Purchased an AI Prime 16 HD... Corals are bleaching please help

Razorp

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So I purchased the AI prime 16 HD and installed it to my 16 gallon Biocube. I downloaded saxbys presets, and the only thing i did was up the uv and violet to match the blues (basically making it more of an AB+ , but with the up and down ramping throughout the day). I let that run on acclimation at 50% for 30 days. It has been running full power for two days now, but one of my anemones and one of my torches appears to be bleaching a bit. So yesterday i brought the intensity down from its highest point (in the 90% range on the uvs and blues) to the 60% range. Now the light is roughly 9-10 inches from the surface of the water. What im trying to figure out, is should i bring it down to 50% at highest point and over a couple of months start easing it back up? Or should i just leave it lower? I have two bubble tip anemones that are fairly close to the surface (one less than 2" the other about 5"). one torch is 4" from surface. everything else is mid or lower in the tank and seems fine. The tank is right at 8 months old and previously everything was under the stock LED hood. A par meter is out of the question right now unfortunately, as im 2 hours away from any decent LFS and no one in my town that i know of even has a reef tank.

If yall could please give me some advice on what steps to take i would greatly appreciate it. I just have very little understanding as to what affects the par readings. Intensity of the different channels, hight of the light, should i get a diffuser? any help is appreciated..
 

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An AI Prime at that height and intensity is going to create a lot of light and stress the corals; suggest backing down to around 50% as you suggest, and slowly bringing up over a period of weeks, no more than 5% per week. Carefully monitor corals until they seem happy with the level you reach; try to measure PAR later down the line if you can.
 
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The torch at top left is bleaching a little and the BTA at the top right is bleaching and acting funny. Everything else seems fine.
 

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Razorp

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An AI Prime at that height and intensity is going to create a lot of light and stress the corals; suggest backing down to around 50% as you suggest, and slowly bringing up over a period of weeks, no more than 5% per week. Carefully monitor corals until they seem happy with the level you reach; try to measure PAR later down the line if you can.
Thank you for the quick reply, I also have the capability of raising the light at least two more inches if need be
 

melanotaenia

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If you lower the intensity you won't lose any of your corals, at 50% they will likely still get enough light to do well, and this will give you a chance to slowly increase intensity and see how they respond. Once the bleaching stops and they recover then you can start increasing intensity slowly, and will likely find a happy medium at the 60%-80% intensity range.

I like the rock setup. Looks good.
 

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Here's one of BRS par charts for a single prime over a 12x12 tank - at 6" deep. Like all of AI's pucks - the prime is basically a spotlight and has really poor spread. I don't have time to rewatch the whole video - but most of BRS's testing is done with all channels at 100% - so your numbers may be significantly lower than this.



Is that photo new? I don't see a bleached torch.

1607702750801.png
 

RC Corals

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with 3 fingers on the screen, pull downward and it will adjust the entire schedule to a lower overall setting proportionally.

NO WAY i'd run anywhere near 100% on a 16gal biocube and would definitely expect bleaching if I did, even with acklimation
 

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If you acclimated over 30 days, everything should be fine. I would let it be and keep watching. And, as stated above, I’m not really seeing anything bleached either.

I run the same light over an old 12gallon Aquapod and am running the blues way over 100% and the UV and violet at 100% and my frogspawn and anemones are thriving.

This is my schedule with the levels at the peak.

07F708D9-05E5-45DC-853B-FB62736606C0.png
FB78FCC5-4374-4117-A575-8149EA394549.jpeg
EBFB0348-A631-453F-95E5-C598D64C932D.jpeg
 
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If you lower the intensity you won't lose any of your corals, at 50% they will likely still get enough light to do well, and this will give you a chance to slowly increase intensity and see how they respond. Once the bleaching stops and they recover then you can start increasing intensity slowly, and will likely find a happy medium at the 60%-80% intensity range.

I like the rock setup. Looks good.
Thank you very much!
 
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Razorp

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Here's one of BRS par charts for a single prime over a 12x12 tank - at 6" deep. Like all of AI's pucks - the prime is basically a spotlight and has really poor spread. I don't have time to rewatch the whole video - but most of BRS's testing is done with all channels at 100% - so your numbers may be significantly lower than this.



Is that photo new? I don't see a bleached torch.

1607702750801.png
Thanks for that helpful info! The top left torch has just begun bleaching and it’s hard to see if not looking closely. The big anemone is almost half bleach on the lower left half and has started tucking that part of itself in. That was the first sign I noticed, as it used to be a nice big open disc shape.
 
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If you acclimated over 30 days, everything should be fine. I would let it be and keep watching. And, as stated above, I’m not really seeing anything bleached either.

I run the same light over an old 12gallon Aquapod and am running the blues way over 100% and the UV and violet at 100% and my frogspawn and anemones are thriving.

This is my schedule with the levels at the peak.

07F708D9-05E5-45DC-853B-FB62736606C0.png
FB78FCC5-4374-4117-A575-8149EA394549.jpeg
EBFB0348-A631-453F-95E5-C598D64C932D.jpeg
Wow, beautiful cube!! The stuff starting to bleach is pretty close to the surface, it looks like most of yours are on the lower half. But congratulations on a stunning tank. Hope to fill mine out like that eventually! I love the light, just trying to use it as effectively as possible
 

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