New light in a nano tank and dying corals

[ReefJuice]

I've been running my 25 gallon peninsula tank on an AI Prime 16 HD light for about 3 months, a new tank. Ran it for 12 hour photo period with 60% across the blue spectrum and 15% cool white.

Things in the tank were fairly stable, I more or less skipped the ugly phase. No nuisance algae to speak of. I keep my nitrates and phosphates under control, My two clownfish are mostly fed frozen food and I do weekly 20% water changes. Coralline algae was growing pretty fast, SPS corals in the tank were surviving but not really thriving, with exception to a rainbow montipora.

Then I got it in my head that I wanted an Ecotech XR15 G6. The result has been a steady decline in the SPS corals on my tank. Bleaching from the base spreading up to the tips. I've lose one entirely and now I'm in damage control mode. I realized the change in the power of the light was probably the reason, so I dialed down the intensities to 40% across the blue spectrum and zeroed out the others. I'm trying to further mitigate the damage by dosing some amino acids, but it doesn't seem to help much.

The question is, where should I go from here? Should I switch back to the old AI Prime? Or do I ride this out with lower intensity on the G6 and hope for the best? My instinct tells me to switch back, but I get the feeling that too much is changing too fast in the tank.

Also here are the water parameters, which i measured yesterday:
Phosphate: 0.09
Nitrate: 3.8
Calcium: 405
Alkalinity: 9.7
PH: 8.4
Salinity: 1.026

Recent changes to the water besides water changes are I dosed a little sodium carbonate to bring up the alkalinity, which had dipped to 7.6 before dosing, and dosing calcium.

 

[fishski13]

I am pretty sure this is the case because you did not acclimate the sps corals to a stronger light.

How are you other corals doing?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I've been running my 25 gallon peninsula tank on an AI Prime 16 HD light for about 3 months, a new tank. Ran it for 12 hour photo period with 60% across the blue spectrum and 15% cool white.

Things in the tank were fairly stable, I more or less skipped the ugly phase. No nuisance algae to speak of. I keep my nitrates and phosphates under control, My two clownfish are mostly fed frozen food and I do weekly 20% water changes. Coralline algae was growing pretty fast, SPS corals in the tank were surviving but not really thriving, with exception to a rainbow montipora.

Then I got it in my head that I wanted an Ecotech XR15 G6. The result has been a steady decline in the SPS corals on my tank. Bleaching from the base spreading up to the tips. I've lose one entirely and now I'm in damage control mode. I realized the change in the power of the light was probably the reason, so I dialed down the intensities to 40% across the blue spectrum and zeroed out the others. I'm trying to further mitigate the damage by dosing some amino acids, but it doesn't seem to help much.

The question is, where should I go from here? Should I switch back to the old AI Prime? Or do I ride this out with lower intensity on the G6 and hope for the best? My instinct tells me to switch back, but I get the feeling that too much is changing too fast in the tank.

Also here are the water parameters, which i measured yesterday:
Phosphate: 0.09
Nitrate: 3.8
Calcium: 405
Alkalinity: 9.7
PH: 8.4
Salinity: 1.026

Recent changes to the water besides water changes are I dosed a little sodium carbonate to bring up the alkalinity, which had dipped to 7.6 before dosing, and dosing calcium.

Start with low settings or acclimation mode always and the colors are likely brighter on radion as is wattage and you will have to work with lower settings for now

 

[ReefJuice]

I am pretty sure this is the case because you did not acclimate the sps corals to a stronger light.

How are you other corals doing?

I have a toadstool that seems to be thriving, but they're not difficult to keep. A few fuzzy mushrooms in the back, but the don't look happy.

 

[ReefJuice]

I've dialed the lights down to 25% given the huge jump in power from the old lighting. Hopefully it'll give the corals some respite and they can slowly start to heal. I hope a month at this level will help them bounce back. If they do, how would you guys advise increasting lighting, and to what level?

 

[potatocouch]

I am pretty sure this is the case because you did not acclimate the sps corals to a stronger light.

How are you other corals doing?

wouldn't that be the case with new coral additions that we buy from LFS?

LFS' light wouldn't be the same with our light.

Does this mean that we have to acclimate our tank light every single time we put those new corals in?

 

[fishski13]

wouldn't that be the case with new coral additions that we buy from LFS?

LFS' light wouldn't be the same with our light.

Does this mean that we have to acclimate our tank light every single time we put those new corals in?

Well he changed from a less powerful light to a more powerful light. Changing a light like that is the same like getting a coral from a LFS and putting it on your tank light.

Some people recommend acclimating all new corals to light over the course of a few days or a few weeks. Personally with easier pieces of coral like softies and most lps and knowing what my PAR is in my tank I dont acclimate them for long periods of time, usually just days cause they dont require high PAR anyways. I sometimes dont acclimate at all just because I have similar coral at the same location that are doing good under that light. But more sensitive pieces like SPS I would definitely acclimate especially if I dont know PAR or dont have a similar pieces to reference to.

 

[fishski13]

I have a toadstool that seems to be thriving, but they're not difficult to keep. A few fuzzy mushrooms in the back, but the don't look happy.

Softies are hardy and not that sensitive to light changes but as you said that mushrooms are also not looking to happy. This concludes that its most likely due to not having an acclimation period during the transition from a weaker to stronger light.