From leds to MH

[StikHedRon]

So i have a question for you pros. i was running 2 24" non dimmable eshine fixtures over my 125 for about a year and everything was doing pretty well. Till i began noticing some acros becoming very pale and losing color and others browned out. I am certain it was the lighting as all my parameters have always been in check and am very disciplined on water changes. I had begun carbon dosing to help export nutrients and I think the added clarity caused burning in my corals. I never knew acros could turn brown from too much light. But since I have gone away from leds and to 3 250w pheonix 14k and 2 39w blue + and 2 39w true actinic. It's the maristar fixture. My halides are currently 10" off the surface and my acros are between 8-14" below the surface. What I'm asking I guess is rough estimate on how long it takes for acros to start getting their colors back in a stable system under this lighting?

 

[CoryC]

i ran into that issue but it was from lack of nutrients, not the lighting. maybe consider cutting back and keeping a dirtier tank, maybe running a high quality carbon instead for clarity. since its not a dimmable fixture, i doubt it had much to do with that.

 

[StikHedRon]

I also run rox 0.8 and gfo on the tank 24/7

 

[CoryC]

do you have a particle and mechanical form of filtration?

 

[StikHedRon]

I run filter socks and a xp 2000 skimmer

 

[mike007]

I agree with the lack of nutrients. When carbon dosing you should be able to feed corals more. When they start losing color normally it is caused by malnutrition. I do not think that the leds are the cause unless they are poor quality leds not giving them the correct spectrum and par.

 

[StikHedRon]

so.. i have been feeding reef pearls and oyster feast daily for about a month now because i thought maybe lack of nutrition could be part of it too. How long would you say befor noticable results are possibly seen? I have just recently stopped carbon dosing as I want to gt back to the minimalistic things like gfo and carbon only till I feel it's needed again.

 

[StikHedRon]

When they begin coming back so tosay, will they get darker before their true colors pop?

 

[Mr. D]

I would think darker is a good sign, but I'm not an expert on sps.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 4

 

[Mrfresh]

I had a very similar issue.

You have to find that sweet spot for your corals.i know my phos at .08 and nit at 10ppm my sps will look really colorful.
Lower then that they look pale and bad. To high and they bleach them self.

For me when I found the right range about a week at those levels and all my sps corals colored up pretty fast, I want to say about a full month to have there true color back and full PE

 

[StikHedRon]

So last night I took your advice Mrfresh, I am taking my GFO and Carbon offline for the moment. I'm not really sure how I can increase my nitrates? Any suggestions? I will be doing some testing and more testing and monitoring as the weeks pass by.

 

[lakeviewink]

I had similar issues and found dosing a high quality amino acid supplement, like AquaVitro Fuel, twice a week really helped too.

 

[StikHedRon]

I have been dosing Elos Omega and Elos Pro Skimmer. So it seems I'm on the right track with what everyone is saying. Now just a waiting game.

 

[shred5]

Browning out is not usually from lack of nutrients.. A coral getting lighter in color and lack of growth is from lack of nutrients.. Browning out is usually from lack of light or a increase of nutrients like phosphate and a increase in Zooxanthellae.

According to you the gfo and carbon dosing were started after they browned out am I correct? you added this to help fight against the browning out?

Were your leds full spectrum or just white and blue? Sps really prefer a wider spectrum and most people run to much blue with leds to increase fluorescence in corals but this will cause some sps to brown out.. My guess is this may have been the real problem..

 

[StikHedRon]

Just Brown and White led's, And I did begin carbon dosing to battle Cyano that was started due to a mini cycle from a quick change in Salt. But that was on December 18th that began and succeeded on March 14th. It was a 3 month battle of Cyano.

 

[shred5]

Just Brown and White led's, And I did begin carbon dosing to battle Cyano that was started due to a mini cycle from a quick change in Salt. But that was on December 18th that began and succeeded on March 14th. It was a 3 month battle of Cyano.

If you had cyano than it was not low nutrients, unless it was after all this. Also carbon dosing will spread cyano since it is a bacteria..

 

[StikHedRon]

Did not know that about Carbon dosing spreading Cyano. but since it has been gone and been gone since march. I have always ran GFO and Rox 0.8 24/7 and just shut it off last night. Should I keep these online?