Polyp Extension

[Charlie’s Frags]

The Hydra 26 HD's should be plenty of light. They are running from 12:00pm to 10:00pm.

The current settings are:

UV - 5%
Violet - 118%
Royal - 140%
Blue - 116%
Green - 5%
Deep Red - 7%
Cool White - 5%

That’s not near enough light, especially on the bottom. I run 2-52 HD’s on my 50 gallon cube at 105 watts EACH. Those 26’ s should be almost maxed out. You should have the blues, v and uv maxed out. 15-20 on the green, 30 on the red and adjust the color with the white to your liking. It should be as close to 75-90 watts per fixture. Set it with a 2 week acclimation period.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Are you running gfo or carbon dosing?

 

[jsbzcmcdaniel]

Are you running gfo or carbon dosing?

Running activated carbon is a Nyos Torq reactor - Not running GFO

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

How many watts are you producing out of each fixture?

 

[AngryMike2016]

Thanks for the pointer, Chas. I used the same AB+ as above, and I didn't realize how little watts I was producing. I also have two Hyrda 26s on my Red Sea 425. Using the above, I was only getting 54 watts per fixture!

Gets up to 83 watts per fixture with your suggestion. Going to ramp up to that over a two month acclimation.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Thanks for the pointer, Chas. I used the same AB+ as above, and I didn't realize how little watts I was producing. I also have two Hyrda 26s on my Red Sea 425. Using the above, I was only getting 54 watts per fixture!

Gets up to 83 watts per fixture with your suggestion. Going to ramp up to that over a two month acclimation.

20% should be good
Acros can handle a lot of ligh as long as they are acclimated to it. My 52s are 16” above the water to reduce “hot spots or spot lighting”, but my tank is small. I don’t run a skimmer, gfo or carbon dose. I just grow some chaeto, and my polyp extension is pretty crazy. My set up has 600 par at the top of my rocks and 300-400 on the sand bed.

 

[Justfebreezeit]

Not saying the lighting isn't an issue but I agree with the low nutrient take. Not sure what test kit your using but if your P04 is really 0 that could be a problem and when you test NO3 that might shed some more light

 

[jsbzcmcdaniel]

Sorry I missed It. The hydra are good light, but I think running them at +100% shows they may be a bit underpowered. I run 3 AI Hd 52 above my 180 and they run at 90%. Did you try downloading some of the AI light science programs?

Not saying light is an issue, but if the prior owner was running higher par, that is what the coral is used to. What light was he running?

After looking at some of the responses and my light color % I realized I was only running them at 43wats which is less than 50%. My 15 years of reefing was all with MH or T5's so when I got back into reefing in November after a 10yr hiatus I had little knowledge of LED's. For some reason I recall someone telling me to keep the UV below 5% because it was cause SPS to bleach. So, I did a little research and downloaded some api files and uploaded them to my lights. I tried several until I found them pleasing to the eye yet producing 86w of power.

 

[jsbzcmcdaniel]

Not saying the lighting isn't an issue but I agree with the low nutrient take. Not sure what test kit your using but if your P04 is really 0 that could be a problem and when you test NO3 that might shed some more light

I am using the Hanna digital test kit. I am running Seachem Matrix in one of the sump cups to reduce phosphates. This is another thing that I am learning thats changed since my previous experience. 10 years ago 0 phosphates was what everyone shot for SPS dominated tanks now I am reading you want some phosphates. My frags are a bit pale so maybe my water is too clean?? Maybe in conjunction with changing the light % and turn off the skimmer for a while things will improve in color and polyp extension??

 

[Justfebreezeit]

I am using the Hanna digital test kit. I am running Seachem Matrix in one of the sump cups to reduce phosphates. This is another thing that I am learning thats changed since my previous experience. 10 years ago 0 phosphates was what everyone shot for SPS dominated tanks now I am reading you want some phosphates. My frags are a bit pale so maybe my water is too clean?? Maybe in conjunction with changing the light % and turn off the skimmer for a while things will improve in color and polyp extension??

I think the main reason for the the 0 P04 thing was test kits weren't as accurate 10 years ago. With the Hanna ULR you get a much clearer picture of what your P04 actually is.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I am using the Hanna digital test kit. I am running Seachem Matrix in one of the sump cups to reduce phosphates. This is another thing that I am learning thats changed since my previous experience. 10 years ago 0 phosphates was what everyone shot for SPS dominated tanks now I am reading you want some phosphates. My frags are a bit pale so maybe my water is too clean?? Maybe in conjunction with changing the light % and turn off the skimmer for a while things will improve in color and polyp extension??

The hydra UV isn’t true UV, besides T5’s, MH’s have way more UV than most, if not all, leds can produce. In my experience, any nutrient absorbing media or chemical slowly killed my acros. All my acros started growing and thriving as soon as I stopped worrying about no3 and po4.

 

[Alazo1]

You're probably right that your tank is too clean. I would feed more or add something like Fuel for more nutrients. Also, your tank's frags don't need to have the mp40's way up. I'd bet they are getting good flow in looking at your aquascape. I would also remove the carbon as I don't think you need it yet specially if you change water once in a while.

 

[Zuma]

Make one change at a time and let it play out for a week or so before more change. I would start by increasing the flow, next perhaps consider not using a filter sock for a week if you are using one. I stopped running filter socks and notice coral that were healthy but didn't show much PE now extend their polyps quite a bit.

 

[nano24Clownfish]

I’d increase the white to 25%. This is a change I could make on my 24 gallon cube with 2 AI Prime HDs, at once single adjustment and not have any adverse effects on the corals. SPS does like a little flow. Just make sure you’re not blasting one that may be in close proximity to the powerheads. You could rip the flesh and kill it. With SPS, you probably need a little more flow than you have, but it still affords you to have a flow that blows it at an intensity that you appreciate. So if it were me, I’d do the two adjustments the same day same time. But maybe do flow increases in 3 segments instead of the one time increase that is likely ok with those lights. I’m not a know it all. Your tank is searching for what it likes. And every tank is different. You have a beautiful setup and you seem pretty close to what it wants. Just haven’t nailed it on the head yet. Good luck with it and if you could, continue to post progress pics on this thread so we get notified and can watch the project. It going to be a looker when you hit it on the head. And I’d like to see the finished product if possible. Good luck man.
Omer.

 

[nano24Clownfish]

I’d increase the white to 25%. This is a change I could make on my 24 gallon cube with 2 AI Prime HDs, at once single adjustment and not have any adverse effects on the corals. SPS does like a little flow. Just make sure you’re not blasting one that may be in close proximity to the powerheads. You could rip the flesh and kill it. With SPS, you probably need a little more flow than you have, but it still affords you to have a flow that blows it at an intensity that you appreciate. So if it were me, I’d do the two adjustments the same day same time. But maybe do flow increases in 3 segments instead of the one time increase that is likely ok with those lights. I’m not a know it all. Your tank is searching for what it likes. And every tank is different. You have a beautiful setup and you seem pretty close to what it wants. Just haven’t nailed it on the head yet. Good luck with it and if you could, continue to post progress pics on this thread so we get notified and can watch the project. It going to be a looker when you hit it on the head. And I’d like to see the finished product if possible. Good luck man.
Omer.

Oh, awesome pup, by the way. I love how dogs always have to check out what we are taking pictures of. Lol [emoji23][emoji23]

 

[nano24Clownfish]

Do you have any fish in there? I don’t worry about polyp extension unless I am looking for bugs. It will vary depending on the tank and not much of a reason to change things. Although I would say the advice on flow will help but I can’t help with leds.

What lighting do you run?

 

[nano24Clownfish]

Sorry I missed It. The hydra are good light, but I think running them at +100% shows they may be a bit underpowered. I run 3 AI Hd 52 above my 180 and they run at 90%. Did you try downloading some of the AI light science programs?

Not saying light is an issue, but if the prior owner was running higher par, that is what the coral is used to. What light was he running?

I bought healthy montis from a guy with a 150 and just 3 AI Prime HDs over it. It’s really hard to say what is sufficient with LEDs. Even surface agitation will break up its PAR and very most certainly the PUR. We’ve tried a few rules of thumb for sufficient lighting and none were very good to really stick by. They’ve worked in some cases. In others, the ROT has failed. Like right before LEDs came out and really came out. Like, they were out, but not anywhere next to SPS capable like they are now. We used to say a general rule of thumb was you need between 5 & 10 watts per gallon to make a SPS happy. Then LEDs came out and it all got switched to low grade PAR meters to try and see what areas to put different corals. Pretty accurate but there are plenty of changing factors that went into that one time reading. So back to square one, like you guys are all saying. Just adjust to what your corals are tellin you.

 

[nano24Clownfish]

That’s not near enough light, especially on the bottom. I run 2-52 HD’s on my 50 gallon cube at 105 watts EACH. Those 26’ s should be almost maxed out. You should have the blues, v and uv maxed out. 15-20 on the green, 30 on the red and adjust the color with the white to your liking. It should be as close to 75-90 watts per fixture. Set it with a 2 week acclimation period.

Wow! I’ve never seen anybody blast red and green on a reef. People that I always talked to got algae if reds and greens went over 5%. RedSea says to keep those two at zero from what I read. It was for a different tank. So they may have recommended different on this.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Wow! I’ve never seen anybody blast red and green on a reef. People that I always talked to got algae if reds and greens went over 5%. RedSea says to keep those two at zero from what I read. It was for a different tank. So they may have recommended different on this.

Hard to argue with the ab+ spectrum. I wouldn’t consider 15-20 on green and 30 on red “blasting”.
Did you see my acros? The results speak for themself. Red Sea also recommends nopox, which I hold responsible for a year of acro death in my tank. I’m not a fan of Red Sea’s recommendations. I like their activated carbon, but that’s about it.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I stand corrected. Didn’t realize the ab+ for the 26’s recommends greens and reds at 4. I have 52’s and the recommended settings are 15 and 40. My mistake