My 75 gal mixed reef

[skinz78]

Dang, sorry to hear the tank isn't doing well. How's it doing now?

 

[luxauterna]

Yea it has been pretty frustrating. My leathers are doing a little better, but my SPS and LPS still look terrible. All of my SPS are bleaching with very miminal PE, and my chalice has started showing some receding. I've raised my calcium up to 420 from 380 over the last couple weeks, but it is not looking great. I keep getting the feeling it is my LEDs, but I don't know. I can't figure it out.

 

[luxauterna]

So I have continued to battle this problem with my SPS and LPS . I noticed the changes in coral growth when I changed to my Reef Radiance Lumentek Pro 240. I started out with whites at 55 - blues at 70. I have backed all the way down to whites only on for 5 hours and ramp up to a max of 30%. The blues are on for 10 hours and ramp up to a max of 60%. Here are my levels:

Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Calcium: 440 with my test , 460 with my LFS test
Alkalinity: 12 ( This I think may also be a culprit perhaps)

But either way everything else has remained stable for a good amount of time now. I am still having bleaching and very minimal PE in my sps. I am also getting bleaching in my chalice. My frogspawn hasn't grown at all (which never happened under my previous T5 systems or my ecoxotic panorama pro system. I am also seeing very little coraline growth.

Here are some photos. It has been a frustrating battle.

The first pic is when I first put it in. The following show the bleaching spots.

 

[luxauterna]

you can see the comparison pics. First ones are when they were first put in. The following are as of today.

 

[luxauterna]

Unfortunately, I don't have any before pics of the frogspawn. But it is the exact same size and amount of heads as it was when I got it, only it has much less color and much less "plump?"

 

[skinz78]

Hmm, it looks to me like everything is bleaching out, have you turned the lights down at all?

 

[luxauterna]

My softies are doing pretty good though (except my nepthea).

So whats the point of posting all of this? Well I keep getting mixed information about whether or not my LEDs are causing this or not. :frusty:

After checking everything else, it is the only thing I can come up with. I dropped quite a bit of money on the fixture, and I guess I am just hoping I am doing something wrong with the fixture that I can fix. I see other people's systems with LEDs thriving even with SPS. So what do you all think? Thanks :help:

 

[luxauterna]

Yea I have it all the way down to the whites only on for 5 hours that ramp up to a max of 30% and the blues on for 10 hours - ramp up to 60%.

 

[skinz78]

Try cutting the blues to 8 hours and see what that does.

FWIW I sold my LED's and went back to T5's and this was one of the many reasons that I chose to do so.

 

[luxauterna]

I think I am going to be in the same boat Skinz. Thanks for taking a look and offering your advice.

 

[Reeflogic]

Lux, great build. Thanks for sharing. That bottle thing....KICK *bleep*! I need one.... But not broken, I'd be too afraid a darting fish would severe it's face on a sharp edge lol. As from what I can see in your photos, I am almost positive you have bleached your corals with too much intensity, too fast. The thing with LED's is they really produce more than you are seeing. I did a DIY fixture last spring from GroupBuyLED and did not acclimate the corals properly and my frogspawn looked EXACTLY like yours. Go VERY slow and gradually ramp them up. In a few months things will be back to normal, some may perish, but most will come back as soon as you lower the intensity. It took me awhile to figure out LED's. I have been reefing for 30 years and have used every lighting known to man in that time span lol, obviously coming off of T5 and MH to LED's and there was a learning curve. Once you dial it in, you will be pleased with LEDs. It's finding that happy spot that is the trick, especially for the softies.

Also the alk may be adding to the problem. What salt are you using that your alk is so high? Red Sea Pro? I was using it and switched to Salinity and my alk stabilized around 8. Just trying to help Lux, hopefully you get everything dialed in before you lose anything! It can be frustrating, but I bet if you dial back your lights and slowly ramp them up over a period of several months you will get the corals where they need to be. Good luck, following along now!

 

[luxauterna]

Thanks Reeflogic. I definitely agree that they are bleaching. I just don't understand why. I have been running the whites at 30%max and the blues at 55%max since May for a 10 hr photo period ramping up and down throughout the day. Compared to others using the same lights that I've been reading, I am using a low intensity. Yesterday I changed my photo period to: whites only on for 5 hours and ramp up to a max at 30%. They are only at 30% for one hour. The blues are on a 10hr photo period and max at 60% (another suggestion from other users and my LFS guys .. people saying blues needed to be higher). So I am wondering how low I should go?

I also agree that the alkalinity is rather high. I use IO Reef Crystals. Thank you for taking the time to read, and for the suggestions!

 

[luxauterna]

Oh and the bottle thing I sanded down the sharp edges too and took out the scarier bottom piece back in June. I had that same fear lol. All that is left is just the bottle top and neck.

 

[Reeflogic]

To be honest, what I ended up doing is going without white at all for awhile, until the corals recovered, then I slowly brought back the white to that balance that I liked and apparently the corals liked. I know every LED is different so I can't really say what % you should be using, but try to go without white for a few weeks and see if things start to color and open back up. My blues and purples were always around 80%, I just ramped them up from 15% to 80% and back to 5% during the entire day, peak at 80% was only a 2 hour span, the rest of the day was sunrise and sunset basically, slowly going up and slowly going down. Do your lights have a controller to ramp up and down throughout the day? Sorry not too familiar with the radiance lights. 80% intensity for 8 or so hours, is what bleached my corals. I was at 50% white and 80% blue, full spectrum build I did and it was just too much. Soon as I added the controller and turned off the whites for a few weeks, things slowly came back to normal. I ended up losing one coral and they all looked like white death. So there is hope!

 

[luxauterna]

Yea it has a built in controller. Right now they are ramping up and down through a sunrise sunset cycle that I set by the hour. I will try bringing the whites way down. Thanks for all the help Reeflogic!

 

[Reeflogic]

Awesome, looking forward to coral recovery photos! :)

 

[Reeflogic]

Oh and you can call me Doug! I guess I should put that in my signature lol.

 

[luxauterna]

Haha Thanks Doug . I'm Ryan.

 

[Reeflogic]

Pleasure to meet you Ryan!

 

[luxauterna]

Likewise! I too should update my signature