STN/Tip Burn?

JaaxReef · Aug 26, 2019

Another update.

So I lowered my lighting (despite disagreement that it was too low of PAR for acros before on this thread) and left water parameters where they were. Already seeing an improvement over my grey/brown Slow Burn Monti. Color is returning and I see new growth. Other corals are starting to recover as well. So either it is coincidence or my tank is goofy and just does better under lower lighting.

I decided to remove the top arch on my rockwork and any corals that were on it and put the best remaining chunks in my frag tank until I feel it is ready for more sps again. Now I have a clean slate on that arch for those frags to go once I feel it is ready. Feels like a fresh start but I’m glad to see my corals doing better.

motortrendz · Aug 26, 2019

I've had the same issues with my corals when I was trying to dial in my lighting. I also have the hydra AI line. I notice this when I had my white on above 10%(had mine up to 15%) once I lowered them down to about 8% and blues around 65% slowly I noticed the color coming back. Seemed to be the sweet spot for me.

JaaxReef · Aug 26, 2019

motortrendz said:
I've had the same issues with my corals when I was trying to dial in my lighting. I also have the hydra AI line. I notice this when I had my white on above 10%(had mine up to 15%) once I lowered them down to about 8% and blues around 65% slowly I noticed the color coming back. Seemed to be the sweet spot for me.

Agreed. I might be one of the rare people who did better setting their LED lights by watching their corals and not using a PAR meter. Once I got the PAR readings I questioned my settings despite my success and thought I could get better growth or color. I changed my intensity (very slowly; 1% every two days) over a couple months and everything was unhappy and kept getting worse. Bumped it back down closer to where it was and now things are looking better after a week.

Sometimes I find these forums helpful, but other times I think our tanks and environments are so different it is a huge risk to take advice from other reefers (or even results from a PAR meter) and think that since it worked for someone else, that it will work for you. Not necessarily true. Just a good idea to be careful.

I love Reef2Reef, but sometimes I get too caught up in thinking someone else’s recipe for success should be what I follow and I’m always questioning my methods even if I’m seeing success.

motortrendz · Aug 26, 2019

It's like anything else, you gotta take everything with a grain of salt. One thing I noticed on forums and in general, people love to talk about their success, but no one really like to talk about their failures... so for all the people that did great at certain settings I'm sure there's alot more that failed at the same readings.
Like you said every system is different for so many reasons they're their own world. Just like all the oceans that are connected have different nutrient levels. We need to take everything we learn and apply it to our own system and see what works. We can never just copy and past someone else and expect the same results. It just doesnt work.
I think par meters are great but that's a good starting point to then adjust and see how your system actually responds to the different levels. With both lighting as well as filtration water flow and nutrient levels.

Hope it all works out for you.