told me he runs his RBV2 at 100% all channels except green and red for 7 hours a day at 18-24 inches. I don’t know what he keeps his green and red at.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

How long are they at 200 par?
DLI is a consideration. The total photoperiod.

Those lights grow acros. Fact.