New vegas bleaching

[Sleeperr34]

A few weeks ago i got 3 ai vegas to replace my 3 250di mh i had over my 210 reef. All corals were growing great with mh and when i put the leds on tje setting i started with were. W=10,blues- between 30-40, red/green 10. Noticed bleaching with in a few days so turned it down lower. But corals kept bleaching. Have lost a good amount of my sps. Had lights all the way down to the hoghest being 15. When i did my test i noticed a few things that were not right. My alk has always been a little on the low side and i noticed it was up to 13, cal 470. Mag was very low. 1000. So spent a week fixing the lvls. Cal-470, alk-11, mag 1300-1400. Phos was starting to show up again so changed media amd its back to 0. No nits at all. Now. But corals are still bleaching and dieing. I have the updated firmware on my controler. I redid the lights again now settings r. W=30,red/green=15,blue=60,royal=70,deep=80. Lunar cycle is on. With full moon at 5. And i turned on the coral aclimation and set it to 50% for a month. I found on another forum this seems to be what a few people r doing. I work late so my light times start at 12, 2hr ramp. At 7 start down with a 2 hr ramp. I had it before with a 4hr ramp and knly running peak for 2 hrs. Just stressing out and need help. Had these corals for 3 yrs from frags. And have gotten huge!! My montipora plates look great. No problems with them. But my acros r all at least half dead. I have lost 3 full colonies. 4 anemones. 3 clams. Temp is steady at 77. Sorry for the randomness just trying to give every bit of info i can. Have 2 vortec mp40s. And 4 other powerheads that run at least 1200gph each. So have lots of flow in the tank.


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[memontgo]

Following along. I have almost exactly the same situation. 3 vegas replacing 3 250w mh on a 220 gallon for about a week. starting to see bleaching. settings are w-15, blues 15-20, red/green-10. curious to see what others suggest.

 

[Sleeperr34]

Check ur cal. Alk. And mag. Lvls. Still have not found the reason why it all changed. But a week after i put vegas in alk jumped up from 8-9 to 13!! Nothing changed on my dosing. My alk was dosing in my auto top off. So it was being used less. Only thing i can think of was with the leds not evaporating as much then alk was not going down. I just didnt think alk would go down with evap. But the setting i have on now seem to be working perfect!

And check ur phos i noticed mine went up a bit cus my media was going bad my corals r srating to loom better now that im working on getting my alk down. Just wish i would have figured mine out sooner. Before i lost half my corals. And all 5 of my bubble anemones.

I will post some upsates as things go on with it. And try and get some pics of my losses


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[Sleeperr34]

And i got some help and answers under my other thread i did. Ai vega help.

But i have my lights now set to

On 12:00pm 2hr ramp up

W=35%
Red=20
Green=20
Blue=60
D-blue=80
Royal=70

Off 8:30pm 2hr ramp down.

Nights

W=0
Red=0
Green=4
Blue=2
D-blue=5
Royal=1

Running luna cycle on to start at 9pm and end at 10:30am. So it only runs my night at full a few days of the month.

Weather effects r on with a 20% chance twice a day. NO lighting. Lol. I think its cool but i feel it freaks my fish out.

Have coral aclimation set to 50% for 1 month.


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[bct15]

When you have evaporation all that evaporates is water, which will increase the volume fraction I anything dissolved in the water because it stays the same and total water volume goes down (alk level will go up).

Are you sure your bleaching and not getting RTN and stn? Do you have some pics?

Your alk shot up because of a few things; Your consumption went down with the loss of the sps and you kept dosin the same. That is the same as removing a bunch of colonies and not changing dosing amount. Your magnesium level that low will also cause your alk and cal to become unstable. I have noticed that when magnesium gets low, coral become especially sensitive to alk levels and alk swings...this is when mine gets close to 1200 so yours was super low. This all caused your losses in my opinion.

Mix in the new light and whatever coral was barely hanging on due to bad alk cal and mag levels and parameter swings bit the bucket from the sudden change in lighting as well.


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[Sleeperr34]

Yea that seems to be the over all info i am gathering. Was my own fault really. I stopped checking things for a while getting busy with work and sick family and everything seemed to be doing ok. But i should have kept a closer look at things. Oh and one other thing i dont think i mentioned. I dont run a chiller so when i had the MH i was sitting at 80-82 and now im at 76-77. So just another factor added in.

Im mostly sure that i was getting STL. My ponape birds nest was bleached in the center and slowly working out to the tips. Most of the losses have been removed or i have fragged to try and save what i can. But ill try and put some pics of what is left when i get home from work tonight.


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[RichieT]

Hey you guys with the vegas. What's the coverage with one Vega. Could I get away with a single vega over a 24x29 inch tank?

 

[Sleeperr34]

Oh yea. I have 3 over mine and it is 6ft by 2ft.


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[RichieT]

Ok. Good. I'm went with a Kessil 360 and even running it at 100% the tank just doesn't seem bright enough. Thinking of making the switch

 

[Sleeperr34]

Yea the vegas will work great for u. They dont seem as bright as my mh i had. But very close. U may get a little dark shadow loom on the edges but u can just rais the lights up a bit more to get rid of that. U will love them.


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[Chaz D]

I doubt it's your lights. Bigger issue may be the high alk (13) and 0 nitrates. Are you carbon dosing?

 

[TheSaint216]

What is the coverage area on these fixtures?

 

[Connie]

24 x 24 per fixture.

What is the coverage area on these fixtures?

 

[Sleeperr34]

0 nitrates im running a biodenitrifier.


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