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cyano

If you have ever kept sps under T5 lighting advice needed

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6 Comments
by
cyano
, 04-21-2012 at 11:01 AM (5057 Views)
Well it's me again and again I am having questions about keeping millepora under my lighting. I have had these 4 millepora frags for over a month now and I figured I would slowly acclimate them starting from the bottom up to a higher location in the tank. I have all my brighter colored millepora just under halfway up the tank now but I have a more of a greenish colored one that I can't seem to get off the bottom of the tank. Everytime I moved it up even an inch all of it's polyps retract (I should note that none of them have good polyp extension at all) and the color gets lighter and fearing a bleach I quickly move it back to the bottom where it recovers in a matter of days. They are almost all showing growth and the one that stays at the bottom in the sand actually has the most growth of them all. I have an orange montipora cap high in the tank and loving it (then again nothing can kill that thing)

Currently I am running a 6 bulb T5 HO fixture on a 75 gallon but I have changed the lighting schedule on it with the assumption that my lights were frying the frags. All six bulbs are not on at the same time any more I run just 2 blue plus for about 3 hours and then those go off and I run the other 4 bulbs for about 5 hours and then everything goes off for the night I have only been running that schedule for a week. I have a Vortech MP40 running in short pulse right now for all my flow. I also am running Vertex bio pellets and refugium in a 35 gallon sump and a reef ocopus 150 skimmer.

All tank parameters as far as ammonia, nitrites, phosphates, and nitrates are zero. Dkh is currently 9 and I am slowly raising it, calcium is about 420, and magnesium about 1600 due to last months fight with bryopsis but this is a problem that has been going on before that.

I know I have been told to raise my lights up about 7" higher then they currently are before but my wife just isn't on board with that. So my question is am I on the right track running reduced light? How is it that I see sps dominated tanks with acros and milles up in the top part of the tank but I am having a hard time just keeping mine from getting fried in the lower half with these lights? any advice or answers would be greatly appreciated.

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‎ Lighting , ‎ Questions - Need some input

Comments

  1. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    cyano, I ran 4x54 T5's over a 55 gal tank with no adverse affects to anything. Including a Pocillapora and birds nest that're growing like a weeds. A friend of mine has 6 T5's over his 40 breeder and his center piece is a gorgeous tourquoise staghorn Acro, the top of which is only 2" below the surface now. Both of us run our lights 3 to 4" above the water, with good reflectors. He's using a Sunlight Supply fixture, and I'm using Icecap retrofit kits. We both run all our lights for most of the day.

    I know Marc has stated a couple times he think UV is the culprit (there's a comments to that effect in Eric Borneman's book too). But I've studied lighting design and wave propagation (in electromagnetics not water), and I can't see a couple more inches of air reducing UV at all. If you're worried about UV, you might try putting a glass shield between the lights and water. Cheap glass will filter out nearly all of the UV.

    That said, if the light is the problem at all, I wonder if the reflectors might be the problem. If you have really good reflectors, you might be getting only the spectrum of 1 lamp on a specific coral. Raising the lights would help them have more overlap before the light hits the water.

    Personally, I have trouble believing we could produce too much light, or UV, with our T5's for SPS corals. Most of these species live on the reef crest in the wild, where they're exposed to the direct sun with little or no water over them at low tide. Sunlight is 100 times more intense than any fluorescent at 5,000 footcandles (~50,000 lx) and 10X the the UV.

    I'm getting ready to set up a 75 myself, I'll be moving the current four T5's over to it, and adding 2 more. I have a low ceiling, where the tank is going, so my lights will again be only 4 inches or so off the water. I'm planning to have mainly SPS corals up high, so I'll keep you posted.

    Personally, I'd suspect the bryopsis, and your battle with that, may have had more of a detrimental effect on your corals than your lights. Be patient and let things stabilize for a bit.

    Phil
  2. cyano's Avatar
    Thanks for the reply phil. The only reason I stated that I didn't think that is was my bryopsis battle is because I was bleaching them up high in my tank last year before the first sign of bryopsis ever showed it's ugly face, not saying that the aftermath isn't a contributing factor at this time mind you. The lights right now sit 3-4" off of the water and the highest I have ever had any coral in the tank would still be a good 7-8" from the top of the tank (thats the current montipora I have never had an acro or millepora that high) meaning that when it's all said and done thats 10" from the lights, so I personally am leaning against a single spectrum possibility once again not saying that it's not it but I have my doubts about that being my problem right now. I may look at re installing my glass tank cover that I originally got with my tank to see if that helps at all crossing my fingers.

    Did you or your friend have a sealed tank? How do you acclimate your sps? and how long did it take you guys to move your corals from lower in the tank to higher? Did you have to move any lower to prevent bleaching and then re acclimate them to a higher location?

    Again thanks for reply Phil I would have responded back sooner but we went to the Tennessee Aquarium here locally in Chattanooga (my son loves it there) and I had to go look at some successful fish tanks but I really do like the idea of adding the glass back over my top and I will see if that helps.
  3. cyano's Avatar
    I have placed the glass back in between the light and the tank and reset the lights so that all six bulbs come on for about 4 hours together so I will observe the corals to see how they respond.
  4. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    First, I mis-spoke earlier. Tuan only has 4 T5's over his 40 breeder.

    I assume you're only interesed in light aclimation. I placed the frags where I wanted them right from the start. Then only used half my lights for the first day, gradually bringing the rest on an hour longer each day after.

    What spectrums are you running? Tuan and I are both running 2 actinics, 1 Figi purple, 1 10,000K lamps.

    I'm also considering a glass shield below my lights when I build my 75 set up, that was more to keep my reflectors clean than for UV shielding. I believe Tuan's fixture has some kind of shield under the lamps, but I don't know if it's lexan or glass. Lexan doesn't stop UV, glass does. My tank has nothing but 4" of air between my lamps and the water.

    Phil
  5. cyano's Avatar
    Currently I am running 3 blue plus, 2 fiji purple, and one guisenman that brings out the yellows but with them being blue plus rather than just actinics is probably going to be a bit stronger in my case. My particular light fixture has a lexan shield to keep the fixture clean. I would say that if I am having an issue with a 6 bulb fixture being possibly too strong on my 75 gallon then definitely take my current predicament into consideration when light fixture shopping, for the record mine is a currentUSA fixture. I am really crossing my fingers with this glass cover.
  6. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    I realize it's only been a week, but are you seeing any change since you added the glass?