When to lower light intensity as a reef tank CPR move

[brandon429]

Team, you need to know that being able to revert back to cloudy day/low lighting is the #1 thing you do as tank CPR before any other action.
Water charges come after

Preventing light sunburn is #1


temperature insults cold and hot.

chemical burns, overdoses.

events where you think ammonia has spiked and held for days (side note, it hasn't heh)


especially after sandbed removals, rock swaps, deep cleans.

alk events

power outage recovery

sudden cloudy water events, o2 drop suspected scenarios

rarely does anyone in these emergency threads account for simple sunburn and many corals are lost.

arresting rtn cascades is a big deal, full-on lighting brings them on with zest when the other causatives are in place.

full on lighting is for ideal conditions, stasis, not for change you'll peel off skin with total photoburn if you miss being dynamic with your lighting intensity, time your breaks and save your corals.

your led cannons are relentless lol chill them sometimes, we all make reef mistakes that require this dynamic prep.

CPR for reef tanks can save you thousands of dollars, and the first prep is light dropping, before compressions (cleaning and export of lost materials, restoring o2 and co2 balance by removing accumulation, depending on the insult)

If you ever wonder if something bad has happened to your reef and corals are closed up and mad, start the fix by dropping back to light levels as brand new/low acclimation level as you search for the cause or remedy.

 

[Reefer5640]

Thanks, good advice. Easy to overlook.

 

[brandon429]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/unhappy-with-my-tank-need-some-advice.800131/page-2#post-8533634
Two applications ran here team

 

[brandon429]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/crazy-ammonia-spike.796492/
Ammonia was not the cause here of sps loss. We spent so much time diagnosing a non existent ammonia issue that we skipped dropping lights a little while too long, caught in nick of time, rtn arrested

 

[brandon429]

My own reef:

My reefbowl after 11 years running started to bleach in 2017 for unknown reasons

Super old corals with pop started going white, I freaked. I called my lfs and by desperate questioning basically accused them of selling me bad water, they assured me it wasn't.

I then emailed Kessil asking if their lights have burned out/ the a160 of somehow burning my prized blasto


But during two months of unreasonable reef panic I'd already dropped lights 70% they were barely on this absolutely saved my reef from total peel loss.

On week eight, low on people to accuse, I noticed in my water change the water in my testless pico was bone cold. The mini heater I'd hacked apart to fit the bowl shorted and it turns out reefs don't want to be 68 degrees for eight weeks.

Wal mart

New heater tetra preset

Slow ramp up, safe

One single day of full light at any time means irretrievable loss, being dynamic with light saved my reef and my apology skills saved my good water source

Barely saved back to

Blueberry monti and lobo are immune to all temp insults apparently, they never faltered

 

[Tiki Reef Joshua]

My own reef:

My reefbowl after 11 years running started to bleach in 2017 for unknown reasons

Super old corals with pop started going white, I freaked. I called my lfs and by desperate questioning basically accused them of selling me bad water, they assured me it wasn't.

I then emailed Kessil and by inference of asking if their lights have burned out accused them/ the a160 of somehow burning my prized blasto


But during two months of unreasonable reef panic I'd already dropped lights 70% they were barely on this absolutely saved my reef from total peel loss.

On week eight, low on people to accuse, I noticed in my water change the water in my testless pico was bone cold. The Chinese mini heater I'd hacked apart to fit the bowl shorted and it turns out reefs don't want to be 68 degrees for eight weeks.

Wal mart

New heater tetra preset

Slow ramp up, safe

One single day of full light at any time means irretrievable loss, being dynamic with light saved my reef and my apology skills saved my good water source

Barely saved back to

Blueberry monti and lobo are immune to all temp insults apparently, they never faltered

brandon,
Do you think running intermittent storm or cloud-cover programs if lights are able to do so is beneficial? Do you think it can give corals a more realistic break from constantly roasting?

 

[brandon429]

I’m not sure on that one, whether it matters in health, mine don’t get ramped it’s just full on/off 9 hours photoperiod


its mainly that trick of reducing intensity immediately a while when the tank is under any insult, such a critical cpr move for reef restoration


I bet if we built big shade nets over sections of real reefs those test areas would bleach less too, such as areas of loss in the GBR just brainstorming but it for a fact works on reef tanks

good job catching the light power here upon upgrade and coral retraction:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/scoly-coral-receding.806408/
We drop lights when corals start to bleach or lighten, first move in tank CPR>

What's the clue for the cause here
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/tank-trouble.803214/

 

[brandon429]

Bump

power outage recovery = re ramp lights.




pH insults, lower light and re ramp. we will prevent much more bleaching with this pairing.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/c...eek-after-a-huge-mistake.806818/#post-8627988
and another
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/lighting-upgrades-word-to-the-wise.811524/

 

[brandon429]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/l...s-into-800l-display-tank.823225/#post-8851252

light dropping is first cpr move in phosphate stripping overdoses.

edit for 2023:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/montipora-bleaching-expert-needed.1018060/#post-11917177
peers told him to increase light power, vs decrease it.