Zero Nitrate causing my Acros to just be Brown?

SeaDweller · Mar 29, 2019

cain720 said:
Adam at Battlecorals, one of the best acro vendors in the buisness, uses the Reefbreeders Photon V2 as a stand alone light.

Not only him, but Tim Herman here too.

Chris Spaulding · Mar 29, 2019

Yes I am leaning to the Reefbreaders v2+ as I have several pieces from Adam @ Battlecorals

jda · Mar 29, 2019

Adam does a good job. When I saw, he was also running them at 100% on all channels, had them way up high and they were flanked by Metal Halides. There is a thread on this, with photos in his forum. I really like how open and honest he is.

My normal thing is to caution people not to take parts and pieces of what a vendor does and try and make them your own. This usually is wrought with failure... either take it all, or just look towards a hobbyist who has goals more like yours.

DesertReefT4r · Mar 29, 2019

The V2+ is a pretty good light and I think if implemented properly would work well for sps. The Sol Blue was a good light at the time and I saw a few really nice reefs using them but just as many reefs not doing so well with them. Hopefully you get your color loss issies figured out. If I make any progress I will report back.

SOCOM · Mar 30, 2019

jda said:
IMO, neither of those lights are great for acropora. You can do better. They are better for other types of coral. Are you looking at reviews from people who grow SPS? Nearly all Kessil users add T5s quickly. Atlantik V4 is very good and not too different price than the AP700. Others will probably disagree.

JDA, LED users do not want to hear your propaganda lol. I gave up trying to educate people on a primary source of light and supplemental, especially with SPS..... your post is right on with the issue.

jda · Mar 30, 2019

All that I can do is offer my experiences, observations and opinions. If nobody wants to consider them, then so be it. The only Photon V2 tanks that I have ever seen that work well with SPS have them up a few feet with the channels all at 100% - these are few. I have seen many, many more fail, get T5s added and then replaced with other units or even more T5s. If people cannot see that a few "easy" sticks in a mixed reef is not the same as a SPS dominant tank, then we can just agree to be watching different games. I gave the only example that I knew of a really nice SPS reef with V2 photons - therman's tank. I have seen a lot of nice mixed reefs with Photon V2 lights that have a few SPS in them here or there. I recommend Photon V2s to people who want mixed reefs since I like the coverage and less shadowing... I just think that you can do way better for a SPS and acropora tank (this is the SPS forum).

Kessils are underpowered and you need a ton of them beyond having a small tank. Period. They also shadow a lot as colonies grow. You see nearly all of them get added to Aquatic Life Hybrids and then the owners are more happy. Again, talking mostly about SPS only and dominant tanks here, not a mixed reef.

I would like all of my haters to spare me the PMs and stuff since I never once mentioned any other light type than LEDs.

DesertReefT4r · Mar 30, 2019

jda said:
All that I can do is offer my experiences, observations and opinions. If nobody wants to consider them, then so be it. The only Photon V2 tanks that I have ever seen that work well with SPS have them up a few feet with the channels all at 100% - these are few. I have seen many, many more fail, get T5s added and then replaced with other units or even more T5s. If people cannot see that a few "easy" sticks in a mixed reef is not the same as a SPS dominant tank, then we can just agree to be watching different games. I gave the only example that I knew of a really nice SPS reef with V2 photons - therman's tank. I have seen a lot of nice mixed reefs with Photon V2 lights that have a few SPS in them here or there. I recommend Photon V2s to people who want mixed reefs since I like the coverage and less shadowing... I just think that you can do way better for a SPS and acropora tank (this is the SPS forum).

Kessils are underpowered and you need a ton of them beyond having a small tank. Period. They also shadow a lot as colonies grow. You see nearly all of them get added to Aquatic Life Hybrids and then the owners are more happy. Again, talking mostly about SPS only and dominant tanks here, not a mixed reef.

I would like all of my haters to spare me the PMs and stuff since I never once mentioned any other light type than LEDs.

I totally agree with you and the short coming of using LED as a primary or sol light source for a sps dominated reef. There is a reason why I ended up staying with the old school "out dated" metal halide to light my sps reef tank. The V2+ was high on my list of LED lights though. The thing with using LED as a primary light source is you need a lot of them to get proper coverage and minimize shadowing. This is the reason my those using LED with success have them mounted so high and running them at 100% on all channels, to give enough spread, blending and still have enough PAR to color and grow acropora. Good examples are Jason Fox and WWC both use LED to grow all types of sps with great success but mount them high and use several fixtures to provide spread.

Scdell · Mar 30, 2019

Sorry, but no nitrates with po4 is asking for trouble. It's a bad combo. Dose some nitrates. Same with the other way around. Corals need po4 and nitrate. Just not a lot. No nitrate with po4 will cause browning. Next step the coral dies.

Chris Spaulding · Mar 31, 2019

Just started dosing some nitrate (brightwell) half of the recomended dose for starters will check levels in 24 hrs and adjust from there slowly.
I will keep updated as to progress but keeping thing slow nothing fast

Fishguy597 · Mar 31, 2019

What do you mean that the light intensity is 25% lower than you want? My experience is when my acros are brown they arent receiving enough light. Usually if there isnt enough nutrients they get very pastel. If they are getting to much light they usually get very light and starve. I find this especially true if you have low NO3.
Montis do not require a ton of light. If it were me I would gradually bring up the intensity slowly and let the corals tell you what they like. FWIW I would feed more to get your nitrates up.

Chris Spaulding · Mar 31, 2019

Yes that is what I am doing. When I was able to borrow a par meter I also found that the settings I was running were too low. Was running about 175 too 185. So I am ramping up slowly adding about 4-5% a week. I took readings what my settings should be to get me to 280-310 par levels. I was running whites 10% blues 38% royals at 36% . I need to get them to white 20% blues and royals to 60% . This will get me to the 300 too 320.

On a good note my budget for new lighting just increase due too an extra $1000 at the blackjack table today. So I will be ordering an Atlantic v4 full panel tomorrow. Time to up grade the old AI sol blues.