Help with odd lighting for SPS

Arsenix2001

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So without any intent of ever adding sps to my 3 month old tank I aquascaped how I thought looked nice, not planning on coral placement well. Tank is a 38 gallon, 36x18x12 i believe. Two kessil a160we 6 1/2 above water. My highest point of rockwork is at the weakest point of lighting (i believe)

I have had a test purple monti digitata at the highest peak but unfortunately I its really in a spot where the lighting overlaps, not under direct beam. It has always been basically a brown color since arriving. I have gone from 40% intensity to 55% intensity at 30% color over the last 3 weeks. I might be imagining things but i think I can see a purple "hue" to it. Almost a violet iridescence to it but faint. It has full polyp extension and has begun to encrust the frag almost onto the live rock.

Heres my question, I just ordered a pink birdsnest and green birdsnest frag, rainbow encrusting monti and both orange and blue/purple edge cap monti frags from boom corals. I have the monti cap locations in green, birdsnest in red and rainbow monti in orange marked on the photo. Also marked the light overlap. I cant decide whether to add a third 160 and do as illustrated in blue (moving the two outbound and adding a third at a wierd angle to bypass the tank support brace and highlight the center where the sps will go).

I dont like this idea much because 1, it will cost 260 bucks and 2 it will just look kind of stupid. Plus im worried about in advertantly frying another nearby coral because of too much over lap.

Second option is to keep ramping up lighting on the controller. I run a 3 hour ramp up, 4 hour max power, 2 hour ramp down. 55% max power 30% color. I just dont want to tick off my other lps and softies. I have zoas, mushrooms, a blue Cespitularia, cloves, gsp, gorg, acan , hammer and a torch in the sand bed that is loving life. They are all doing great and dont want to irritate them trying to color up sps. Sorry for the long rant, im very unsure which way to go here.

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Ron Reefman

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Two quick points.

1) IMHO you aren't close to peak PAR that these corals could tolerate. HOWEVER, you do have a shallow tank, so be careful. I assume you don't have access to a PAR meter? So try this instead, put an inexpensive sps at the highest and most intense light as kind of a 'canary in a coal mine' safety test. You'll see it bleach first and you can dial back the intensity of the lights or move corals.

2) Only 4 hours of 'max power' or midday intense light isn't the best timing. In nature, corals get enough intense light for the zooxanthellae to do 6 to 8 hours of photosynthesis. Too long a photo period is far less harmful than not enough. I'd add an hour now and another hour after 2 or 3 weeks.
 
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Arsenix2001

Arsenix2001

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I ended up getting a third kessil 160. I have 2 each spaced evenly on each side hooked to one port on the controller and the othee middle angled as a spot light hitting the sps area on the second channel of the controller so i can crank up the spot lighting if needed. Only softies it bleeds onto are blue star polyp, clove polyps and blue Cespitularia, all of which I heard can handle high lighting. Hope it works. The rainbow monti and blue green monti cap I got are beautiful! Boom corals is great fyi.

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Stu_Tanks

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Are you still running 55% intensity? I ramped my 160s to 80% but starting to see some of my zoas closing up. I also added a single ATI blue plus. How’s everything looking for you now?
 
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Arsenix2001

Arsenix2001

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Left the end lights at 55, anything higher and i noticed unhappiness in the softies as well. May go to 60 but thats it. Running the center at 65 now and starting to see some coloration come back on my purple monti digi. Will ramp that up to 70 next week. Only thing I don't like is because of the angle I have on the center light because of the stupid tank brace I get some weird shadows
 

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I think I’m going to bring down the intensity to 60 where I originally had it and keep the T5 going. When I had it at 60% before my green birds nest was so fluffy. I only ramped up the lights to support a new acro frag.
 
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Arsenix2001

Arsenix2001

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I think I’m going to bring down the intensity to 60 where I originally had it and keep the T5 going. When I had it at 60% before my green birds nest was so fluffy. I only ramped up the lights to support a new acro frag.
Yeah I think unfortunately you would need to spot light like I did. I have the 160 over my sps like only 2.5" above water and running at 65, probably will go to 75. Like I mentioned im just now seeing coloration start. I think if you raised your lighting enough for that acro you may fry some softies. Can you place the acro anywhere very high in the tank directly under the 160? They have a pretty narrow spread
 
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