Getting frustrated with lighting requirements of various zoas

ZoWhat · Sep 11, 2021

Anyone wanna comment on the lighting schedule I'm going BACK to?

Sidenote: since Spring changed schedule were whites were never used and tried to keep 400nm-480nm blue under 100 PAR. That plan just isn't working bc I use to have the below schedule and things were doing well with all my zoas...

Half my zias now have developed tiny disc heads and long stretched out stalks.. To me this tells me they need more light (?). Didn't have this problem a year ago when I was doing BLASTS

12noon-1pm: ramping up to 70% white, 100% blues, peaking at 1pm. I call this the BLAST...during the Blast PAR well into the 200-300 ballpark. ramping up to 1pm peak and ramping down to 2pm, especially on whites

2pm - 6pm: whites are done for the day at 0%, at 2pm blues ramped down to 50% but slowly peaking again at 75% at 6pm

6pm - 12midnight: the blues peak at 6pm and slowly ramp down to 0% at midnight

12midnight - 12noon: everything dark at 0%

.

JohnMzreef · Sep 11, 2021

Maybe its a nutrient issue? (I know I have wrecked things in my tank in the past dinking around with lighting when the real problem lay elsewhere. Then guess what? Yeah, tank gets worse and worse)

Miami Reef · Sep 11, 2021

Have 8-12 hours of light. Par 100-150. Make sure you have the proper spectrum (mainly 400-475nm). Everything is is just filler. Lighting should be the easiest part of reefing.

Just John · Sep 11, 2021

I made my schedule using the WWC schedule as a rough guide. 20 min ramp up to 100% blues and 60% white in the morning. In the afternoon I have a half an hour of dim time with 50% blues and 40% whites. WWC does it, so I added it in. I don't know if it really does anything good or not. Then back up to 100% blues and 60% whites until night with a 20 min drop down to lights out. 12 hours with lights on total. Everything is happy and grows. Some faster than I want, some slower.

LRT · Sep 11, 2021

zoa what said:
Anyone wanna comment on the lighting schedule I'm going BACK to?

Sidenote: since Spring changed schedule were whites were never used and tried to keep 400nm-480nm blue under 100 PAR. That plan just isn't working bc I use to have the below schedule and things were doing well with all my zoas...

Half my zias now have developed tiny disc heads and long stretched out stalks.. To me this tells me they need more light (?). Didn't have this problem a year ago when I was doing BLASTS

12noon-1pm: ramping up to 70% white, 100% blues, peaking at 1pm. I call this the BLAST...during the Blast PAR well into the 200-300 ballpark. ramping up to 1pm peak and ramping down to 2pm, especially on whites

2pm - 6pm: whites are done for the day at 0%, at 2pm blues ramped down to 50% but slowly peaking again at 75% at 6pm

6pm - 12midnight: the blues peak at 6pm and slowly ramp down to 0% at midnight

12midnight - 12noon: everything dark at 0%

.

I've been doing a ton of experimenting with schedule and spectrum lately. I know I grow alot of shrooms but do have several zoas and can tell you they can be just as picky about specific intensity as well as super sensitive to dramatic changes and clouding effects throughout daily schedule. I have zoas that I can throw in 125 par and they do great. I also have zoas riding in my 35 par spots with my most sensitive shrooms because they thrive best there.
My honest opinion is it sounds like you have been trying to do to much to soon lately and they haven't had chance to adjust to any kind of regular schedule or adapt to certain spectrums. It took some of mine a cpl weeks to rebound from certain experiments before they settled back in to stabil schedule.
What kind of lights do you run?
Has brs done an investigates series on them and given specific reccomended settings for your light?
If so try it. They really have spent the money and done the work with "proven healthy spectrum" they shoot for with reccomended settings.

ZoWhat · Sep 12, 2021

Just John said:
I made my schedule using the WWC schedule as a rough guide. 20 min ramp up to 100% blues and 60% white in the morning. In the afternoon I have a half an hour of dim time with 50% blues and 40% whites. WWC does it, so I added it in. I don't know if it really does anything good or not. Then back up to 100% blues and 60% whites until night with a 20 min drop down to lights out. 12 hours with lights on total. Everything is happy and grows. Some faster than I want, some slower.

Amazing they use thst much white. I'm guessing their lights are either Radions or Hydras

ZoWhat · Sep 12, 2021

JohnMzreef said:
Maybe its a nutrient issue? (I know I have wrecked things in my tank in the past dinking around with lighting when the real problem lay elsewhere. Then guess what? Yeah, tank gets worse and worse)

I agree..

My NO3 has been around 5ppm or less bc I've been heavily dosing phyto. I'm cutting phyto waaaay back. I'm only gonna use skimmer 12hrs a day. Plan is to get NO3 around 20. Enough where my LR starts to get a thin layer of algae that my many urchins can eat.

.

Just John · Sep 12, 2021

zoa what said:
Amazing they use thst much white. I'm guessing their lights are either Radions or Hydras

I did this a while ago, so I don't remember the details, but I did not follow their numbers exactly. I probably added more white just because I liked the look better.