What is photo-inhibition?

DraggingTail · Feb 24, 2020

In the SPS thread I was told my coral might not be growing from photo inhibition.

Is this too high?

hyprc · Feb 24, 2020

Where you actually overload a coral with too much light and inhibit growth or, in more extreme cases, bleach/burn the coral. 900+ may be pushing it lol. @Dana Riddle has some excellent articles on the subject.

DraggingTail · Feb 24, 2020

Here is the thread where this was mentioned.

Can we see your SPS growth pics?

I bought all these from TSA. I hope they grow fast. Nice haul. Stability, light, flow, and nutrients are all very important.

www.reef2reef.com

hyprc · Feb 24, 2020

How Much Light?! Analyses of Selected Shallow Water Invertebrates' Light Requirements - Reefs.com

How Much Light?! Analyses of Selected Shallow Water Invertebrates' Light Requirements - Dana examines the optimal amounts of light required for select stony corals, soft coral and a Tridacna clam, and is intended to complement his previous article 'Too Much Light!' (July 2004).

www.advancedaquarist.com

DraggingTail · Feb 25, 2020

hyprc said:
How Much Light?! Analyses of Selected Shallow Water Invertebrates' Light Requirements - Reefs.com

How Much Light?! Analyses of Selected Shallow Water Invertebrates' Light Requirements - Dana examines the optimal amounts of light required for select stony corals, soft coral and a Tridacna clam, and is intended to complement his previous article 'Too Much Light!' (July 2004).

www.advancedaquarist.com

Thanks. I also read "Too Much Light".

Bpb · Feb 25, 2020

hyprc said:
How Much Light?! Analyses of Selected Shallow Water Invertebrates' Light Requirements - Reefs.com

How Much Light?! Analyses of Selected Shallow Water Invertebrates' Light Requirements - Dana examines the optimal amounts of light required for select stony corals, soft coral and a Tridacna clam, and is intended to complement his previous article 'Too Much Light!' (July 2004).

www.advancedaquarist.com

Fantastic article. I learn something new every time I read it. Is there any data out there as to which acropora share the same clades if zoox that maxima clams do? Indicating which ones would be thriving in the upper echelons of light intensity.

X-37B · Feb 25, 2020

hyprc said:
How Much Light?! Analyses of Selected Shallow Water Invertebrates' Light Requirements - Reefs.com

How Much Light?! Analyses of Selected Shallow Water Invertebrates' Light Requirements - Dana examines the optimal amounts of light required for select stony corals, soft coral and a Tridacna clam, and is intended to complement his previous article 'Too Much Light!' (July 2004).

www.advancedaquarist.com

Great article. There is still so much we dont know. Thanks to articles like this we keep putting the pieces together one article at a time.

DraggingTail · Feb 25, 2020

After reading those articles, maybe I should just run the T5s. My light is already 12" off the water. Moving it higher does not change PAR much.

Graffiti Spot · Feb 25, 2020

The deepwater acropora tables only that article taken from the submersible are simply amazing! I wish they were a little better.
I don’t really think we have to worry about the topic of too much light in our tanks. Unless your talking about how long your running the light. Past 6 hours at full intensity I don’t think anyone will see any differences.

Op you should turn your pumps off so the water is flat when your taking par readings. What kind of light are you using?

DraggingTail · Feb 25, 2020

Pedoconfuego said:
The deepwater acropora tables only that article taken from the submersible are simply amazing! I wish they were a little better.
I don’t really think we have to worry about the topic of too much light in our tanks. Unless your talking about how long your running the light. Past 6 hours at full intensity I don’t think anyone will see any differences.

Op you should turn your pumps off so the water is flat when your taking par readings. What kind of light are you using?

PAR reading taken when all lights were on. I read that waves agitation on the surface causes magnification so I wanted a "true" reading. During the reading it bounced from 900-1200 PAR. That reading is when I clicked HOLD.

All of those coral in the image above have since bleached and died off. I want to avoid that. And, I was told too much light might be the culprit. However, those coral came from a large maricultured colony that I got a deal on that started going down hill so I fragged it. Those are the frags that you are looking at in the pic above.

Hamilton MH\T5 CEBU Sun Combo
2 400W MHs (20,000 K Radiums) on from 11am to 2pm (used to be 4pm but lowered for new coral acclimation)
2 460nm T5s on from 10am to 6pm
2 420nm T5s on from 8am to 8pm

https://hamiltontechnology.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=17_74

Here is what the original colony looked like when I first purchased it. Like I said, it started getting pale and tissue started receding at the base so I fragged the sticks

I just bought new aquacultured frags from TSA and they said 900 PAR is no big deal for the sticks I got below. Looking to keep them healthy and thriving...

Bpb · Feb 25, 2020

Can you swap out for 250 watt bulbs?

oreo54 · Feb 25, 2020

Reference from the real world

Feature Article: Light Data from a Hawaiian Tidepool

Can we possibly match the amount of natural light in an aquarium?

www.advancedaquarist.com

..

Bpb · Feb 25, 2020

The challenge here is not knowing what zoox clades are present in the OP’s acropora colonies and frags. So applying photo saturation thresholds of porites lobata to the acropora species in question may be about as helpful as comparing it to that of a tomato plant. I exited the game of ornamental aquatic plants years ago but the same could be said about any variety of those as well.

DraggingTail · Feb 25, 2020

Bpb said:
Can you swap out for 250 watt bulbs?

My Ballasts are digital and have a knob that goes down to 250. I should ask Hamilton Lighting....

DraggingTail · Feb 25, 2020

Bpb said:
The challenge here is not knowing what zoox clades are present in the OP’s acropora colonies and frags. So applying photo saturation thresholds of porites lobata to the acropora species in question may be about as helpful as comparing it to that of a tomato plant. I exited the game of ornamental aquatic plants years ago but the same could be said about any variety of those as well.

I would be interested in determining the clades that are present in my system OR finding a way to diversify the clades in my system that way the coral have options if they choose to dump one clade for another.

However, I am not sure we are there yet...

rossco · Feb 26, 2020

This was the PAR in my 75 when I was running 250 watt Radiums. Main photo period was 7.5 hours. The corals at the surface were surely in PAR pushing 900 but they grew into that lighting level from 500 to 700 levels from frags. Unless the coral frags were grown in that high of par under metal halides, I would acclimate the corals slowly by starting them lower and moving upward.

They should be fine as far as lighting goes after they get used to the intensity and type of lighting. Lots of vendors are growing under LED now. I have first hand experience of assuming that you can just stick an acro under a similar PAR of a different type of light from when I switched from MH to LED the first time. Some will tolerate it and some will bleach, go dormant and/or die.

DraggingTail · Feb 26, 2020

rossco said:
This was the PAR in my 75 when I was running 250 watt Radiums. Main photo period was 7.5 hours. The corals at the surface were surely in PAR pushing 900 but they grew into that lighting level from 500 to 700 levels from frags. Unless the coral frags were grown in that high of par under metal halides, I would acclimate the corals slowly by starting them lower and moving upward.

They should be fine as far as lighting goes after they get used to the intensity and type of lighting. Lots of vendors are growing under LED now. I have first hand experience of assuming that you can just stick an acro under a similar PAR of a different type of light from when I switched from MH to LED the first time. Some will tolerate it and some will bleach, go dormant and/or die.

Thank you. Very helpful.

I have frags from TSA Aquatics and they mainly use LED but the frags I have were under both HM and LED so I think those are fine. They are starting to base out so I hope I am good.

DraggingTail · Feb 26, 2020

rossco said:
This was the PAR in my 75 when I was running 250 watt Radiums. Main photo period was 7.5 hours. The corals at the surface were surely in PAR pushing 900 but they grew into that lighting level from 500 to 700 levels from frags. Unless the coral frags were grown in that high of par under metal halides, I would acclimate the corals slowly by starting them lower and moving upward.

They should be fine as far as lighting goes after they get used to the intensity and type of lighting. Lots of vendors are growing under LED now. I have first hand experience of assuming that you can just stick an acro under a similar PAR of a different type of light from when I switched from MH to LED the first time. Some will tolerate it and some will bleach, go dormant and/or die.

How long did that take to grow out?