Loss of color, added another lights fixture

[ELChingonsReef]

Here's a little background first. I've been having good success with acropora so far. I have a 3ft red sea tank with 50% lps and 50% sps. I started with frags. Back in July 2022 . I have 2 xr15 g5 lights and I just added a 3rd xr15 g6 . A couple weeks back I started getting a little bit of dinos on the sand bed. So I lowered the light intensity a little bit and cut back on the reef roids and aminos. Now I added the 3rd xr15g6 this weekend and I'm noticing color loss. My bill Murray loss the red it had. The wwc Heartbreaker lost its red. My parameters are alk 8.5 cal 450 mag 1400 nitrates 9.5 phosphate 0.05 . Those numbers haven't changed in months. The lighting has with the addition of the 3rd xr15 g6. I don't know I'd running two g5s and a g6 is a bad idea or not. I got a par meter from my lfs . The acropora are still getting around 350 par like they always did. I run a modified lps soft program in mobius with higher whites And lower greens and reds. I keep my light intensity about 70% anything more than that I start to get dynoflaglates. Keeping a mixed reef is difficult because it's finding a balance for the lps as well as the sps. I still get high par numbers on the sanded where my acans are . It's taken alot of acclamation mode to get the lps used to higher light. My question is would the addition of that g6 cause color loss. Or is it more that I stopped the aminos and reef roids a couple weeks earlier?

 

[njreefkeeper]

First, can you post how long the tank has been set up?


Secondly, are you sure it’s dinoflagellates and not a diatom bloom? I think many times people fear Dinos so much they jump to worst case scenarios. Any time a change is made the tank will react and adjust accordingly. With the level of nutrients you have I’d argue that you don’t even really need aminos and coral foods unless your system is depleting them rapidly.

I’d cut back the intensity of the lighting… maybe even turn the whites down a bit for a while and let the tank adjust. The more even light field you’re providing with the third fixture is far more important (IMHO) than the par numbers. I’d try and keep those nutrient numbers through feeding your fish rather than the elixirs; at least until your corals are consuming more than you can provide the fish. I think you’ll reach much better harmonic balance that way; especially in a smaller system where the coral biomass rarely exceeds fish load and feeding.

 

[ELChingonsReef]

First, can you post how long the tank has been set up?


Secondly, are you sure it’s dinoflagellates and not a diatom bloom? I think many times people fear Dinos so much they jump to worst case scenarios. Any time a change is made the tank will react and adjust accordingly. With the level of nutrients you have I’d argue that you don’t even really need aminos and coral foods unless your system is depleting them rapidly.

I’d cut back the intensity of the lighting… maybe even turn the whites down a bit for a while and let the tank adjust. The more even light field you’re providing with the third fixture is far more important (IMHO) than the par numbers. I’d try and keep those nutrient numbers through feeding your fish rather than the elixirs; at least until your corals are consuming more than you can provide the fish. I think you’ll reach much better harmonic balance that way; especially in a smaller system where the coral biomass rarely exceeds fish load and feeding.

The tank has been running a year and a half. I put sps in at exactly the one year mark. I did lower the intensity of the lights from 70 to 68% with acclamation mode on mobius for 30 days at 75% of that 68% overall intensity. Now the tank is much darker and bluer.. with the 3rd xr15 g6 I now have warm white and cool white. I set them both at 30% blues at 100 violet 100% royal blue100% UV 100% green and red at 10% . The lights are on 11hrs. That's up from 10 hrs a few weeks ago. Maybe they are diatoms and not dynoflaglates. I'm always very cautious about dinos. Maybe I did over react.

 

[ELChingonsReef]

Some pictures before the 3rd xr15 g6 was installed. Now things are not as colorful.

 

[am3gross]

Your tank is 3ft long? Assuming you put the G6 in the middle with the G5s on the sides...

What I would do, if the lights were setup as such, would be to turn the G6 down to like 20%, and slowly increase that number every week, by 5-10% till the desired par was met. If the only thing that changed was the lighting, then I would want to rule out that was/was not the issue.

HTH,

Mike

 

[ELChingonsReef]

Your tank is 3ft long? Assuming you put the G6 in the middle with the G5s on the sides...

What I would do, if the lights were setup as such, would be to turn the G6 down to like 20%, and slowly increase that number every week, by 5-10% till the desired par was met. If the only thing that changed was the lighting, then I would want to rule out that was/was not the issue.

HTH,

Mike

Yes I put the g6 in the middle.. absolutely. I'm still getting 350 par in the center and 250 par on the outer edges even with acclimation mode on. I'm ramping that up for 30 days to 70 % at that point I will be 375-400 par in the center and 300 at the outer edges

 

[njreefkeeper]

Yes I put the g6 in the middle.. absolutely. I'm still getting 350 par in the center and 250 par on the outer edges even with acclimation mode on. I'm ramping that up for 30 days to 70 % at that point I will be 375-400 par in the center and 300 at the outer edges

I don’t think you’ll need that high a par in your tank for nice colorful sticks. The spread and flow is so much more important. With every increase in lighting, flow and nutrients have to follow along in tow.

If they were colorful and growing well before the lighting switch then they’re being pumped that much harder with more lighting and the same flow and nutrients. It would seem to me that finding that new increased balance will solve your issue.