Poop colored corals

[RozZy]

OK guys, I had enough of this!

 

About 2 years ago I bought 4x Par 38 LED's from LEDTRIc. The lights look amazing and wow what a shimmer. Corals do grow, but theyre all brown and ugly, and its REALLY hard to put them in a place where they get enough light, it seems like they always too much light or too little light.

 

I have a mixed reef, with LPS and SPS and some softies (All are growing perfectly fine). The tank is a 75g Bow front, decently loaded (Around 9 fish, clowns, wrasse, tang, nothing that poops too much)

 

My water parameters are perfect, I dose Reef spectrum 1 & 2 every day with AcroPower 1-2 a week, I feed coral frenzy as well 3-4 times a month.

 

But the lights are making my corals look duller than a homeless person on a rainy day. Is this what I spent 300 bucks for those lights?

 

So i'm looking to upgrade, I want my corals to look just as good as when they came from the LFS

 

Now a couple of years has passed I'm pretty sure there's some better quality stuff.

 

I have been contemplating hard to buy the ATI Sunpower T5HO and switch over to fluorescent, but the price is just too stiff for me, its gonna cost around 700 bucks including the bulbs.

 

But what I have looked up are these (LED):

 

GalaxyHydro 55x3w Full Spectrum

http://www.amazon.com/Galaxyhydro-trade-Dimmable-Spectrum-Aquarium/dp/B00INM0J1M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1432243641&sr=8-1&keywords=reef+led

TaoTronics 165W

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0092LXQRM/ref=s9_simh_gw_p199_d0_i3?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=desktop-1&pf_rd_r=0PVJ0MEQFZGJSCA5EQ0E&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=2079475242&pf_rd_i=desktop

Another Aftermarket T5HO

http://www.ebay.com/itm/48-324W-T5-HO-Aquarium-Light-Hood-6x54W-Fluorescent-Actinic-Lamp-LCD-Timer-REEF-/310901236151?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item48632861b7

I cant seem to find any good reviews online except for those on Amazon (And we all know how fake those can be)

What should I do, I'm ripping my hair out on this one.

Here's a pic of my current setup.

[rone_kevin66]

If your budget is 700 look at either radion 30 pro g3, nanobox quad. Or if u want cheap led here is a like http://www.ebay.com/itm/311358905321#ht_3821wt_812

Price is for a pair.

[tjwaggoner]

I'm like you, got tired of wondering about LEDs and went with a t5 fixture for my new build. Put good bulbs in it and replace them once a year and that's one less thing about the hobby to worry about and fuss over.

LEDs are great in my opinion but not for the reasons most people give. For starters when you use the proper amount of LEDs to light a tank properly you don't really save any appreciable amount of electric. Again, when you buy enough quality fixtures to properly light a tank (conservatively double what the mfg suggests) the cost of entry is extremely high (can buy a lot of bulbs for the difference). And for me at least the 50,000 hour lifespan is just marketing speak, if people are honest with themselves very few would ever keep an led fixture that long especially since they produce the next newest best fixture almost monthly it seems.

These are of course just my reasons that I personally don't want a led only set up. The benefit just isn't there in my eyes for what you give up with more proven simpler systems.

I think that the next wave of hybrid t5 led fixtures will be the best all around lighting systems. Like the nanobox hybrid, the AtI power module, and a few others. Price on these will be similar to properly outfitting a tank with led only fixtures though. If money was not any object I would have one of these systems over a ceiling full of radions. Again, opinion. I'm not at all begrudging anyone their own decision here.

I just bought one of these for my new build. Haven't got the tank up yet but the fixture is built well and the legs on these 6 bulb fixtures are pretty sturdy feeling. Built in timer, one cord, moonlight LEDs. Nice fixture for the money. Is your tank 48"?

http://www.amazon.com/Aquatic-Life-4-Lunar-Aquarium-48-Inch/dp/B00345VY0I

[RozZy]

I'm like you, got tired of wondering about LEDs and went with a t5 fixture for my new build. Put good bulbs in it and replace them once a year and that's one less thing about the hobby to worry about and fuss over.

LEDs are great in my opinion but not for the reasons most people give. For starters when you use the proper amount of LEDs to light a tank properly you don't really save any appreciable amount of electric. Again, when you buy enough quality fixtures to properly light a tank (conservatively double what the mfg suggests) the cost of entry is extremely high (can buy a lot of bulbs for the difference). And for me at least the 50,000 hour lifespan is just marketing speak, if people are honest with themselves very few would ever keep an led fixture that long especially since they produce the next newest best fixture almost monthly it seems.

These are of course just my reasons that I personally don't want a led only set up. The benefit just isn't there in my eyes for what you give up with more proven simpler systems.

I think that the next wave of hybrid t5 led fixtures will be the best all around lighting systems. Like the nanobox hybrid, the AtI power module, and a few others. Price on these will be similar to properly outfitting a tank with led only fixtures though. If money was not any object I would have one of these systems over a ceiling full of radions. Again, opinion. I'm not at all begrudging anyone their own decision here.

I just bought one of these for my new build. Haven't got the tank up yet but the fixture is built well and the legs on these 6 bulb fixtures are pretty sturdy feeling. Built in timer, one cord, moonlight LEDs. Nice fixture for the money. Is your tank 48"?

http://www.amazon.com/Aquatic-Life-4-Lunar-Aquarium-48-Inch/dp/B00345VY0I

 

 

Hi Tj!

 

Yes my tank is 48"!

 

Thats a much better price than the ATI fixture, the question is why is it cheaper? Does the ballast break easily?

[metrokat]

Quick question for you. What are your nitrates and phosphates at?

[CJJon]

Quick question for you. What are your nitrates and phosphates at?

+1

 

Don't say 'all parameters are in check'

[RozZy]

+1

 

Don't say 'all parameters are in check'

 

Haha!

 

My nitrates are way below 5ppm (API test kit), its so low I can barely read any coloration change, If I could guess it would be around 1-2 ppm, same with my phosphates.

 

I run Biopellets and did a skimmer upgrade (Aquamaxx EM200) about 5 months ago.

 

Before the skimmer upgrade I had cyano blooms and things just kept dying. But now the corals & fish are thriving better than I ever experienced on a tank i owned, its just.. the color is literally poop on my SPS!

[metrokat]

API isn't the best kit, if you are able to get your parameters tested at the LFS, do so. The coral coloration could also be a result of parameters not being optimal.

[tjwaggoner]

Rozzy,

It's cheaper due to a few reasons (ballasts is something I can't comment on as I've not used the fixture yet--can only speak to the features/build). The build quality isn't as good as the German made ati I'm sure, the bulbs it comes with aren't thought to be the best quality either. But the reflectors are nice, light penetrates the tank well with little spill. If the ballasts and fans hold up I think it's a pretty nice fixture provided you throw in some high quality bulbs. It won't be worth as much used as an ati fixture either if thats a concern.

Are you seeing other signs of your water quality not being ideal? Nussiance algae? Anything? Or is it just the coloring on coral?

[CJJon]

Nano Box. PM Dave and have him hook you up with a Quad. That's what I would do.

[RozZy]

Rozzy,

It's cheaper due to a few reasons (ballasts is something I can't comment on as I've not used the fixture yet--can only speak to the features/build). The build quality isn't as good as the German made ati I'm sure, the bulbs it comes with aren't thought to be the best quality either. But the reflectors are nice, light penetrates the tank well with little spill. If the ballasts and fans hold up I think it's a pretty nice fixture provided you throw in some high quality bulbs. It won't be worth as much used as an ati fixture either if thats a concern.

Are you seeing other signs of your water quality not being ideal? Nussiance algae? Anything? Or is it just the coloring on coral?

 

 

 

It's funny you ask about Nuissance algae.

 

There's none! The Protein skimmer upgrade & adding a biopellet reactor took care of that. Pre-upgrade I had red cyanobloom and algae growing everywhere, the tank looked like crap, only corals that survived were softies (Of course those dirt eating bastards).

 

But ever since the upgrade, no algae at all!!! My waterchanges have reduced by 300%, I used to do 20 gallons a week, I'm down to a meager 10 gallons every two weeks, if even that. I'll definitely bring a sample to my LFS to see what they say.

 

I went from scraping every corner of the glass every second day because of Cyano/Algae to scraping some spots on the glass every 2 weeks. The coloration of the SPS is the only weird part. Everything seems to thrive better than ever before.

 

The birdsnests I have are "growing" toward the light source, but the damn PAR38's are so "spotlighted" that once they've grown under it, they instantly bleach, one of them turned white even though its basically 2-3 feet away from the light source.

 

The tests I've tried are the liquid ones and the strips. Both have the exact same results, nitrates are barely noticable and the phosphate test is doing the same.

[Cameron6796]

^^^ yep. That's what I would get. The lighting won't be your only problem, I've seen nice colours under yellow lighting, which in case you don't know is not the greatest at bringing out coral colours.