Upgraded tank, poor colors

[alten78]

Couple months ago I took advantage of some home repairs and upgraded from a 75g to a 120g. The 75 was up and running for about 5 years, bare bottom, sps dominated with mostly acros, colors and growth have been solid. Since the upgrade things definitely are drab, brown, and just colorless, not pale or anything, just blah.

I went from T5's to 250w MH Radiums (lights are sitting higher off the tank as well as the tank being 4 inches deeper.) To acclimate the lights, I ran them for 3 hours a day while adding 15 minutes each day.

Nitrates ran about 20 ppm but with all the new water they dropped significantly and I struggled to get them to show up on a salifert test. I've added a few fish, fed a little heavier, and now they hang around 5ppm.

Surprisingly, PE has been pretty good througout. I keep alk between 7-8 dkh, the past couple weeks has been holding almost exactly at 141 ppm. Calcium is a little lower than normal at 410 but slowly bringing it up. I will get some random RTN on a branch here and there which i havent been able to pinpoint why. I ended up fragging a surf n turf stag, one of the 5 frags RTN'd while the others are ok, that has me stumped because they are on the same frag rack next to each other.

Setup is pretty simple otherwise, skimmer and GAC but that was taken offline for the moment. I'm sure my issues are from making too many changes and the solution is to keep things consistent but I'm not seeing too many threads of things looking this bad after an upgrade?

 

[rkpetersen]

Sounds like the biggest change has been the lights. That's probably what I'd be focusing on first. Photoperiod, intensity and spectrum have all probably changed significantly. Alk is also on the low side but that shouldn't be causing problems unless it also changed suddenly.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

How long has it been since the upgrade?

Are you on a regular photo period now?

What Heith and how many t5 were you using?

What ballast , reflector and how high above the tank is the MH?

 

[jda]

Sounds like a lot of changes in the last few months... lightings, building block levels, flow & placement (always different after a move). These might just need more time - I think that you are on the money here. I would argue that more people have similar issues after moves and just disappear or do not post about the bad stuff... only the good.

I would not chase anything just yet. 20K Radiums are best of breed type of lights - you went slow with them, which is about the only time that they cause issues is when people go too fast. Sounds like the water parameters have been stable, which is more important than actual numbers. Keep the building blocks stable - again, stability here can be more important than actual numbers (provided that they are not TOO high).

 

[alten78]

Sounds like the biggest change has been the lights. That's probably what I'd be focusing on first. Photoperiod, intensity and spectrum have all probably changed significantly. Alk is also on the low side but that shouldn't be causing problems unless it also changed suddenly.

I know a lot of folks keep alk much higher but it is in range of where I kept it for years. I aim for 131 ppm so 140 +/- a few ppm everyday for the past month i'm pretty happy with. My guess would be the lights as well.

How long has it been since the upgrade?

Are you on a regular photo period now?

What Heith and how many t5 were you using?

What ballast , reflector and how high above the tank is the MH?

I'm at 7.5 hours, i'll add another 30 minutes in a few days for my typical max of 8 hours. I was using 6 ATI t5's (3 blue+ 3 coral+) about 6 inches off the water surface. The radiums are being ran in a Hamilton Bali Sun and a Hamilton Cayman Sun pendants on Luxcore electronic ballasts (HQI setting) 12 inches off the water surface. Most coral is below the half way mark on the 120.

 

[alten78]

doh, i am horrible with time, i thought it was two months, it was October 28th of the livestock swap.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I know a lot of folks keep alk much higher but it is in range of where I kept it for years. I aim for 131 ppm so 140 +/- a few ppm everyday for the past month i'm pretty happy with. My guess would be the lights as well.



I'm at 7.5 hours, i'll add another 30 minutes in a few days for my typical max of 8 hours. I was using 6 ATI t5's (3 blue+ 3 coral+) about 6 inches off the water surface. The radiums are being ran in a Hamilton Bali Sun and a Hamilton Cayman Sun pendants on Luxcore electronic ballasts (HQI setting) 12 inches off the water surface. Most coral is below the half way mark on the 120.

Sounds like a lot of changes in the last few months... lightings, building block levels, flow & placement (always different after a move). These might just need more time - I think that you are on the money here. I would argue that more people have similar issues after moves and just disappear or do not post about the bad stuff... only the good.

I would not chase anything just yet. 20K Radiums are best of breed type of lights - you went slow with them, which is about the only time that they cause issues is when people go too fast. Sounds like the water parameters have been stable, which is more important than actual numbers. Keep the building blocks stable - again, stability here can be more important than actual numbers (provided that they are not TOO high).

About 1000 150o or so par at the top of the water with the t5. (It’s 1000 at 12in)

@jda I’m not familiar with that mH out put.

Sounds like you’re on the right track though. Finish accumulating and see where it goes.

 

[alten78]

Thanks guys, that's what I was hoping for and figured, I'l give it more time before stressing too much!

My flow certainly changed as well. What was high before I found was not nearly enough, recently added a 2nd 250 gyre and still trying to get the flow right.

 

[jda]

@jda I’m not familiar with that mH out put.

It depends on so many factors. On m80 ballast in a "normal" type of reflector for a 30x30 area, then you can get about 1600 PAR at the surface right under a 250w Radium and 12oo PAR to the sides 15-18 inches. Remember that this setup is HQI and is more like 330 watts. I just measured this a few months ago since I run this setup over one of my tanks.

If you have a larger reflector, then the output can drop quite a bit since you are spreading more.

If you are using an electronic ballast, then it will be quite a bit lower on 250w and somewhat lower on "super lumens."

 

[jda]

alten78 - also keep in mind that sometimes when a acro "goes green" or "goes brown" that sometimes what you have will stay that color and only the new growth will be super/normal colorful. Not always. This is not usually a big deal since the goal is to have new growth to cover up the old, but it sure can be frustrating while you are waiting.