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Is ricordea bleaching?


cal1319

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Had this for a month or so... It's on the bottom of the tank... Just checked water it's fine... Not sure if it's just getting bigger or what but colors look a little less.... The middle looks almost clear... I could be paranoid... What do you'll think?!

 

Cheers

Chris

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Looks like today it was getting rid of excess zoo... There was red/brown slimmy stuff coming out of it's mouth.... Do you think there is to much light? It's at the bottom of a 15g column tank with led strips and one t5

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What is the height of the tank and what are all the lights you have on it? You metion 1x T5 and some LED strips - what kind of strips and what is the T5 power?

 

When they are in a lack of light they stretch out as big as they can to take up as much space as they can and start looking almost clear. I doubt you are bleaching it if it has been there a month - typically they bleach quickly if it is too much light.

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Thanks for the reply... It's a 9" coralife 10k T5... Two 10k stunners...1 14k stunner 2 actinic stunners and one violet stunner all 12" the tank is around 24" deep and it's on the bottom...

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This is what it looks like now... Never really seems to get all full and big like if thought it would...

 

This is the hight of the tank... Light is without the T5 on...

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Definitely lack of light.

 

4 stunner strips on a 24" deep tank seems like very, very little light - 1w LEDs don't penetrate deeply into the water... They are okay on a very shallow tank, but not on a deep one like yours. Also, a 9" standard 6 watt T5 is not doing anything either. You need to move that ric way up to the top. I am not sure if you have enough light to keep coral of any kind in the bottom 1/3 of the tank.

 

Stunner strips aren't really meant to be primary lights.

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Thanks for the feed back... I had it up top at first and it looked really angry so I moved it down... I'll try middle of the tank see if it is happier! Thank you for the input! All the other corals seem happy... I don't have anything crazy just some shrooms a torch... Candy cane... Few zoas and nephea...

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Have you tried the cheap reflector addons for the stunners? It will help with light penetration a bit, but not much. If it's expelling brown gunk then usually that's an indication of too much light.

 

Coralife Mini Aqualight T5 Dual Lamp Fixture - 2 x 6 W

 

Is this the light you have? I do think it's possible for that normal output light plus stunner strips to provide plenty of PAR for this tank, but a PAR meter would really help out here. :)

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I modded the original fixture that came with the tank to fit one 9" 10k bulb... It does have a reflector on it... I actually have left over reflector material and was thinking of adding them to the strips... The ric has never really looked to happy... I saw it expell what looked like brown stuff then the next day the inner part looked clear and the ric seemed to be stretching on a pedestal for light probably.. I moved it up halfway in the tank... When I get home from lab I'll take a look at it... If it looks more angry then before I guess I should move it back down?! The torch is down low and is fine as with the mushrooms (I know they don't need much of anything) also have a candy cane that is close to bottom and is doing good.... Thabks for all the input fellas!

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Have you tried the cheap reflector addons for the stunners? It will help with light penetration a bit, but not much. If it's expelling brown gunk then usually that's an indication of too much light.

 

Coralife Mini Aqualight T5 Dual Lamp Fixture - 2 x 6 W

 

Is this the light you have? I do think it's possible for that normal output light plus stunner strips to provide plenty of PAR for this tank, but a PAR meter would really help out here. :)

 

Ricordea doesn't just expell zooxanthella because it has too much light - they expel it for a variety of stressors. I would not call 4 stunner strips (which are 1w LEDs) and a single regular output T5 "too much light" on a 24" deep tank... He is WAY underlit.

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Ricordea doesn't just expell zooxanthella because it has too much light - they expel it for a variety of stressors. I would not call 4 stunner strips (which are 1w LEDs) and a single regular output T5 "too much light" on a 24" deep tank... He is WAY underlit.

totally not disagreeing... I moved it up this morning... I will see if there is a positive or negative impact on the move. Checked the water again today:

Ammonia- 0

Nitrite - 0

Nitrate 0-5

Ca - 420

Dkh - 9

pH 8.1

1.025

Temp 78

 

Any other suggestion would be great... I really like the look of rics and would like to make this one happy too...

 

Cheers

Chris

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I modded the original fixture that came with the tank to fit one 9" 10k bulb... It does have a reflector on it... I actually have left over reflector material and was thinking of adding them to the strips... The ric has never really looked to happy... I saw it expell what looked like brown stuff then the next day the inner part looked clear and the ric seemed to be stretching on a pedestal for light probably.. I moved it up halfway in the tank... When I get home from lab I'll take a look at it... If it looks more angry then before I guess I should move it back down?! The torch is down low and is fine as with the mushrooms (I know they don't need much of anything) also have a candy cane that is close to bottom and is doing good.... Thabks for all the input fellas!

 

Rics need more light than regular shrooms, so I think lack of light is probably the issue. Corals are not quick to respond so you can't really expect it to recover in a day. Keep it up higher for a while and keep observing it.

 

Any reason you decided to run with just a single bulb?

 

I like those column tanks. You might want to consider using a PAR LED bulb to light it, rather than cramming a bunch of expensive stunner strips. You gotta watch this hobby ... you have probably spent enough to afford a good off the shelf LED light for this tank. :)

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I really had no idea what I was doing. I had a 55 gallon cichlid tank with the strips as accent light and I had a ballast and endcaps from another freshwater tank. I wanted a nano reef and just took down all the tanks I had because of move. Sold the cichlids and the tank but kept the 110AC and lighting components. Got an itch one Saturday after getting back home for lab and kinda started to piece the tank together. Modded the 110 and pieced the lighting together. I really just bought the 9" T5. What light would your recommend for the tank. I like having the top still on the tank that kinda why I just placed whatever I could under the top...

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totally not disagreeing... I moved it up this morning... I will see if there is a positive or negative impact on the move. Checked the water again today:

Ammonia- 0

Nitrite - 0

Nitrate 0-5

Ca - 420

Dkh - 9

pH 8.1

1.025

Temp 78

 

Any other suggestion would be great... I really like the look of rics and would like to make this one happy too...

 

Cheers

Chris

 

Your parameters look fine but the key to success is stability. Make sure things aren't fluctuating (they shouldn't be since your tank isn't full of stony corals) and keep up with water changes and you are good to go. Now that you moved it, don't change anything for a month. Corals take a while to recover and adjust to changes - nothing good happens fast.

 

Move the Ricordea up higher - that is for sure. Definitely in the top 1/3 of the tank if you can. You shouldn't have to worry about bleaching a Ricordea Florida because of too much light with your setup - they can handle very high PAR levels and quickly acclimate to changes in lighting.

 

I would certainly look into upgrading your lights in the fututure. If you like LED, go with a fixture that has 3-5w LEDs on it (for the price, you can't be a NanoBox or ReefBreeders). If you want T5s, a quad T5HO (not standard output like you have) with good reflectors would be a good choice if you find one that fits your tank. You get what you pay for and you want to make sure you have a fixture designed for a reef. You can get away with less powerful lighting on a very shallow tank, but a 24" deep tank needs good lighting if you want corals down bottom.

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So how long should I wait to make judgment if it's happy... Got home and it looks pretty small

 

Well if you keep moving it around it'll never be happy. Once you move it higher up, stop moving it around and just leave it there. Let it be for a week or two without doing a thing. If it goes downhill in that time period then you can consider taking action at the end. But, if there is no major changes leave it there for a few months. Corals don't grow quickly.

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