Shading with LED

[nemlover91]

Hey guys! I recently dipped into the SPS aspect of the hobby. I recently purchased an acro frag at my Lfs. I have had it for approximately 3 weeks. Today one of my snails knocked the frsg over. When picking it up I noted one side was bleached. I placed it back in the exact position it was in. When doing this I noticed the side bleached was shaded by the coral. Can it eventually heal from this? How can I fix this problem? I am running leds on the aquarium. Everything else in the aquarium looks great! Should I buy more leds and just angle them? Thank you for the help!

 

[Texas Reefer]

What kind of LED's?

 

[nemlover91]

What kind of LED's?

I'm running 3 black box leds 165 watt. They are powerful almost to powerful to be honest.

 

[rkpetersen]

This doesn't apply quite as much to your LEDs, but you'll always get some degree of SPS shading with stationary point or near-point light sources. Same with metal halides. The unilluminated areas will often show polyp loss but the tissue will be intact if the rest of the colony is doing well. The easiest way to reduce shading for most people is to add some T5 bulbs. (In the old days, some people actually built moving tracks for their metal halides, to simulate the sun.) Another good idea is to have a light colored substrate that will reflect some of the light back upward.

 

[zieg9479]

I have self-shading on frags and large colonies. This often occurs on rectangular tanks when the layout is as follows:
_____________________________________
| .....................................................................................|
| ..... LED-LED........ LED-LED............LED-LED..........|
|......................................................................................|
|____________________________________|
So some people go this route and add perpendicular fixtures:
_____________________________________
|.........................L ...........................L ............................|
|.....LED-LED... E..... LED-LED.... E ......LED-LED......|
|.........................D ...........................D ............................|
|____________________________________|


Currently in the midst of a new cubish build that has light fixtures laid out like so:
_________________
|......L.....................L ......|
| .....E.......... T.......E.......|
|......D..........5.......D........|
|...................T.................|
|......L...........5.........L ......|
| .....E.......... T.......E.......|
|......D..........5.......D........|
|________________|

The idea being that anywhere in the tank is exposed to light from at least two directions. It can't illuminate everything but it can help.

 

[nemlover91]

I have self-shading on frags and large colonies. This often occurs on rectangular tanks when the layout is as follows:
_____________________________________
| .....................................................................................|
| ..... LED-LED........ LED-LED............LED-LED..........|
|......................................................................................|
|____________________________________|
So some people go this route and add perpendicular fixtures:
_____________________________________
|.........................L ...........................L ............................|
|.....LED-LED... E..... LED-LED.... E ......LED-LED......|
|.........................D ...........................D ............................|
|____________________________________|


Currently in the midst of a new cubish build that has light fixtures laid out like so:
_________________
|......L.....................L ......|
| .....E.......... T.......E.......|
|......D..........5.......D........|
|...................T.................|
|......L...........5.........L ......|
| .....E.......... T.......E.......|
|......D..........5.......D........|
|________________|

The idea being that anywhere in the tank is exposed to light from at least two directions. It can't illuminate everything but it can help.

With all this being discussed. Is it possible to have a mixed reef? If I barely turn my lights up my lps get really upset. Adding more lights would burn them?

 

[Graffiti Spot]

You bought your first acro frag, that's awesome. Leave it alone, it's only been three weeks and you talking about changing lighting already. Anyways without pictures no one can really give advice with confidence.

 

[nemlover91]

You bought your first acro frag, that's awesome. Leave it alone, it's only been three weeks and you talking about changing lighting already. Anyways without pictures no one can really give advice with confidence.

I'll post pics as soon as my lights come on.

 

[zieg9479]

No, I'm not advocating for greater intensity, just coverage.

 

[madweazl]

With all this being discussed. Is it possible to have a mixed reef? If I barely turn my lights up my lps get really upset. Adding more lights would burn them?

We tend to apply more light then necessary, especially in regard to SPS. There may be a few that "need" insane light levels but the vast majority will do very well in far less light than most people throw around as a requirement (250-350 PAR). I've had a number of acropora species look great and grow well in 110 PAR and the same coral in 305 PAR with no noticeable difference in growth (color was more appealing visually in the lower PAR range).

 

[jda]

You need to separate your thinking into quality and also quantity. The reason that your LPS get upset with too much LED is because the quality can suck if you have too much white in there... they have peaks that can be harmful in large quantities. Light from T5s is better quality and you can put more over your corals.

Your SPS and even the LPS could easily handle the light from your T5 or even a Metal Halide at the same output as your LEDs at 100% - they do every day for people... what you are seeing is a quality issue more than a quantity one.

Shadowing on one side is an issue with too little light. Without having a PAR reading or even a photo, there is no way to know for sure.

 

[lbacha]

I had a sbreef (higher end black box) over my tank and it had some definite hot spots that made it hard to get even spread over the whole tank. My tank is primarily sps so this was an issue. With your setup you can place the sps in the center of the black box and get really high par while your lps are happy on the edges. I would get a par meter though your eyes are a bad judge of intensity.

 

[nemlover91]

You need to separate your thinking into quality and also quantity. The reason that your LPS get upset with too much LED is because the quality can suck if you have too much white in there... they have peaks that can be harmful in large quantities. Light from T5s is better quality and you can put more over your corals.

Your SPS and even the LPS could easily handle the light from your T5 or even a Metal Halide at the same output as your LEDs at 100% - they do every day for people... what you are seeing is a quality issue more than a quantity one.

Shadowing on one side is an issue with too little light. Without having a PAR reading or even a photo, there is no way to know for sure.

This makes sense thank you!

 

[nemlover91]

I had a sbreef (higher end black box) over my tank and it had some definite hot spots that made it hard to get even spread over the whole tank. My tank is primarily sps so this was an issue. With your setup you can place the sps in the center of the black box and get really high par while your lps are happy on the edges. I would get a par meter though your eyes are a bad judge of intensity.

This makes total sense. Exactly why my carpet anemone parked his rear right in the middle of the light. Lol

 

[TexasTodd]

With a lot of years reefing, but new to LED, I'm fighting the same issue. I'd say halide with GOOD reflectors has much less shadowing than LED. That said, few ran halides without florescent too.

I'm either going to add some Reefbrite strips (trying to decide on 50/50 or full blue), or, some t5's. Leaning towards the LED's both front and back angled at 30 degrees or so towards center of tank. My main light is a 48" Reefbreeders V2 so not top tier but also no pucks.

 

[lbacha]

I actually went with an orphek atlantik v4 since it's a panel style led like a black box but it has much more even spread

 

[29bonsaireef]

Black box LEDs are really powerful IME. I ran 2 over a frag tank for a little while, and though I can't say they didn't grow and color corals.. They just didn't do it the same as T5s or MH would. I still run them 3yrs later as supplemental LED on a grow out system paired with MH. A well lit MH or T5 tank will leave basically no shading to the point acros can encrust and grow on the underside of rocks.

How shallow is your tank? I kept my Blackboxes 18-20" above a 14" deep tank. Ran the blues close to 100% and whites around 20%. I angled mine front to back, back to front to get less shading and it worked well. IMO, your corals will benefit a lot from adding a few T5 bulbs.

 

[nemlover91]

The tank is 22 inch high and I have the lights 14 inch from water surface.

 

[An ngo]

I would leave it there for now. I used to have a flame table which fade at the back side,but I just leave it alone in a couple week. My flame table start healing back and pretty healthy. The key is to keep consistant water parameter. Good luck

 

[nemlover91]

I would leave it there for now. I used to have a flame table which fade at the back side,but I just leave it alone in a couple week. My flame table start healing back and pretty healthy. The key is to keep consistant water parameter. Good luck

Ok sounds good thank you!