LED lighting.

Reeeeeeeeef · Jan 9, 2019

So I've had a few sps for about 2 years now, they grow fine, look ok and are generally doing well. However, every coral I buy changes colors on me. The hydnophora's I have started out a super metallic green and have turned more earthy green, my "blue" montipora digitata has pretty much turned a brown color, and my birdsnest coral turned pink. I've also had a montipora Capricornis for about 3 years and I have little to no growth to show for it. I think my lighting is to blame. My tank is 30 gallons, and my lights are a no name brand from ebay and are 165watts. The fixture sits 9" above the water, I have my whites at 10%, my blues at 5% and I run them from about 10am-9pm. Water quality isn't the issue(?), I have 1 green chromis, and a sixline wrasse in the tank, water change like once a month with RO water. Nitrates like less than 5, nitrite at 0, I add Kent reef supplements to the RO water before I add it to the tank (calcium and strontium)

Thanks! Sorry if I was ranting!

Crabs McJones · Jan 9, 2019

Welcome @Reeeeeeeeef to R2R!

#WelcometoR2R
The no name black boxes are actually really good at growing coral and coloration. There are alot of users on here who use them as well

I would actually reverse it though and do more blue than white, not sure if that is contributing to your issue or not. I'll tag #reefsquad and see if any of them have more insight as some of them use the same lighting setup

Lovemyreef2015 · Jan 9, 2019

Reeeeeeeeef · Jan 9, 2019

Crabs Mcjones said:
Welcome @Reeeeeeeeef to R2R!

#WelcometoR2R
The no name black boxes are actually really good at growing coral and coloration. There are alot of users on here who use them as well I would actually reverse it though and do more blue than white, not sure if that is contributing to your issue or not. I'll tag #reefsquad and see if any of them have more insight as some of them use the same lighting setup

Thank you!

Reeeeeeeeef · Jan 9, 2019

Blue digitata (brown) upper right, hydnophora's are the green ones and the non growing Capricornis is just above the hydnophora in the center

dantimdad · Jan 9, 2019

Welcome aboard.

It's not your lighting choice but probably the settings.

Black box lights are very well liked by many and beautiful tanks have been set up with them.

turn your blues up to about 50% over the next few weeks and your whites to about 20% in that time frame. You will see explosive growth. Just keep an eye on parameters and possible algae if you have a lot of nutrients.

dantimdad · Jan 9, 2019

Nice tank BTW.

saltyfilmfolks · Jan 9, 2019

IMO , you can keep that white to blue ratio if you like the way it looks.
You just need more intensity. Just go up slowly.

johnanddawn · Jan 9, 2019

I agree - just think you need a bit more intensity 5 and 10 percent seems low to me - i would slowly up the intensity over a month or so.

Corals tend to darken if they need more light by increasing their zooxanthellae inside them.

Big G · Jan 9, 2019

Welcome to R2R! Lots of good advice ^^^^ given above. Lots of coral vendors claim to lean more on the blues to grow and color up their corals for sale. Small changes are a good idea. Nothing good happens fast in this hobby.

mborn · Jan 9, 2019

From your picture it looks like the diodes are spotlighting on the sand. I assume your fixture has 90-degree lenses. Mounting it 9 inches above is too close. You need to raise it up, so it doesn’t spotlight, at least 16 inches. I also agree with turning up the blue channel.

saltyfilmfolks · Jan 9, 2019

A funny fwiw, most “whites” are actually blue. In the 6-10,000 kelvin range.

Flippers4pups · Jan 9, 2019

Welcome to reef2reef @Reeeeeeeeef!

I'm one of those black box guys and agree with the above statements about your lights.

I’m stealing sb’s spectrum chart, but as you can see, blues are probably more important to coral health and growth than “whites”.

I run 60% blues and 20% whites on my tank. Mine are hung at 12” above waterline. Of course there’s a whole lot more than light intensity and color spectrum to coral health.

Big G · Jan 9, 2019

saltyfilmfolks said:
A funny fwiw, most “whites” are actually blue. In the 6-10,000 kelvin range.

@saltyfilmfolks nice Mic drop

Say what? So now you tell me

saltyfilmfolks · Jan 9, 2019

Big G said:
@saltyfilmfolks nice Mic drop Say what? So now you tell me

Oh, I though everyone knew that.

When you take a channel of 6-8k and add a channel of a narrow band of blue you increase color temp.
Most name brand lights have a native color temp at equal 1:1 ratio. An SBreeflight is a little more than 16k. So at 4:1 ratio or more it’s not actually a color temp anymore really. It’s just blue. Like an ati B+.
Or this shirt I’m wearing.

It’s Just something to keep in mind when you see a very blue tank and they say it’s 16-20k.
It’s probably not.

Flippers4pups · Jan 9, 2019

saltyfilmfolks said:
Oh, I though everyone knew that.

When you take a channel of 6-8k and add a channel of a narrow band of blue you increase color temp.
Most name brand lights have a native color temp at equal 1:1 ratio. An SBreeflight is a little more than 16k. So at 4:1 ratio or more it’s not actually a color temp anymore really. It’s just blue. Like an ati B+.
Or this shirt I’m wearing.

It’s Just something to keep in mind when you see a very blue tank and they say it’s 16-20k.
It’s probably not.

Taken from my build thread:

I done my homework on replacing my diodes in my black boxes. Why replace them? I have found that they do degrade over the years and require upping the intensity over time.
The majority of the diodes have been running non stop since October 2016 without any burning out. Not bad in my book.

So here's the run down:

55 diodes per unit x's three units is 165 diodes. Cost is relatively cheap at $65 dollars for all 165 diodes. Much of the spectrums are sold in larger quantities than I need, so there is more than 165 that will be order.

Diode run down per box:

Spectrum / Number needed
20000k 4
14000k 14
3500k 2
660nm 2
520nm 2
490nm 4
450nm 20
420nm 5
395nm 2

Pretty blue I would say. Would you @saltyfilmfolks?

saltyfilmfolks · Jan 9, 2019

Flippers4pups said:
Taken from my build thread:

I done my homework on replacing my diodes in my black boxes. Why replace them? I have found that they do degrade over the years and require upping the intensity over time.
The majority of the diodes have been running non stop since October 2016 without any burning out. Not bad in my book.

So here's the run down:

55 diodes per unit x's three units is 165 diodes. Cost is relatively cheap at $65 dollars for all 165 diodes. Much of the spectrums are sold in larger quantities than I need, so there is more than 165 that will be order.

Diode run down per box:

Spectrum / Number needed
20000k 4
14000k 14
3500k 2
660nm 2
520nm 2
490nm 4
450nm 20
420nm 5
395nm 2

Pretty blue I would say. Would you @saltyfilmfolks?

Very blue. Yes.
What if those are in the white side ?
Just the full spectrum ones?

Flippers4pups · Jan 9, 2019

saltyfilmfolks said:
Very blue. Yes.
What if those are in the white side ?
Just the full spectrum ones?

Pretty much this^.

Flippers4pups · Jan 9, 2019

I think everyone is “blue” channel and “white” channel for the reason of hitting the blues heavy and whites to balance out the “look”.

The spectrum chart does speak to why blues are more prevalent than whites. Goes without saying.

saltyfilmfolks · Jan 9, 2019

Flippers4pups said:
I think everyone is “blue” channel and “white” channel for the reason of hitting the blues heavy and whites to balance out the “look”.

The spectrum chart does speak to why blues are more prevalent than whites. Goes without saying.

Yup.
But many confuse what white is ,that’s all I was sayin.
I run my Sb at a 1:1 during the peak. Cuz I like it.

So for the op , if they like the warm channel it’s likely not bad or wrong.
Probaly just not enough.
Like The old 56k MH the old timers still rave about. It’ll grow coral.