New Lights Hurting Fish Eyes?

[DrThom]

I just upgraded the lights on my 120 gallon tank (fish only for now, planning for corals soon) from a general LED light bar to two Nicrew HyperReef 200 Gen 2's. After installing them, I had the lights on the Pro Set 1 setting for a little while. It was very bright. I noticed a few fish, my Koran Angelfish in particular, were stressed and hiding under rocks out of the light. I turned the lights off and have not turned them on for the past 24 hours, but I'm a little worried since my Koran Angelfish is acting very abnormal (still hiding under the same rock and its eyes seem to be gray) and I also haven't seen my Yellow Coris Wrasse (pretty sure he buried himself). Even when I feed the fish, neither one of those comes out. I've read quite a bit of forums and have never heard of lights hurting a fish's eyes, but I'm very worried about them and hesitant to turn the lights back on since I don't want to stress them out more. Is this a common thing? Are there any supplements or medication I can give them if their eyes are injured?

 

[Fish Fan]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Fish can definitely be stressed out by suddenly turning on the light. I think that if they were in relatively dim light and you now hit them with relatively bright light, it would make sense that they got stressed. However, I would expect that stress to be short lived, kind of like when you turn on the lights in the middle of the night; a few minutes of distress, and then you're fine. It's concerning to me that your fish are acting stressed for so long. I'd really expect them to bounce back very soon, or maybe consider that what you experienced with the light was coincidental with the onset of some kind of disease.

I'm following to see how this turns out; good luck!

 

[DrThom]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Fish can definitely be stressed out by suddenly turning on the light. I think that if they were in relatively dim light and you now hit them with relatively bright light, it would make sense that they got stressed. However, I would expect that stress to be short lived, kind of like when you turn on the lights in the middle of the night; a few minutes of distress, and then you're fine. It's concerning to me that your fish are acting stressed for so long. I'd really expect them to bounce back very soon, or maybe consider that what you experienced with the light was coincidental with the onset of some kind of disease.

I'm following to see how this turns out; good luck!

Thank you for the response. I also thought they would bounce back quickly which is why I'm concerned since I've had the lights off for so long and they still seemed stressed. I've had those two fish for over a year now and they have always appeared healthy. They've never acted this way and there's no indication of disease. I'll try easing the lights on over the next few days to see how they react.

 

[Fish Fan]

Did you add any new livestock recently?

 

[X-37B]

Are the lights adjustable?

 

[DrThom]

Did you add any new livestock recently?

Nope no new fish for the past few months. All of them appeared healthy and not stressed. Unfortunately I lost the Koran Angelfish today. It was my favorite fish.

 

[DrThom]

Are the lights adjustable?

Yes they are adjustable. I plan to turn them down a lot once I turn them back on. They also have a ramp up/down feature that I plan to use.

 

[Fish Fan]

Nope no new fish for the past few months. All of them appeared healthy and not stressed. Unfortunately I lost the Koran Angelfish today. It was my favorite fish.

Sorry to hear about your Angel. Did you add anything at all, even a snail can possibly carry in a fish parasite.

 

[DrThom]

Nothing at all. They all seemed healthy and normal. That's why I was surprised when they acted like that when the new lights were added. The yellow wrasse did come out of the sand today and appears to be ok. I still don't understand why the angelfish got so stessed out. It went from swimming around and eating to completely stationary and not eating just after an hour or so of having the new lights on. Doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Fish Fan]

@vetteguy53081 I saw that you posted a few minutes ago, can you offer some help here please?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I just upgraded the lights on my 120 gallon tank (fish only for now, planning for corals soon) from a general LED light bar to two Nicrew HyperReef 200 Gen 2's. After installing them, I had the lights on the Pro Set 1 setting for a little while. It was very bright. I noticed a few fish, my Koran Angelfish in particular, were stressed and hiding under rocks out of the light. I turned the lights off and have not turned them on for the past 24 hours, but I'm a little worried since my Koran Angelfish is acting very abnormal (still hiding under the same rock and its eyes seem to be gray) and I also haven't seen my Yellow Coris Wrasse (pretty sure he buried himself). Even when I feed the fish, neither one of those comes out. I've read quite a bit of forums and have never heard of lights hurting a fish's eyes, but I'm very worried about them and hesitant to turn the lights back on since I don't want to stress them out more. Is this a common thing? Are there any supplements or medication I can give them if their eyes are injured?

ALWAYS..... Always start low and ramp up brightness slowly. Same applies to coral. Retina damage can occur and run these lights dim and see if eyesight improves over next 48 hours

 

[Fish Fan]

ALWAYS..... Always start low and ramp up brightness slowly. Same applies to coral. Retina damage can occur and run these lights dim and see if eyesight improves over next 48 hours

Thanks for your help!