Can you share examples of where your rock arrangement goes hand in hand with how your lights are set up over your tank?

kwirky · May 3, 2021

I'm finding my corals, where they are, either have too much light or not enough. There are some parts where algae is out-competing certain corals and light isn't helping. Can I see some examples (preferably photos?) of some aquascape and lighting decisions which went hand-in-hand in seeing success, for particular species? Examples which allowed for growth of a given colony for a while, without issue, would be ideal.

I have a combination of 3x kessil A360X and 2x reef brite XHO actinics for a so seeing how people place their corals under lights like these would be helpful, too. It's a Reefer 525 (6'x22"tall x 22" wide, I think)?

I'm thinking of arranging my rocks so that they're all in the lower half of the tank, so that the difference between the brightest and darkest placement spots don't have the nearly 200 par difference they have now.

MnFish1 · May 4, 2021

kwirky said:
I'm finding my corals, where they are, either have too much light or not enough. There are some parts where algae is out-competing certain corals and light isn't helping. Can I see some examples (preferably photos?) of some aquascape and lighting decisions which went hand-in-hand in seeing success, for particular species? Examples which allowed for growth of a given colony for a while, without issue, would be ideal.

I have a combination of 3x kessil A360X and 2x reef brite XHO actinics for a so seeing how people place their corals under lights like these would be helpful, too. It's a Reefer 525 (6'x22"tall x 22" wide, I think)?

I'm thinking of arranging my rocks so that they're all in the lower half of the tank, so that the difference between the brightest and darkest placement spots don't have the nearly 200 par difference they have now.

If you look at my signature links you can see my tanks. I have 2 pieces of table rock - that rise off the bottom - to allow better water circulation. Additionally, I put corals (new ones) - in the borderline shadow zones and then gradually move them into more light if I want. I find this gives fish plenty of 'dark area' to hide. Many people do what you're suggesting. It was kind of a general question - pictures of what you have now and what you're planning might help

Rickybobby · May 4, 2021

Ok so the scape is in the direct middle. I tried to mimick a real live reef shelf no biggy. But tons of caves for the fish. Also it lets me clean the back wall and have even flow completely around the tank

kwirky · May 4, 2021

MnFish1 said:
If you look at my signature links you can see my tanks. I have 2 pieces of table rock - that rise off the bottom - to allow better water circulation. Additionally, I put corals (new ones) - in the borderline shadow zones and then gradually move them into more light if I want. I find this gives fish plenty of 'dark area' to hide. Many people do what you're suggesting. It was kind of a general question - pictures of what you have now and what you're planning might help

Sorry for the potato quality photos with my phone.

I've circled problem areas. I want to drop these sections down (and completely remove the inverted cone in the center), so that inverse square isn't as pronounced and I can crank up the lights a bit for the bottom areas.

Here's an example where I don't get much growth in the lower region beacuse if I increase the kessils I bleach the corals in the upper region. Those zoos haven't grown much at all for months. Everything's slow growing down here, and it just collects algae:

I have some sections that are too high up so they're too bright and also too close to the powerheads for anything to withstand the high flow. More algae garden that I suspect I can eliminate if I get it away from the powerheads, but maintain a good PAR.

I think those shelves of mine are too high up, leading to a big difference in PAR from those sections and the ones below (inverse square law). I'm planning on taking those upper rocks, and either moving them down, or removing the colonies and moving them down, with the following process:

1. Measure the PAR at those upper problem regions (it's about 300 on average PAR if I remember correctly, 400-450 par directly under the kessils)
2. Lower the colonies, and open up the upper regions of the tank for water circulation
3. Break up the silly reverse cone I cemented together (hindsight is 2020)
4. Increase the kessils (currently at 85%, whites are at 10% max) to get the lower region at about 250-300 par, like the upper region.
5. Slowly increase whites of kessils, 2-5% per week, if I'm finding the corals to be too brown due to lack of light
6. Get rid of the large blue/green birdsnest on the right, because it's shielding too much of the tank from light and grows in a greedy manner (I broke it to half its size to try to save some montis under it but I'm probably too late)
7. Theoretically now have only rock with corals on it, not giving the pest algae surface with light to grow and suck up nutrients.
8. Theoretically now have more even lights with less shadowing from the kessils.

I'll end up dumping 2-3 of the big rocks down in the sump as a result, preserving them as biological surface. I'll scrub the algae off them thoroughly first to keep the spike down a bit. I can have 40g of change water at any time and I believe I'll have to do frequent water changes after moving the rocks.

In the end, I'll have hopefully eliminated the spread of PAR brightness, from 400 par in the upper regions of the rocks, and 80 par in some of the lower regions, with the goal of a solid 250 par throughout most of the tank.

I can get the bottom region to 250 PAR if I crank the kessils to max and turn up the white, but it bleaches everything in the upper regions if I do that with the current arrangement. So if I decrease the range of height between the rocks, I should have a better time with inverse square issues.

Possible hardware changes I can do on the cheap:

I'm also contemplating getting my hands on some of those narrow focus lenses for the kessil 360X units, raise them up, and have a more even light distribution from them to get them a little closer to the effect t5ho, hallides with big reflectors, & reefbrite leds give.

I have a 3 foot 4 bulb hybrid t5ho unit from the previous tank I upgraded from that's still kicking around. I could jury rig some means to hang it overhead if I want to get more light, with a more even spread than the kessils, after dropping everything down. I'm procrastinating on that though because hanging a 3 foot fixture with the existing 5 foot fixtures is a project in and of itself.

Jon's Reef · May 5, 2021

My tank is ~half of yours (3' x 22" x 22"). After trying many things, this is what I found is working really well. Getting good growth on everything.

2 a360x, 2 30" XHO 50/50, 2 30" XHO Blue

XHOs are run at 100% from 10 am - 6 pm
a360x on the left is 100% int, 50% color, 100% Violet, 20% red 10 am - 6 pm
a360x on the left is 75% int, 38% color, 75% Violet, 15% red 10 am - 6 pm

7 am -10 am is a ramp up and 6 pm -10 pm is 50%-30% intensity ramp down (whites out) followed by moonlight

Overall effect, 3 main zones
Upper left, SPS, 300-400 par
Right side, LPS 200-300 par (SPS shelf is 300, octospawn is ~150, green torch is ~225)
Lower left, zoa/ softie, 200 par with 50-100 par in shadows

My suggestions for you would be to make a high par zone on one side, make a nice mountain out of the rock pieces with caves, etc. Then on the opposite side have a few rocks spread out like a rock garden. Put 2 of the kessils biased towards the rock mountain side and use that as a high light SPS zone. Put the other kessil over the rock garden area. Something like this, but the left side would extend and have areas for your softies:

MnFish1 · May 5, 2021

Jon's Reef said:
My tank is ~half of yours (3' x 22" x 22"). After trying many things, this is what I found is working really well. Getting good growth on everything.

2 a360x, 2 30" XHO 50/50, 2 30" XHO Blue

XHOs are run at 100% from 10 am - 6 pm
a360x on the left is 100% int, 50% color, 100% Violet, 20% red 10 am - 6 pm
a360x on the left is 75% int, 38% color, 75% Violet, 15% red 10 am - 6 pm

7 am -10 am is a ramp up and 6 pm -10 pm is 50%-30% intensity ramp down (whites out) followed by moonlight

Overall effect, 3 main zones
Upper left, SPS, 300-400 par
Right side, LPS 200-300 par (SPS shelf is 300, octospawn is ~150, green torch is ~225)
Lower left, zoa/ softie, 200 par with 50-100 par in shadows

My suggestions for you would be to make a high par zone on one side, make a nice mountain out of the rock pieces with caves, etc. Then on the opposite side have a few rocks spread out like a rock garden. Put 2 of the kessils biased towards the rock mountain side and use that as a high light SPS zone. Put the other kessil over the rock garden area. Something like this, but the left side would extend and have areas for your softies:

Nice tank!!!.... I think (based on my tank - you can look at it in the signature) - that the tolerance for LPS and soft corals for 'bright light' is much higher than is currently thought. For example - The GSP - that is trapped on the large rock bridge in my tank - has a par level of about 400 - is near the top. And has thrived. I think All corals have trouble when the alkalinity is higher than 'NSW' - and the light is high. To me this MIGHT be what is causing most of the light issues. I know Dana Riddle's data about Porites. And - certainly Soft corals and LPS do not REQUIRE high light - but I'm not sure they are hurt by it either. Another example I have a neon green mushroom bought at least 15 years ago that has split multiple times. One piece of the rock broke off while moving that around - and 5-6 are thriving at the top of the tank with about 500 par and 5-6 are doing the same at 200 PAR. Do you think might be the 'speed' of the light change that makes the difference as well?

kwirky · May 13, 2021

I've made some drastic changes. Here's the process I went through, and some observations. I'll follow up with photos, and more observations soon.

In summary:

algae was nearly to the point of crashing the tank, needed quick action to address low nutrients and sections with poor flow and either too bright or dark lighting
scrubbed rocks with hydrogen peroxide while rearranging, figured might as well do it while I'm at it
rearranged to ensure no rocks were higher than 12" from bottom of 22" high tank
Replacing light fixture with T5HO, adding 4 bulbs of T5HO to existing 2x XHO actiinic and 3x A360X. T5HO bulbs not operational yet.
Dosing dry fertilizer for nitrate & phosphate deficiency
Seeing health improvements already, no deterioration of health

What I changed (lots!):

took photos of pest algae covering rocks, for future reference. Estimated algae would destroy tank if left unchecked for a month. dinos and bubble algae, mostly, with some cyano over top of some bubble algae. Algae was making me very nervous, hence engagement with reef2reef community for a few problems.
Noted the PAR level of all my colonies before starting, as a reference for the next few weeks. Noted health before changes:
- top right staghorn 400, growing 1/2" per month, branching well
- top left pink pocci 270, growing 1/4" per month
- Mystic monti 265, fully recovered from heavy RTN 6 months ago, expanding 1/2" per month
- left hand bird of paradise 265, growing 1/4" per month
- big generic red monti in upper middle 360, growing outwards almost 1/4" per week!
- chalice 290, 1/8" per month growth, no polyp extension but no recession nor loss of colour
- sunset monti 260, my pickiest monti, 1/8" growth every 6 months, fully recovered RTN from 6 months ago
- mid right brown body yellow polyp monti 390, 1/8" growth per month, fully recovered section grown over by palys I had scraped off a month ago.
- red palawanesis monti 260, experienced 1/8" necrosis of edge 1 month ago, hadn't healed at this point. Lost green/red mix of colour a month ago, only exhibiting red colour. Growth has halted.
- Duncans in lower middle 240, seeing a little new head every month or so, not bad health
- clove polyps 180, very poor health, constant matt of bubble algae attacking them, lost 1/2 the colony over 4 months. poor water flow.
- Red digi on mid left 260, branching well, good growth, good colour
- Green monti on lower left caught between nephthea and bird of paradise 150, slow growth, good colour, no tissue loss
- 3 head acan frag in approx middle region 250,
- right hand zoo colony covering far right rocks 120,
- righthand mushrooms with barely any light contact 88
Set up a fold out plastic table next to the tank as a work surface
Laid out a 22x22" plastic bin to use as a work area that'll keep water from getting on the floor
Had a bottle of 3% hydrogen peroxide on the ready at the table
got a toothbrush at the ready
Worked my way across the tank from left to right and did the following:
- maintained a little 1/2 cup bowl of hydrogen peroxide, as it depleted, filled it back up
- Removed each rock from the tank
- Any rocks cemented together to be taller than 12" were busted apart to ensure none are taller than that
- Scrubbed off all dinos and bubble algae with a toothbrush continually wetted with hydrogen peroxide
- Rotated each rock as I worked, to ensure 3% peroxide didn't make unecessary contact with corals by keeping the coral encrusted sections upright
- Repeatedly applied peroxide with the brush to any area until I saw it foam up
- Once it foamed up, rinsed thoroughly with fresh tank water
- Repeatedly poured tank water over any given rock to keep corals wetted
- Finnished each rock with a thorough dousing with tank water to remove residual peroxide and any pest algae leftovers
- Grabbed desireable inverts which fell into the bin and tossed them back in the tank (emerald crabs, hermits)
- Placed each rock back in the tank, arranging them as I went to ensure nothing was taller than 12"
20% water change immediately after rearranging and scrubbing rock
Replaced carbon in reactor with 1/4 cup of fresh carbon
Replaced the reef brite light brackets with the 2x XHO actinic and 3x kessil A360 running between them with a new aquatic life 60" T5HO hybrid fixture, without T5HO bulbs at this time (they're on order from the local store)
Put the 2x XHO actinics fixtures on the outer portions of the LED opening in the middle of the hybrid fixture, leaving a 3.5" gap between them
Ran the LED brackets over the fixture in the same locations I previously had the kessils, then used 2 sided sticky tape to stick the downward facing surface of the kessils against the brackets
- brushed off my trigonometry & calculated a 120 degree light spread (instead of 130 degrees) with the kessils installed in this way. They have much better control of light spill now, since the XHO units act as a sort of shade
Installed the new fixture 8" off the water surface instead of 6" like before. Running kessils at the same strength, so estimating 75% of par levels compared to before
Calculated amount of dry fert (potassium nitrate, potassium phosphate) to dose the tank to 1ppm nitrate and 0.05ppm phosphate at any given time.
Dosing 1ppm worth of nitrate and 0.05ppm worth of phosphate each morning, using little "marijuana" scale to measure dry ferts (accuracy to 0.01g).
Continuing to dose iron daily (diy mix from tablets meant for people)
Continuing to dose AB+ daily
Continuing to feed frozen mysis daily
Continuing to perate auto feeder with approx 1/2 tsp of freeze dried mysis daily
Continuing to dose 1mL hydrogen peroxide / 10 gallons daily at night, when lights are out

Observations:

All corals had full polyp extension within 1 hour of completing work. None were "ticked off".
KH shot from 7.9 to 8.5 day after change! Dropped dosing amount to 2/3 previous immediately.
- Estimating much of my KH was being eaten by the algae infestation
Water flow is much better, with the upper 1/2 of the tank left open! Corals throughout tank are exhibiting varied water flow now, with fewer sections with continual laminar flow.
Testing KH daily, seeing 0.1dkh drop each day. Will let this continue until it gets back to target of 7.9 so I can do easy water changes at any time
Testing 0 phosphate and nitrate each evening. Continuing nutrient dosing course.
No reduction in health of corals thus far. Health improvements exhibited:
- browned coral colony with good growth now starting to colour up. Surprising, given there's technically less light
- algae which was previously starting to attach to dead edges of red palawensis is gone, coral appears to be fighting off algae infection with some of the previously dead sections starting to recover already.
Some of the long strings of dinos detached from the rock during the ordeal have caught in random places and haven't deteriorated
Any remaining bubble algae flesh is turning transparent
pH exhibiting smaller swings from peak photosynthesis mid-day to peak overnight CO2 output by inhabitants.

Changes to be done soon (by the weekend):

I Have the bulbs for the T5HO unit. Tonight will install them and will tweak lights to a target of 300 par at upper extremities of rock. Suspect I'll be dropping the Kessils well below the current setting of 80% strength.
- 2x aqua blue special
- 2x actinic bulbs
- 2x XHO actinic LED strips
- 3x kessil A360X (probably will be dialed to 100% blue, no white LED)
Another 20% water change this weekend. Theoretically there are probably some toxins in the water from dead dinos & cyano.
Will change carbon this weekend ahead of time, on account of dead dino & cyano
Will tweak 3 part dosing to maintain 7.9 dkh once levels are back down to there