T5 Lighting & Chalice owners please help!

[Dooly Verified Sponsor]

I have asked this before and did not find the answers I was looking for.. I run 8x54 watt T5's with advance ballasts with SLR reflectors. Front to back:

Actinic+
Actinic+
Fiji Purple
Actinic+
Actinic+
Actinic White
Actinic+
Actinic+

My SPS do extremely well and have great PE, however; most if not all my LPS show bleaching unless heavily shaded almost in the dark. And ALL of the LPS i have are on the sandbed which is about 28" from the actual light..

I know alot of you guys run T5's on your LPS tanks and have great color from them, I just wonder what I may be doing wrong?

I have a 120g with an ATB 840 skimmer, light bioload; here are my parameters:

Ammonia/Nitrite 0
Phosphate <0.03
Nitrate 0
Calcium 390
Alk 8 dkh
Mag 1300
1.026 specific gravity
and temp between 79-81 daily

I feed them every couple of weeks with cyclopeez/ova when the lights go out and they eat just fine.. but the colors just such in comparison to other T5 tanks I see.. what can it be? I leave my lights on for about 9 hours total, turning 2 bulbs on at a time and having them shut off 2 at a time; same schedule every day... any help is appreciated.

 

[inactive]

Way too much light IMO.

 

[chappy]

agreed with kraylen through a par meter on that thing and give us some readings
i have a 210 lps tank and run my mag ca and dkh higher than you

 

[ksc]

Definately not too much par. The actinic+ is a pretty low par bulb, about 30% less par than say a ATI blue+. I'd bet you are getting less than 200par on the sand bed. Try getting ahold of a meter and checking your levels. Try moving a couple of these chalices up a bit and see if there is improvement. You could also try putting a few in the corners where I'd bet your pr is less than 100.

 

[condor]

+1 on the actinic+ being low par. id swap two of them for aquablue 15000k

 

[ghostman]

I've got a similar setup, same tank size, same number of bulbs, and the same problem... I built an arch and shelf out of the rockwork, and have the chalices almost in the shade. They are doing much better. I also cut my photoperiod down a few hours. My SPS are thriving even with the lower photoperiod. HTH

 

[milkman]

I have the same light setup over a 120 gal that is 24" deep. Eight bulbs is just too much light.

I am currently setting up a second 40 gal breeder to just house chalice and acans. I am going with a 150 watt MH with actinic LED supplementation, hanging over the 40 gal at whatever height is necessary to keep them from bleaching or the acans melting. I already had the 150w MH, but if going T5, would not go over 4 bulbs for chalice.

 

[Dooly Verified Sponsor]

believe it or not, my chalices were doing worse when I had all Blue+ in place of the Actinic+, they got a bit better once they were swapped out. I don't have much shade left in the tank, but perhaps I will shorten the photoperiod.. and I need to find a par meter to borrow. :sad:

 

[CoralBandit]

put in a 10k bulb, your only providing a small breadth of spectrum which is the whole point to having T5's IMO. Personally I believe its not ONLY about PAR or intesity but that the proper spectrum's being provided. If you think it is too much light throw in a 10k and turn off two Act +'s

 

[scrapz]

chalice can take tons of light, it's all about acclimation. Mine are on a rack 8" under my ati 6bulb.

I run my 2 bulbs from 6-1. 4 bulbs from 6:30-12. I acclimated by running 4 bulbs for only 3 hours and ramping it up to 5 over the next 3 weeks.

edit: just read you ran it for 9 hours, I would try dropping it to 6 and see what happens.

 

[agent462]

Like others said you need better spectrum for your corals. I'm surprised the SPS do well but the FP is probably allowing them to live.

I would start by getting a better bulb layout and go down to 6 bulbs. If that works well, you can slowly go back up to the 8.

 

[soccerbag]

Completely agree with Bryan above ^^^^. It's not all about PAR. Light spectrum is another important key. Do you have the ability to raise / lower your fixture?

 

[bigbill]

i have a 12 g nano dx i run 2 24 watt t5 ho 1 full spectrum 6700k 1 actinic blue from glo my Chalice frag and my acan our on the sand bar witch is 15 and 1/2 inchs from the lights bouth are doing great hope this helped heres a pic of my setup

 

[condor]

agreed you need the full spectrum. and bleaching works both ways, too much AND too little light

 

[Dooly Verified Sponsor]

thanks for the replies!!!

I would need some help as to what I would need to do in order to achieve "full spectrum" lighting with my T5's? I originally had an ATI Procolor in place of the actinic white 12k i have right now; my setup was recommended to me by grim over at RC who is supposedly very good with T5's.. I like the color output, I would definitely like to have my LPS color up a bit more.. All suggestions welcome!!! and I wouldn't mind going down to 6 bulbs, perhaps I will remove the readyfit 2x54 in the lift up canopy and just go with supplemental leds there instead for some shimmer..

And no; I am not able to raise or lower the lighting as it is installed onto my canopy via retrofit kits..

I look forward to more replies, thanks all!

 

[aquafrags]

I bet is not only a light issue, but you have a nutrient issue, if your SPS are doing well and LPS not, you water is most likely very clean

I had to go to seperate tanks for my SPS and LPS and now they are both happy

 

[Dooly Verified Sponsor]

I would definitely like to first try a "full spectrum" lighting setup before targeting other possible factors

 

[Dooly Verified Sponsor]

Okay, I purchased an Aquablue+ today, so my new setup is:

Actinic+
Actinic+
Fiji Purple
Actinic+
Aquablue+
Actinic White
Actinic+
Actinic+

And shortened the photoperiod by 1 hour per pair of bulbs, but still a 9 hour photoperiod.. 1.5h with actinic+ only to start and same 1.5h with actinic+ only to finish the day. Hopefully this helps..

 

[Dooly Verified Sponsor]

I ended up with

actinic+
actinic+
fiji purple
actinic+
aquablue+
actinic+
actinic white
actinic+

Looks very bright; 14k~ish look to it and corals are responding well.

I have a 9 hour photoperiod with all the bulbs on for 6 hours, and 3 hours (1.5 before and 1.5hr after) for just 2 actinic bulbs running. I don't see any change in coloration of the LPS yet, but will update soon. On a different note, I had a peppermint shrimp slowly wipe out an entire rainbow acan colony before I figured out what was wrong with it. I saw a 2nd colony start to deteriorate when I saw the ******* shrimp chowing down. Removed shrimp and now acan is making a strong comeback.

 

[mgdmirage]

Yeah way too many Actinic + in the old setup lol. Coral can handle about any PAR long as they are properly acclimated to it. I also totally agree with Condor's statement how bleaching works both ways, too little light or too much, i've witnessed it in my old tank.