Is there such a thing as too much light?

[Jeight]

I am relativly new to the new era of reefkeeping...in the early 90's actinic growluxe bulbs were as good as it got for me..of course everything went to pot after 6mo and I gave up. Back in after a 25 year hiatus and my local LFS specd out my light and I am having trouble with easy corals like xenia and toadstools. Running 2x ai hydra 26's in a aquatic life 4 ft t5 hybrid fixture. The t5 bulbs are 2x ati blue an actinic and a white...system was set up for a mixed reef sps/lps ..the sps do great anywhere in the tank the lps not so much i keep having to move them to areas of less light to get them to extend. Flow is 2x maxspect gyres running 30% forewad for 4 sec then 30% reverse for 4 sec. Tested all parameters last night and only issue was a hair low on calc and mag but have increaded dos to compensate..any help would be great...specifically xenia, torches, and acans do not want to extend when ramped full on leds and the t5's are on no matter where in the tank I have them. Picture is of the fixture and height off water for thse who might ask. Thanks in advance.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Yes you can "cook" corals for sure!

1.) Source water? RO/DI water? Tap?
2.) How old is the tank?
3.) What is your water parameters?
4.) Dosing anything?
5.) Dip corals?

 

[AZRipp]

Watch your LEDs, they are usually the culprit to cooking corals. Through the years of running MH, VHO, and then T5, I never had an issue burning corals. Then came the transition to LED.... WHAM!

 

[Jeight]

Yes you can "cook" corals for sure!

1.) Source water? RO/DI water? Tap?
2.) How old is the tank?
3.) What is your water parameters?
4.) Dosing anything?
5.) Dip corals?

1) ro/di I do not make my own I buy it from a local healthfood store and check it each load I bring home always 0 tds
2) 3 months with livestock a month before that with ammonia fed bacteria
3) checked everything yesterday
a. 34.5 salinity
b. 8.1 ph
c. 0 ammonia
d. 8.2 dkh
e. 330ppm CA
f. 960ppm MG
4) running Triton core 7 and upped my dos from 10ml to 12ml per day based on needing more CA and MG
5) yes coral rx per instructions on the label

I should also add that monti cap grows like a weed it is really the only SPS in the tank..also gsp, florida ricordia's, duncans, hammers, frogspawn, finger leathers are all doing very well but they are in more shaded areas.

 

[ckalupa]

For sure LED’s can be an issue. Especially in the “hot zone.” Corals can look fine for a week or two and then all of a sudden fading, tip burn and TN.

I switched and only use the Kessil Leds on for low level blues in the am and PM and let my 4-bulb T5 (10k and 14k) do the bulk of the work and all the skin peeling stopped instantly. I turn off the Kessil when the T5 are on daytimes.

For lps I would put them considerably higher from the water line if they were the primary lights on the tank