Struggling with new ai prime in pico tank

[Rickybobby]

Hey guys so I did a thread this week of growing a pico frag tank with generic led plant lights. During that time the corals were out and happy. Than I ordered an ai prime 16hd and mount. Mounted it prettt much as high as I can go but struggle for a setting. My zoas palys and clove polyps have closed up. Any one suggest a good setting for this? Thank

 

[BloopFish]

You need to acclimate them to your lights, you can't just blast them to a preset configuration and expect them to thrive. I recommend you do the AB+ setting by BRS to start off and use the built in acclimation mode to acclimate them for at least a couple weeks. What is the position of your zoa and palys? Considering how small your tank is (dimensions would be nice) you might even need to ramp down each color by a certain amount of % equally to get your corals happy. AI Prime on a Pico is pretty overkill unless uou are trying to grow SPS, so you mostly should worry about them roasting your zoas.

 

[Rickybobby]

Thanks for your help it’s a 2.5 g tank. Tiny. Banana llama coral runs a similar setup and sent me some settings which I will try. Way lower on uv and cool white that I had. Acclimation wise these corals cane from a coral farm under very good lighting.

 

[MichaelReefer]

AI Primes have a Acclimation setting as well. You can have it go nice and slow over a few weeks and slowly ramp up... I would also keep those settings up 50%, that thing is awfully powerful for such a tiny tank.

 

[Rickybobby]

Still have had no luck with this light. Before I bought this light all the corals were out abs happy. Now lost the acros a few zoas and the birds nest. Also my aqua Clear mini has been as full strength for flow and I just turned it down. I had better success with led plant lights. Stupid me spends 350 bux to get an ai prime and mount and I’m killing corals

 

[Rickybobby]

The acros turned bleach white. The birds nest had all the tissue come off. Now I may say these were cheap corals but still

 

[Labora]

Kessil A80 might be better for that tank. Can you return it?

 

[TheReefArchitect]

Switch the intensity of the light down. As the other comments mention, the corals need time to acclimate / get used to the vast increase in intensity. Switch it down manually or play with the settings and have the light get gradually brighter over a period of a couple of weeks.

 

[MichaelReefer]

The acros turned bleach white. The birds nest had all the tissue come off. Now I may say these were cheap corals but still

Did you put it on acclimate...? If you were using a weak light before it's going to bleach them...you have to slowly ramp it up...I told you that. You cant blame the light if it wasn't set up properly.

 

[TheReefArchitect]

Kessil A80 would have been the correct purchase for that tank. Can you return it?

The prime is overpowered, but in my opinion it’s better to have more and run it at 50% - available for a possible tank upgrade in the future

 

[TheReefArchitect]

The acros turned bleach white. The birds nest had all the tissue come off. Now I may say these were cheap corals but still

Is it just the light? What’s everything else looking like parameter wise?

 

[uhgster1]

You have the best light for the money for that tank. Turn down the intensities and gradually increase A few percentages over the next few weeks. It’s inevitable that you’re going to upgrade to a larger tank and that light will take you all the way to a 60 gallon tank depending on what you decide to grow.

 

[MichaelReefer]

You have the best light for the money for that tank. Turn down the intensities and gradually increase A few percentages over the next few weeks. It’s inevitable that you’re going to upgrade to a larger tank and that light will take you all the way to a 60 gallon tank depending on what you decide to grow.

The AI has a programmable acclimation, you can increase it over days to months. I told em to use it *shrug*

 

[jptankkid]

You need to acclimate them to your lights, you can't just blast them to a preset configuration and expect them to thrive. I recommend you do the AB+ setting by BRS to start off and use the built in acclimation mode to acclimate them for at least a couple weeks. What is the position of your zoa and palys? Considering how small your tank is (dimensions would be nice) you might even need to ramp down each color by a certain amount of % equally to get your corals happy. AI Prime on a Pico is pretty overkill unless uou are trying to grow SPS, so you mostly should worry about them roasting your zoas.

I have the AI on my Fluval 5 and I have it on the 18inch flex arm. Definitely took about a week for the coral to adjust but I’m able at the peak to now run the light almost all the way

 

[intricate_reefer]

Even 50% is too high for zoas on that tank, I would set them to maybe 35% UV, Violet, blue, royal blue. 2% red/green then white to your liking.

 

[Rickybobby]

Thanks everyone for your time.
also someone mentioned I will upgrade tanks. Alsohave a Fluval13.5 main display. This pico is my invert qt tank. I will try some lower settings and see. This light has. Been a challenge big light tiny tank and the settings out there are for larger tanks

 

[Thunderrap]

World Wide Corals has a preset for an AI prime over a 2 gal pico that would probably work for you.

LED Lighting Presets

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worldwidecorals.com

 

[Rickybobby]

Hey thanks a lot. I just downloaded the mobius app and will see what it’s all about thanks again everyone

 

[Rickybobby]

So today my 5g qt is done being used for now so I moved my frag tank to it. From 2.5 g. Which allows the ai prime to be mounted a lot higher and better water stability will see how it goes