Pale looking Corals

[oli98]

I'm currently running a 6gal Fluval Edge, modified with the top piece of glass removed. Been up and running a few months with no problems. A few weeks back, I swapped out my cheap Asta 20 LED for my old AI Prime HD. I started with real low intensity and noticed a few of my zoas reaching. I put it on acclimation mode for a month to bring intensity from about 30% to 55%. After a few weeks, 90% of my corals are looking really pale and washed out; particularly my zoas and my Alveopora. Can this be attributed to my light intensity or something else? Any advice would be appreciated. I've currently turned my light intensity back down to 30%. I know messing around with lighting all the time doesn't help so I'm just going to leave it there for a few weeks to see what happens.

 

I'm very particular on water quality and I've had ZERO swings for a long time and I test once or twice a week.

 

Current params:

Nitrate: 5ppm

Phosphate: 0.11 ppm

dKH: 8.6

Calcium: 425ppm

Magnesium: 1335ppm

pH: 8.3

Salinity: 34ppt

Temperature: 25C

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

 

[paulsz]

you parameters look fine. You can bring salinity up to 35ppt if you want, but that's not the issue. 

 

Is the new light running the same channels as the old light? same ratio of blues and whites and all? 

 

 

 

 

[jservedio]

Yeah, if you went up in light intensity, you can end up with paled out corals if you go a little too far (or bleached if you go way too far). Also, a month isn't really long enough for your corals to adjust to essentially doubling your power - It's good you backed off the lights. If things were stretching at 30%, try bumping to 35% since they already had a month acclimating to higher light - that's a much more reasonable change. Wait a couple months and then go slowly from there bumping 2-3% at a time until you get close to  where you are happy and then moving 1% up/down until you get just where you want.

 

More light doesn't mean more color and it's going to take some time to find the perfect balance for your tank between nutrient levels and light intensity. The biggest thing is only changing one thing at a time - if you are messing with your lights, do it very slowly while maintaining your nutrient levels.

[oli98]

On 11/30/2020 at 2:35 PM, paulsz said:

you parameters look fine. You can bring salinity up to 35ppt if you want, but that's not the issue. 

 

Is the new light running the same channels as the old light? same ratio of blues and whites and all? 

 

 

 

 

It was a completely different light so can only assume the AI prime is different ratios to my Asta 20. When messing with the AI Prime, I only adjusted overall intensity so ratios stayed the same.

[oli98]

On 11/30/2020 at 3:50 PM, jservedio said:

Yeah, if you went up in light intensity, you can end up with paled out corals if you go a little too far (or bleached if you go way too far). Also, a month isn't really long enough for your corals to adjust to essentially doubling your power - It's good you backed off the lights. If things were stretching at 30%, try bumping to 35% since they already had a month acclimating to higher light - that's a much more reasonable change. Wait a couple months and then go slowly from there bumping 2-3% at a time until you get close to  where you are happy and then moving 1% up/down until you get just where you want.

 

More light doesn't mean more color and it's going to take some time to find the perfect balance for your tank between nutrient levels and light intensity. The biggest thing is only changing one thing at a time - if you are messing with your lights, do it very slowly while maintaining your nutrient levels.

Much appreciated! I’ll keep that in mind, cheers. 

[A.m.P]

15 hours ago, oli98 said:

It was a completely different light so can only assume the AI prime is different ratios to my Asta 20. When messing with the AI Prime, I only adjusted overall intensity so ratios stayed the same.

The prime has easily double, if not triple, the PAR output of the Asta from what I recall; so it would be quite the shock.

My advice would be to look up the BRS AB+ program for the Prime, and then run on acclimation mode to bring it up to whatever percent will suit your PAR needs, based on the known numbers at-depth they provide, over two or three months.

30% white is allot on the primes, not as much on the newer ones, but the old non-HD primes could fry SPS @50% white, most keep them below 20%.

[mcarroll]

On 11/30/2020 at 6:08 AM, oli98 said:

A few weeks back, I swapped out my cheap Asta 20 LED for my old AI Prime HD. I started with real low intensity and noticed a few of my zoas reaching. I put it on acclimation mode for a month to bring intensity from about 30% to 55%.

I assume this was all done with no knowledge of what intensity level the old light or new light was generating?   At least comparing the operating wattage of both litghts to assure they were similar would have been something.

 

Just guessing at these things when you switch lights can be catastrophic for your corals.  

 

Get yourself a basic, inexpensive lux meter from amazon or eBay and use it to measure your old light.  Then set your new light to generate a similar intensity peak, as verified with the same light meter.  In the short term you can use a lux meter app for your phone, but verify that it gives you good readings before using it on your tank....sometimes the apps are sketchy and you have to try a different one.  This is the main reason that I recommend a dedicated handheld meter.  Plus they're cheap at $7-$20.  Almost a no-brainer at that cost.

 

 

[oli98]

On 12/2/2020 at 9:18 AM, mcarroll said:

I assume this was all done with no knowledge of what intensity level the old light or new light was generating?   At least comparing the operating wattage of both litghts to assure they were similar would have been something.

 

Just guessing at these things when you switch lights can be catastrophic for your corals.  

 

Get yourself a basic, inexpensive lux meter from amazon or eBay and use it to measure your old light.  Then set your new light to generate a similar intensity peak, as verified with the same light meter.  In the short term you can use a lux meter app for your phone, but verify that it gives you good readings before using it on your tank....sometimes the apps are sketchy and you have to try a different one.  This is the main reason that I recommend a dedicated handheld meter.  Plus they're cheap at $7-$20.  Almost a no-brainer at that cost.

 

 

Yeah well I knew that my prime was far stronger so I started with very low intensity. But corals started reaching for light so I upped it, probably too much and that’s been my issue then. Thanks for the lux meter tip, I’ll get myself one of those

[oli98]

On 12/1/2020 at 11:33 PM, A.m.P said:

The prime has easily double, if not triple, the PAR output of the Asta from what I recall; so it would be quite the shock.

My advice would be to look up the BRS AB+ program for the Prime, and then run on acclimation mode to bring it up to whatever percent will suit your PAR needs, based on the known numbers at-depth they provide, over two or three months.

30% white is allot on the primes, not as much on the newer ones, but the old non-HD primes could fry SPS @50% white, most keep them below 20%.

No I don’t have 30% whites, just overall intensity of 30% peak for my

blues, my whites are actually about 4%. Always done this as I prefer the bluer look! But thanks for the tips, I’ll check out ab+