Kessil A360we schedule?

[Jrco226]

Hey everyone, I seen multiple threads with someone asking this question but never really getting straight answers. Currently I ramp up to 60%intensity and 50%color with the light 8" off the water. I have a IM Nuvo 40. My system has been up and running for about a year now. I have mostly LPS and a couple of SPS. My sunset monti has faded over the past few weeks. It's located a on the bottom quarter of the tank directly under the light. Any thoughts? Also what's everyone's schedule?

 

[Mike_J]

If all your other parameters are in check, your monti may be getting too much light. With little info on your tank to go by, I'm guessing if at 60% intensity directly under the light, that might be too much. These lights are deceptively powerful. Try offsetting the monti. That's all I got, lol. Best of luck and happy reefing!

 

[Jrco226]

If all your other parameters are in check, your monti may be getting too much light. With little info on your tank to go by, I'm guessing if at 60% intensity directly under the light, that might be too much. These lights are deceptively powerful. Try offsetting the monti. That's all I got, lol. Best of luck and happy reefing!

Everything is in check parameters wise. Just finished testing this morning. My phosphates is a tad high at .04 so I'll try correcting that while also turning the intensity down a little.

 

[DT Prime]

New reefer myself so grain of salt and all that, but if the colors are fading and they're not browning or bleaching/skeletonizing you probably want to increase the intensity on them. I have 360WE's over my tank and was maxing out at 50% intensity with most of the day closer to 30% as I was scared of bleaching and noticed after a month or two my SPS and stonier LPS were losing both their brightness and subtler colors. Since then I've been working them up to 100% for 2 hours a day over the last month and a half by increasing 10% over 2 weeks using the acclimation setting, and colors have improved dramatically even at the current 80%. I also bumped the max color up from 50% to 80% for the couple hours at highest intensity since supposedly some of those non-blue colors bring out the more nuanced colors in the coral. This is the target schedule I'm moving to for now and assuming I get there with no issues I'll probably continue to increase the intensity for the initial ramp up/down as well:

0hr: 0% Color 15% Intensity
2-4: 20%/50%
4-6: 50%/100%
6-8 80%/100%
8-10: 20%/50%
12hr: 0%/0%

Only downside so far is hair algae definitely seems to also prefer the higher color spectrum, I went from none to a minor outbreak after I got over 50%.

Edit: Should clarify for whatever reason the one type or coral I've had no issues with in terms of color or growth is Monti's, I have them all over from under the light to a corner and they are all growing and have retained their colors. Main pieces I was having color issues with were micromussa, acan echinatas, and other SPS like acros/anacros/millies/stylo/seria etc.

 

[Viracon13]

New reefer myself so grain of salt and all that, but if the colors are fading and they're not browning or bleaching/skeletonizing you probably want to increase the intensity on them. I have 360WE's over my tank and was maxing out at 50% intensity with most of the day closer to 30% as I was scared of bleaching and noticed after a month or two my SPS and stonier LPS were losing both their brightness and subtler colors. Since then I've been working them up to 100% for 2 hours a day over the last month and a half by increasing 10% over 2 weeks using the acclimation setting, and colors have improved dramatically even at the current 80%. I also bumped the max color up from 50% to 80% for the couple hours at highest intensity since supposedly some of those non-blue colors bring out the more nuanced colors in the coral. This is the target schedule I'm moving to for now and assuming I get there with no issues I'll probably continue to increase the intensity for the initial ramp up/down as well:

0hr: 0% Color 15% Intensity
2-4: 20%/50%
4-6: 50%/100%
6-8 80%/100%
8-10: 20%/50%
12hr: 0%/0%

Only downside so far is hair algae definitely seems to also prefer the higher color spectrum, I went from none to a minor outbreak after I got over 50%.

How high are your lights over the tank? I have a Kessil 350w about 8 inches above the water and the intensity you indicated would roast my corals.

My white lights max out at 50%. My blue lights max out at 30% as this is what was giving me hair algae before. I was so unsure of what was causing it until I stumbled onto a thread where I saw many people with Kessil lights had the same problem (i'll try to find the thread). I keep my blue light at 30% and the algae never came back

 

[DT Prime]

How high are your lights over the tank? I have a Kessil 350w about 8 inches above the water and the intensity you indicated would roast my corals.

My white lights max out at 50%. My blue lights max out at 30% as this is what was giving me hair algae before. I was so unsure of what was causing it until I stumbled onto a thread where I saw many people with Kessil lights had the same problem (i'll try to find the thread). I keep my blue light at 30% and the algae never came back

Sorry what do you mean when you say your whites max out at 50% and blues at 30%? My lights are 7-8" off the surface (pictured in my profile pic), highest corals are roughly 6-8" under the surface directly under them and are doing better than those further from center. Luckily I managed to keep the hair algae from being more than an eyesore by scrubbing here and there every few days and now it's starting to recede on it's own after a month or so, which is good since I could not remove it all by hand without doing some serious rearranging.

For whatever reason people seem to have wildly different experiences with Kessils, when I was getting set up I searched this and other forums extensively and you'll see people say they ramp up to 100% within the first 2 hours and keep it that high all day until ramp down, while others say they're bleaching pieces at 50%. I do have a PAR meter and after adjusting for LED color spectrum and underwater readings they don't seem to get much higher than 300 PAR at 8" high/8" deep (BRS 52 week test maxed out at high 200's I believe), which is quite a bit lower PAR than many people have success growing SPS at so the 50% losses seem weird to me. I remember hearing the owner of an LFS say Kessils are designed to make it hard to mess up vs. say Radions which give more freedom but can get up to 500+ PAR and run color spectrum that can actually ****** growth. All I can say is I've seen nothing but improvement at the higher intensity and color on the 360WE's, though as I said I've been giving it 2 weeks for each 10% increase so under 1%/day, nothing dramatic or quick.

Edit: wow, apparently r-e-t-a-r-d is profanity? Lordy lordy...

 

[Mike_J]

I remember hearing the owner of an LFS say Kessils are designed to make it hard to mess up vs. say Radions which give more freedom but can get up to 500+ PAR and run color spectrum that can actually ****** growth.

Edit: wow, apparently r-e-t-a-r-d is profanity? Lordy lordy...

I normally wouldn't do this, but your use of the word is completely appropriate within the context of your sentence. Proper use of the English language in a non-offensive manner should not be censored.

According to Merriam-Webster online dictionary:

• Definition of r e t a r d

1. transitive verb
2. 1: to slow up especially by preventing or hindering advance or accomplishment : impede
   
   
3. 2: to delay academic progress by failure to promote
   

 

[DT Prime]

I normally wouldn't do this, but your use of the word is completely appropriate within the context of your sentence. Proper use of the English language in a non-offensive manner should not be censored.

Thanks man, unfortunately I could very well be the first to do so haha. Not a big deal though, they're just trying to automate a mod responsibility and can't detect sentiment unfortunately so words it is. Doctors back in the day were just too good at finding words that sound better as insults than diagnosis' haha.

Anyway don't want to highjack the thread for semantics debates, much more interested to hear from anybody else who runs their 360WE's at 100% and if @Jrco226 ever get that monti colored back up!

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Here is my lighting profile for my threee A360WEs on my 125 gallon system. I like the tank to stay blue a little longer which is why the ramp rate on col0r is slower than intensity.

 

[Mike_J]

Here is my lighting profile for my threee A360WEs on my 125 gallon system. I like the tank to stay blue a little longer which is why the ramp rate on col0r is slower than intensity.

How high do your Kessils hang off the water surface?

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

How high do your Kessils hang off the water surface?

They are 9" off of the surface of the water. Sorry I forgot to mention that.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

You will have to be very careful with Montipora and Kessils. I have two large red and green Montipora capricornis, and the it's a constant battle to keep the red one from fading or shifting color. It sits right under one of the Kessils about 24" below. I dose potassium and monitor the color of this coral to gauge light intensity. The green one, on the other hand, sits right beside it and gives me no issues. Go figure.

 

[Jrco226]

Thanks man, unfortunately I could very well be the first to do so haha. Not a big deal though, they're just trying to automate a mod responsibility and can't detect sentiment unfortunately so words it is. Doctors back in the day were just too good at finding words that sound better as insults than diagnosis' haha.

Anyway don't want to highjack the thread for semantics debates, much more interested to hear from anybody else who runs their 360WE's at 100% and if @Jrco226 ever get that monti colored back up!

I actually turned my intensity down to 45% over the past couple weeks and it seems the monti is coloring back up but not as nicely or quickly as I hoped. So do you all think it needs more intensity?

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Thanks man, unfortunately I could very well be the first to do so haha. Not a big deal though, they're just trying to automate a mod responsibility and can't detect sentiment unfortunately so words it is. Doctors back in the day were just too good at finding words that sound better as insults than diagnosis' haha.

Anyway don't want to highjack the thread for semantics debates, much more interested to hear from anybody else who runs their 360WE's at 100% and if @Jrco226 ever get that monti colored back up!

I used to run my Kessils at 100%, but I backed off after my war coral and red Monti cap began to fade. I plan to slowly ramp them back up, but I can't be absolutely certain the issues were caused by the Kessils. I also introduced two T5s at the same time, and my acclimation schedule may have been a little too aggressive.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

I actually turned my intensity down to 45% over the past couple weeks and it seems the monti is coloring back up but not as nicely or quickly as I hoped. So do you all think it needs more intensity?

Absolutely not. If the color is returning, you're on the right path. I can almost guarantee that the Monti will begin to fade again if you increase the intensity.

 

[DT Prime]

I actually turned my intensity down to 45% over the past couple weeks and it seems the monti is coloring back up but not as nicely or quickly as I hoped. So do you all think it needs more intensity?

Interesting, and you said it's been in the bottom third of the tank to begin with right so it probably wasn't getting a ton of light to start? Are there other monti's or sps in the tank either showing the same color loss or retaining their colors by chance? Before/after pictures by chance?

If its just that one monti flow could be an issue, perhaps other corals have grown out over the year that may impede flow to it? I'm running two mp40's in a 55gal 36" tank so movement is constant and dead spots don't exist, which is a large part of why I think my monti's seem to do fine wherever, though I still see better growth in the ones near the other SPS vs the ones towards the bottom or LPS side.

Here are a couple of my higher placed ones, the rainbow in particular has been growing nicely.

Here it is as a frag a month or so ago

 

[Jrco226]

Interesting, and you said it's been in the bottom third of the tank to begin with right so it probably wasn't getting a ton of light to start? Are there other monti's or sps in the tank either showing the same color loss or retaining their colors by chance? Before/after pictures by chance?

If its just that one monti flow could be an issue, perhaps other corals have grown out over the year that may impede flow to it? I'm running two mp40's in a 55gal 36" tank so movement is constant and dead spots don't exist, which is a large part of why I think my monti's seem to do fine wherever, though I still see better growth in the ones near the other SPS vs the ones towards the bottom or LPS side.

Here are a couple of my higher placed ones, the rainbow in particular has been growing nicely.

Here it is as a frag a month or so ago

I actually had a green birdnest that completely bleached out when I turned down the intensity so I check parameters. Everything was the same as before so that has me scratching my head. I'm just not seeing nearly the growth you show in this pictures. Question: what salt is everyone using? I feel as I'm over paying for the HW marine salt rather than trying something like Red Sea of aqua forest.

 

[Jrco226]

I just took this for current reference. There use to much less color on the outer rim but things are looking up. Decent polyp extension as well.

 

[DT Prime]

I actually had a green birdnest that completely bleached out when I turned down the intensity so I check parameters. Everything was the same as before so that has me scratching my head. I'm just not seeing nearly the growth you show in this pictures. Question: what salt is everyone using? I feel as I'm over paying for the HW marine salt rather than trying something like Red Sea of aqua forest.

What are your actual parameters, specifically Alk/Ca? How big a tank vs how many 360's and what are you using for flow? I've used instant ocean and aqua forest, I prefer the aqua forest bucket vs bags of instant ocean but otherwise like them both.

 

[Mike_J]

I actually had a green birdnest that completely bleached out when I turned down the intensity so I check parameters. Everything was the same as before so that has me scratching my head. I'm just not seeing nearly the growth you show in this pictures. Question: what salt is everyone using? I feel as I'm over paying for the HW marine salt rather than trying something like Red Sea of aqua forest.

Curious. Bleaching is usually the result of too much light. Did your water temperature drop significantly at that time of reducing Kessil intensity? That's the only other factor that would make sense with the birdsnest.