Branching hammer closed during the day, and opens at night?

[MapleReefer]

Hi all,

I noticed for several weeks now that my branching hammer coral is mostly closed during the day, and then only as my light (Prime 16HD) goes off, then it starts to open up. It's located toward the bottom third of my tank.

I have a 12gal tank, with a 10 hour light cycle (1hr ramp up, 8hrs on, 1hr ramp down) from 10am-8pm. My Prime 16HD is set to 100% UV, 100% Violet, 100% Royal, 100% blue, 5% green, 5% red, 5% cool white.

Wondering why this may be happening? When I got it from the LFS, it was open during the day then closed at night.

Thanks.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I don't know exactly what the cause it, but you have the lights set very high for that small tank, it may be getting blasted by light.

 

[MapleReefer]

I don't know exactly what the cause it, but you have the lights set very high for that small tank, it may be getting blasted by light.

Thanks for the quick reply! That makes sense, since it opens soon after the lights go off. I'll lower the UV/violet/royal/blue to 50%, green/red/white to 3%, and see how it goes...
Unfortunately I don't have a PAR meter so hard to guess how high is "high enough".

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I think thats a good plan to start

 

[paragrouper]

Thanks for the quick reply! That makes sense, since it opens soon after the lights go off. I'll lower the UV/violet/royal/blue to 50%, green/red/white to 3%, and see how it goes...
Unfortunately I don't have a PAR meter so hard to guess how high is "high enough".

I am breaking in new lights on my 32 gallon and they are definitely more power than my old lights. I started my around 25% and I have been slowly increasing them and watching my corals, which are all softies and LPS. I doubt I’ll go much past 40%, given how things are looking.

An approach you may want to consider.