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TH3C1SC0K1D

Possible Lighting Intensity Issue Causing Tissue Necrosis on SPS Corals.

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by
TH3C1SC0K1D
, 10-24-2011 at 09:38 PM (6895 Views)
I have run into my first major issue with my reef aquarium. I built my LED Lighting System myself. It consist of 4 independent Meanwell LPC-5-700W Drivers each with 6 LED's (three Cree XP-G R5 Cool White LED's & three Cree XP-E Royal Blue LED's) for a total of 24 LED's with 40 degree reflectors. I originally had the lighting system suspended about 8 inches from the top of the aquarium. My seabed is located 15 inches into the aquarium. This lighting system put out the equivalent of a 250 watt Metal Halide System (if not more). I have stable water parameters and temperature and decided to purchase a few small frags to test my worthiness of SPS Corals. I am starting to see sign of Tissue Necrosis. I immediately thought that this was caused due to my water parameters not being accurately assessed since I am utilizing an Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Test Kit. So I went to Greenwich Aquaria to purchase some Elos test kits. After some discussion about my issue we started to connect some dots. He has had a few customers with LED Lighting Kits (example: Aqua Illumination) that had their SPS Corals also experience Tissue Necrosis due to the intensity of the LED Lighting. So this started to make sense. I have a perfectly healthy clam that I purchased from a fellow reef keeper which has all the Mantle recessed for weeks. I originally suspected Pinched Mantel Disease but everything is starting to point to the intensity of the LED Lights. So I have raised the lighting system suspension from 8 inches to 16 inches above the aquarium in hopes to decrease the intensity but I may just have to purchase all new reflectors. What are your thoughts? Do you agree that the reflectors could be focusing too much light downward which is increasing the intensity to the level that the corals connect be exposed to? If so should I purchase 65 degree or 80 degree reflectors? Thank you in advance for all the advice.





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‎ Tank Entry , ‎ NEED HELP STAT! , ‎ Lighting , ‎ Questions - Need some input

Comments

  1. baker.shawn's Avatar
    yup this looks about similar to what happened with me, when i switched from a 150W MH with 2 T5ho to 36 XP crees even with the lights turned way down i experienced bleaching, my coral is just coming back now, i had to do a verrrry slow ramp up on the intensity. my clam is doing okay...but not great
  2. Myhahockeykid's Avatar
    2 words... PAR meter

    Ask around your local reef club to see if they have a club meter they lend out or find a few reefing buddies and pony up for one.

    IMO nobody should be switching from their old lighting to their new LED builds without one, considering how much livestock you can kill very easily.
  3. cyano's Avatar
    you can try lower in the tank as well as screening under the lights to dim them a bit before they get to the corals and clams, anytime that you get a new frag make sure to take note of what kind of lighting they were under before you purchased it, marine stores try and have a fast turnover rate and alot tend to cheap out on lighting as they see a lower profit margin in having to replace "expensive" bulbs
  4. Myhahockeykid's Avatar
    ^ +1

    I took a PAR meter to my LFS one day...250W radiums that were over a year old (dates were over a year ago written on the bulb) and the corals in the tubs were getting about 50-100 PAR...thats less than I get on my sandbed (~280) with (7) 5 month old bulbs in my TEK 8x54W fixture hung 14" off the water (yes I wired it for 7 bulbs b/c I was bleaching corals all over the tank and saw no need to waste more power).
  5. TH3C1SC0K1D's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by baker.shawn
    yup this looks about similar to what happened with me, when i switched from a 150W MH with 2 T5ho to 36 XP crees even with the lights turned way down i experienced bleaching, my coral is just coming back now, i had to do a verrrry slow ramp up on the intensity. my clam is doing okay...but not great
    Thank you for the information. I hope my clam decides to spring back also.
  6. TH3C1SC0K1D's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Myhahockeykid
    2 words... PAR meter

    Ask around your local reef club to see if they have a club meter they lend out or find a few reefing buddies and pony up for one.

    IMO nobody should be switching from their old lighting to their new LED builds without one, considering how much livestock you can kill very easily.
    Thank you for the information. I might just order one today. But this is my first lighting system so I didn't have anything prior.
  7. TH3C1SC0K1D's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by cyano
    you can try lower in the tank as well as screening under the lights to dim them a bit before they get to the corals and clams, anytime that you get a new frag make sure to take note of what kind of lighting they were under before you purchased it, marine stores try and have a fast turnover rate and alot tend to cheap out on lighting as they see a lower profit margin in having to replace "expensive" bulbs
    I am going to actually reduce the lighting period currently on each of the units and also increase the staggered lighting time from 30 minutes to probably 1.5 hours to 2 hours each. Since I don't have dimmers and I have to wait about 1 weeks for the new 80 degree optics to arrive.
  8. Eric B's Avatar
    If you take off the 40 degree optics then run without them or you could just remove some until the others arrive. LED's have a 120 degree optic with no extra lenses.
  9. TH3C1SC0K1D's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Eric B
    If you take off the 40 degree optics then run without them or you could just remove some until the others arrive. LED's have a 120 degree optic with no extra lenses.
    I am contemplating on whether or not I should. My wife suffers from severe migraine headaches and I would hate to add to her discomfort by not utilizing lenes.