Is that impossible?

[Gabbone]

Hi guys,

How are you?

I have a stupid question here;

It's the second time this happens and I am noticing a correlation;

Everytime I try to increase the light intensity or light schedule, the alkalinity daily consumption it decreases significantly or even starts to increase without dosing.

For example, in normal condition I have a daily alk drop of 0.3dkh. I increase the light intensity and the daily alk drop is just 0.1dkh.

How's that possible? What's the logic behind?

Last time, it even starts raising by 0.1kdh per day instead of decreasing. How?

Could someone explain?


Kind regards
Gabriele

 

[edsbeaker]

How much are you increasing your light and intensity? Maybe it’s too fast of a change.
Maybe your coral are saying I don’t like this change and are not growing as well, less need for alkalinity? I’m not sure if this is possible either. Just a guess.

 

[Gabbone]

30-40 PAR on each section per average. I had the same feeling. Kind of stunned growth therefore stopped to use alk?

 

[Lavey29]

Because the corals like the par increase and are using more nutrients to grow in the tank. Like giving a new plant ample sunlight.

 

[edsbeaker]

Because the corals like the par increase and are using more nutrients to grow in the tank. Like giving a new plant ample sunlight.

OP is saying the opposite. Increasing light and decreasing need for alkalinity.

 

[Daz_1978]

How much are you increasing your light and intensity? Maybe it’s too fast of a change.
Maybe your coral are saying I don’t like this change and are not growing as well, less need for alkalinity? I’m not sure if this is possible either. Just a guess.

I'd go with this!

I would try smaller changes in the lights. Adding 30-40 par seems a bit much at one time. That is enough for some corals to live in. Can you make smaller incremental changes?

 

[edsbeaker]

30-40 PAR on each section per average. I had the same feeling. Kind of stunned growth therefore stopped to use alk?

It seems logical but I’m hoping someone with more experience could confirm this.

If the corals are happy, is there a reason why you want to increase the lighting?

BTW… not a stupid question at all!

 

[redfishbluefish]

How much are you increasing your light and intensity? Maybe it’s too fast of a change.
Maybe your coral are saying I don’t like this change and are not growing as well, less need for alkalinity? I’m not sure if this is possible either. Just a guess.

Yes! Dana Riddle talked about too much light slowing growth. I'm terrible with time, but maybe 8 years ago or so at MACNA. I'll see if I can find the reference and post here.

Found it....MACNA 2016....termed it Photo inhibition....light levels too high, photosynthesis shuts down:

Here's his whole talk, and he starts talking about photo inhibition a little after ten minutes:

 

[Lavey29]

OP is saying the opposite. Increasing light and decreasing need for alkalinity.

Ok I misread his post. Sounds like his corals prefer the lower par level rather then the higher however it probably needs more time to evaluate this like give it a month and see what happens with higher par overall. It is not uncommon for coral to have growth spurts thus increasing major element consumption then when the growth slows down the consumption decrease. Of course light and flow along with overall water chemistry factors into the equation also.

OP have you par checked your tank?

 

[edsbeaker]

Yes! Dana Riddle talked about too much light slowing growth. I'm terrible with time, but maybe 8 years ago or so at MACNA. I'll see if I can find the reference and post here.

Found it....MACNA 2016....termed it Photo inhibition....light levels too high, photosynthesis shuts down:

Here's his whole talk, and he starts talking about photo inhibition a little after ten minutes:

Thanks for posting this! It was an interesting subject.

On a side note, I’ve read some things authored by Dana Riddle over the years, but never watched any of the presentations. I was very surprised to discover that “she” is actually a “he”. I just assumed the name Dana…. Well obviously I was wrong.

 

[Gabbone]

Hi guys, first of all thank to everyone who took time to answer and read.

I am more like a home-mad scientist and I like to play around with my tank.

My tank is a lps/soft 30g. No Sps. Tank has been thriving in LOW PAR under g6 radion blue for a year. Sometimes I like to change light/flow to see what changes in the system and I've noticed this correlation twice.

So... when I increase PAR (in my case middle section from 50 PAR to 80-90 PAR) it seems stunned alk consumption and last time even increases by 0.1dkh per day without dosing.

Thank you for posting about the photoinibition. Anyway, I far below 200-300 where the inibition starts. That's make the topic even more interesting.

 

[Gabbone]

That's my tank for reference:

 

[Lavey29]

That's my tank for reference:

If it ain't broke, you know the rest

 

[Gabbone]

Yes but that's not the point. The point is how cool would be to understand if the correlation between +PAR -ALK consumption is real. Maybe it would help future reefers to understand what they can expect when rising their par.

 

[Lavey29]

Yes but that's not the point. The point is how cool would be to understand if the correlation between +PAR -ALK consumption is real. Maybe it would help future reefers to understand what they can expect when rising their par.

When I went from 50% light intensity to 100% light intensity over a slow ramp up my corals took off and thrive. Different types of corals react differently to raising par. Simple soft and LPS corals can get by at lower levels while SPS thrive at higher levels. This is why mixed reefs tend to be difficult. A thriving coral will use more major elements then a slow growing coral. Of course soft corals are not relevant because they do not consume alk.

 

[VintageReefer]

Can you draw in your par numbers in various spots ? What par meter are you using ?

You have a full lps tank, none of these corals like high par.

some of my lps react poorly if They go in spots over 100 par. Many are very happy in 60-80

 

[Gabbone]

Radion xr15 g6 blue (35% of total intensity)

Using DANOPLUS PAR Meter which reads 10% lower compared to Apogee.

 

[edsbeaker]

That's my tank for reference:

That is a beautiful tank! Those corals look pretty happy too!

 

[VintageReefer]

Perfectly normal numbers for those corals once you factor in the extra 10%

All on the low end of those corals ranges but acceptable. A lot of my coral is in similar par

 

[Gabbone]

low & slow. Tha'ts the key I think.