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Alaska_Phil

Too much light?

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17 Comments
by
Alaska_Phil
, 10-13-2010 at 02:52 PM (1903 Views)
Ever since I upgraded my tank from 2x55W PC lights, to 4x54W T5's my finger leathers, toadstool and various mushrooms and even my Zoanthids have been slowly dwindling! The finger leathers almost never extend polyps anymore and have shriveled up to half their original size, the Toadstool only opens it's polyps at night, and slow retracts them after the lights come on. And my mushrooms are slowly dissappearing! My Zoanthids have great colors, but are not spreading, in fact the colony has been shrinking. On the other hand, my LPS corals are growing like gangbusters, and have wonderful extention and colors. And I have a little tiny patch of monti (1/4" or less) left from a colony that bleached last spring that seems to be growing quickly.

Could it be too much light? Or should I be looking for other causes? My Nitrate and Phosphate are undetectable, I keep Alk between 8 and 9 dKh and CA right around 400. So I don't think it's a water quality issue.

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Updated 10-16-2010 at 12:43 AM by melev

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‎ Questions - Need some input

Comments

  1. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    Here's a recent shot of my toadstool, this is about as much polyp extention as I ever see.
  2. Blown76mav's Avatar
    Did you acclimate the corals to the new lights or just POW! one day 110W of light to 216w the next day?

    How long have the new lights been up? Whats the water temp now compared to before? Anything else been added or changed since then?
  3. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    I did aclimate them to the new lights by only running half at a time, then slowly increasing the overlap time. That was over a year ago. Biggest other change since then has been adding a sump and algae turf scrubber, which has pretty much eliminated nusiance algae in the display. Here's a pic from right before the lighting upgrade:



    The toadstool was pretty unhappy that day, since I'd just done some rearranging, but you can see how much the mushrooms and other corals were open compared to this recent FTS:



    Though I love the fact that the rocks are clean now, but my tank looks so barren with all the mushrooms and leathers shriveled up.
    Updated 10-13-2010 at 08:53 PM by Alaska_Phil
  4. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    Temp is steady at 80F just as before.
  5. MeVsTheWorld's Avatar
    edit.........
  6. Reefdaddy's Avatar
    Turf scrubber can be notorious for eliminating good stuff out as well as the DOC's that create algae. I would take the TS offline for a week and monitor what happens. Also add some rock to the current rock you have or rearrange the rock to make shade spots for your corals.

    Are your T5's overdriven?
  7. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    Reefdaddy, this started happening before I added the turf scrubber, so I doubt it's the culprit. The problem with taking it off line, is that it'll take several weeks to catch up and get back to functioning like it was before.

    I did move one of my finger leathers under the overflow box a few weeks back, the darkest corner of the tank, but it didn't seem to make a difference. so I'm not convinced it's the light entirely either.
  8. Reefdaddy's Avatar
    Hmm Do you have star polyps in your tank at all? Or any corals that send out stringers? Maybe they ahitting your other corals .
  9. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    No star polyps, but I do have a large frogspawn on the opposite side of the tank.
  10. T5FL's Avatar
    What T5 bulbs are you using? For four bulbs i would have two actinic, one aquablue special and either a figi purple or a 6500 K. Im running 8x54 Watt T5's and have no problems with leathers, zoos, lps, or sps.
  11. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    2 blue Plus
    1 Special Blue (12,000K)
    1 Figi purple
  12. T5FL's Avatar
    Did you pick up any hitchhikers? I had a decorator crab that came in on some live rock that i had no idea was there, my polyps were slowly but Shirley disappearing until one day i saw some xiena moving around that it put on its back and found my problem.
  13. melev's Avatar
    How long are you running the lights? What temperature is the tank peaking at? What distance are the lights from the water?
  14. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    I'm running the lights for 11 hrs a day, but only running all 4 for 7 hours now. The lights are about 4" abaove the water and the temp stays constant at 80F day and night, the slots in the back and top of my hood seem to provide good convection cooling, and of course the turf scrubber provides additional evaporative cooling. I was running all 4 lights for 9 hours and since I cut back the toadstool seems to extend it's polyps in the norning, then slowly retract them untill it's completely closed up by half way through the photo period.
  15. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by T5FL
    Did you pick up any hitchhikers? I had a decorator crab that came in on some live rock that i had no idea was there, my polyps were slowly but Shirley disappearing until one day i saw some xiena moving around that it put on its back and found my problem.
    None that I've caught, and I've made night time hunts with the red flashlight several times too.
  16. melev's Avatar
    It still sounds like too much light. Could you raise them up off the water 2" more?
  17. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    Not without building a new hood, or doing something temporary and hokey looking, which wouldn't fly in the office lobby. I can trim back the full on period some more and see if that does the trick.

    A new taller hood is possible, but not till I get a couple other projects out of the way first.