LPS Too Little Light Symptoms

S

sharko88

Would think this info would be easier to find but maybe I am just not putting in good enough search criteria. What are some of the symptoms that an LPS coral is not getting enough light? I am trying to dial in my LEDs (Radions) and having a heck of a time.


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In my experience, if your water quality is good, lighting changes to LPS is something that takes time to notice. What kind of lps are you talking about?

corals such as zoo's and say frog spawn do not need allot of light and will open and thrive under little light. Too much light, such as concentrated light may cause you some issues.... If you water quality is good, they will open with just transient light. What kind of symptoms are you having with corals?


When moving to Led's, start with a good low light program and leave it there for several weeks and observe what is going on with the different types of corals before you start making changes. JMO, or take some one else's programing that works and go with it.
 
Need more info on what your issues are. I have DIY leds and grow sps on the bottom of my tank just fine. My last tank was the same and it was 31" deep with sps and lps growing fine on sandless bottom. Maybe your having other issues besides lighting. Like tray lot said lps and softies can do ok with little light.


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Well water quality had been absolutely perfect. Right now if I turn the overall intensity of the Radions past 45% the ridges of my favia start to lighten up. The top side of my kryptonite candy cane also starts to lighten up. My zoas are doing absolutly terrible. Not as big as they were when I got them and barely multiplying at all. And these are fast growers like Green Bay Packers, Radio active dragon eyes, and Eagle Eyes. The zoas don't multiply much though no matter where they are in the tank.

Most of this suggests too much light but the lights are mounted 14" above the water and the tank is 31" deep so surprised that 45% is not too little. Also things like the zoas on the bottom looking worse than the zoas on the top throw me into a never ending troubleshooting cycle. So that is why I want to know the symptoms of LPS not getting enough light.


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Well water quality had been absolutely perfect. Right now if I turn the overall intensity of the Radions past 45% the ridges of my favia start to lighten up. The top side of my kryptonite candy cane also starts to lighten up. My zoas are doing absolutly terrible. Not as big as they were when I got them and barely multiplying at all. And these are fast growers like Green Bay Packers, Radio active dragon eyes, and Eagle Eyes. The zoas don't multiply much though no matter where they are in the tank.

Most of this suggests too much light but the lights are mounted 14" above the water and the tank is 31" deep so surprised that 45% is not too little. Also things like the zoas on the bottom looking worse than the zoas on the top throw me into a never ending troubleshooting cycle. So that is why I want to know the symptoms of LPS not getting enough light.


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My current tank I is only 20" deep. I run blues and colors 100% no lenses at about 3" off of water. Whites 85% no lenses. I have a war coral that is growing like a weed sitting about 2" below water. Sps growing fast that is about 18" down. Zoas and acans on sandless bottom growing good as well. Can you post all your parameters, sal, alk, cal, mag, no2,no3, ect...
Pic of mine currently
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PH 8.3
salinity 1.026
Nitrates 0
Phosphates 0
Alkalinity 10 DKH
Calcium 420
Magnesium 1360





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Maybe your corals just were not getting enough light before and now they are needing a long time to switch to more light. What type of light did you have before? It can take corals a month or so to get used to more intense lighting.


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These are the only lights I have had in this tank and all corals have been in there from 4-8 months now


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It may not be the intensity but rather the duration of lighting per day that is the issue you seem to be encountering.
 
I have it setup to run for 10 hours (was only 8 hours for the first 3.5 months) with a sunset and sunrise setting where it starts out at Royal Blue only at 20%, both blues at 30%, then 20k, then 18k, then 14K, then the 12K for about 3 hours at 45% then step them down in reverse order.


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Try a lower intensity or shorter schedule. My lights (AI fixtures) are also 14" AWL or higher with a 24" deep tank and things like the Krpto candy canes will lose color like you describe if I go too high. I think the whites on my system are only at 30% max before I get bleaching on LPS. What I've done is move a lot of LPS to one section of the tank where I have a fixture set to lower power settings and the other fixtures over more SPS dominant areas are set higher.
 
My blues run 12 hours at 100% with ramp up for hour and down for an hour with whites on for about 4 hours.


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I run my lights about about 6 hours a day, plus ramp up and down. High noon over my reef is only 3 hours (all lights on at full blast). You should reduce the photo period for now as you find that sweet spot that the corals seem to thrive under.
 
I don't have the same lights as you have, but I basically run my lights for 14 hours/day ramping up to high dose of whites for 1 hour in the day and back down. Seems to work great for me and simulates summer sun. I don't think you are running lights too long, but as people have said it could be intensity. In my mind its still a water quality issue. How old are your test kits? What is the exp date on them?
 
Test kits are 10 months old. I have no reason to doubt the results as when I take my water into the LFS they get the same results. Expiration dates range from 12/2015 to 1/2018


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So I talked to Ecotech today and the tech said that my graph didn't have anything crazy in it and he is surprised I am having trouble. He said with the tank being 31" deep and 14" above the water, I should be able to safely operate in the range of 50% - 70% with no worries. I don't think I will be upping the overall intensity right off the bat though as he had another suggestion I want to try first. He suggested to run my lights with more blue in them during the high point. So instead of a 12K spectrum which is royal blue, blue, crisp white, green, and red all being the same level, that I should lower the whites, greens, and reds. So I am going to move down to a 13K or 14K spectrum during the high noon period as anything over 14K is too blue for my taste. I am going to keep my lights at that 45% though high noon and after a month, I may see what slowly upping the overall intensity percentage does.
 
I wonder if they are turning white from lack of light. Her is my par readings from my leds on current tank that is 20" deep. You can see how fast light levels drop.
[attachment=0]ImageUploadedByTapatalk1405459738.047451.jpg[/attachment]


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