Is there a secret to keeping LPS under lower lighting?

cab395

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I seem to have the best polyp extension with LPS in general (acans, blastos, Euphyllia, Favia/favites, Duncans, caulastrea, Goniopora, you name it) under PAR levels of 100-180.

That said, I've read in countless places and heard from many people including those that are in the business of growing and selling coral, that they keep their LPS anywhere from 50-100 PAR. One person even told me 40 PAR. Recently I tried an experiment for a couple weeks and I dropped my lights to 75-100 PAR. Colors looked good but I saw very little growth (and had very little alk and calcium consumption) and didn't get great polyp extension. Left it like this for a few weeks, then went back to the 100-180 I had before and everything has opened up again and is looking fantastic.

I would love to be able to keep them at lower light for a few reasons including not having to overdrive my LEDs and lowering film algae on glass, but things just don't look as good at lower light levels in my tank. Mainly there is just much less polyp extension. I also like the look of a dimmer tank with the fluorescent pop the corals give. Wondering what other folks have found, and if anyone has any advice on keeping LPS at lower light levels, or if the 100-180 level I'm having the most success with is pretty common and I should shut up and just be happy.
 

ReefEco

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LOL - if things are looking good - be happy! My acans definitely look better in lower par - probably about 75, whereas my euphyllia are at around 200 and happy too. My acans all shifted to red initially with higher light, but recovered their great colors when I lowered the par, which seems to be the opposite of your problem. Not sure what to tell you - what are you running in terms of nutrient levels, and how long is your photoperiod?
 
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cab395

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LOL - if things are looking good - be happy! My acans definitely look better in lower par - probably about 75, whereas my euphyllia are at around 200 and happy too. My acans all shifted to red initially with higher light, but recovered their great colors when I lowered the par, which seems to be the opposite of your problem. Not sure what to tell you - what are you running in terms of nutrient levels, and how long is your photoperiod?

Nitrates are low, somewhere around 3-5 ppm and phosphate is about 0.05 ppm. I just added more fish so hoping to get those nitrates up just a bit. My photoperiod is 12 hours total with 2 hours ramp on either side, 8 hours at peak photoperiod.

With exception to sticks, we run a steady 150 to the rack.

This seems to be my sweet spot as well. Maybe I'm overthinking this. I want to be successful at lower PAR levels but I guess don't really have a good reason why aside from saying I can do it...
 

Lost in the Sauce

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Nitrates are low, somewhere around 3-5 ppm and phosphate is about 0.05 ppm. I just added more fish so hoping to get those nitrates up just a bit. My photoperiod is 12 hours total with 2 hours ramp on either side, 8 hours at peak photoperiod.



This seems to be my sweet spot as well. Maybe I'm overthinking this. I want to be successful at lower PAR levels but I guess don't really have a good reason why aside from saying I can do it...
You could do both by shortening the max photoperiod l. Extend your ramp up and down on each end while maintaining the same 12/12 cycle and you're getting lower light morning and evening but peak for a bit mid day. This mimics nature. Peak lighting is only 3-4 hours a day while the sun is directly overhead.
 

Lavey29

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My local LFS seems to keep all his frag tanks in very low par with almost all blue lights. It's just his preferred method but the store has a lot of ambient light also so maybe that contributes.

If anyone is so cal has a par meter they can loan for an hour and a 30 pack please let me know.
 

fish farmer

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I seem to have the best polyp extension with LPS in general (acans, blastos, Euphyllia, Favia/favites, Duncans, caulastrea, Goniopora, you name it) under PAR levels of 100-180.

That said, I've read in countless places and heard from many people including those that are in the business of growing and selling coral, that they keep their LPS anywhere from 50-100 PAR. One person even told me 40 PAR. Recently I tried an experiment for a couple weeks and I dropped my lights to 75-100 PAR. Colors looked good but I saw very little growth (and had very little alk and calcium consumption) and didn't get great polyp extension. Left it like this for a few weeks, then went back to the 100-180 I had before and everything has opened up again and is looking fantastic.

I would love to be able to keep them at lower light for a few reasons including not having to overdrive my LEDs and lowering film algae on glass, but things just don't look as good at lower light levels in my tank. Mainly there is just much less polyp extension. I also like the look of a dimmer tank with the fluorescent pop the corals give. Wondering what other folks have found, and if anyone has any advice on keeping LPS at lower light levels, or if the 100-180 level I'm having the most success with is pretty common and I should shut up and just be happy.
Are they (the lower Par growers) just utilizing the lower areas for those corals and using higher areas for sticks, maximizing tank space?

Routine suggestions say put then on the sand bed....so you can leave the upper rock work for sticks, since you eventually want those...

I put my euphyllia up in the rocks. I used a lux meter to estimate par levels and were getting numbers similar to what you have over 100 and under 200. My sand bed was around 40 - 50. I did turn my lights back a bit and spread a couple colonies around and they did fluff up and respond with better growth. Depending on how I take a photo they can look "bleachy", but still look pretty top down.

I have a couple of my frammer frags in the edges of the light...more end T5 coverage versus the center of LED/T5 coverage and like yours at lower light just don't grow but do have better glow.

My nutrient levels are around yours, nitrates are even a little lower. When my nutrients were super high, my frammer was very open and fluffy, much like my other two hammers are now. I've been feeding much heavier now that my algae problems are under control and I believe my main frammer colonies are starting to fluff and color a bit more.
 

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My local LFS seems to keep all his frag tanks in very low par with almost all blue lights. It's just his preferred method but the store has a lot of ambient light also so maybe that contributes.

If anyone is so cal has a par meter they can loan for an hour and a 30 pack please let me know.
I was gonna ask I see everyone measuring their PAR now. Is their a cheap meter to get or do they just borrow one from the LFS?
 

fish farmer

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I was gonna ask I see everyone measuring their PAR now. Is their a cheap meter to get or do they just borrow one from the LFS?
Link to using a lux meter. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/suggestions-for-“cheap”-par-meter.899380/#post-10018062

Link to using a phone app.
 

Lavey29

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I was gonna ask I see everyone measuring their PAR now. Is their a cheap meter to get or do they just borrow one from the LFS?
My local lfs don't have any. I've just been basing my par on my coral reaction and any internet posts with the same lights and their measured par.
 

Lavey29

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Link to using a lux meter. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/suggestions-for-“cheap”-par-meter.899380/#post-10018062

Link to using a phone app.
I tried these with no success.
 

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