LEDs might be burning out my coral

CubanPete · Jun 7, 2013

Ok, so this is kinda equipment, kinda livestock. I'm sure it will get answered either way. Need some emergency help. I upgraded from T5s to Chinese LEDs. I had white on for 4 hours at 30% ish and blue on for about 6-7 at the same intensity. Brain on the sand bed wasn't doing too well. I reduced them to 3 hrs for white and 5 for blue. Now my lps forest isn't doing so well. Lost a small torch, couple heads in the back on a Duncan, luckily I saw that before everything calcified, and lost maybe a quarter of a huge grape coral I had.
I turned the whites off for a month, per my coral doc. Any other suggestions? I have blues on for 6 hours a day, 50% now. Literally just started minutes ago. Nothing is as big as it used to be. I'm kinda freaking out.
Params are all good. Been testing every few days. Lights are about 10 inches above water. It's a 72 bowfront, so about 22 inches deep. All of my stuff is middle to bottom.
Thanks in advance.

mike007 · Jun 7, 2013

You might want to raise lights. I had mine at 24 inches and slowly lowered them without any problems. Are you sure there are not any other issues like water parameters etc? What leds are you using?

CubanPete · Jun 7, 2013

I check my water weekly. When I noticed strange things, I checked it right away, and have been checking it every other day for the last week or so. I'll raise the lights tomorrow. I had the whites off early today, and sure enough, most everything really opened up. I'm just worries about my big purple grape coral. I've list about a quarter of it. Skeleton showing and flesh had come off. Dipped it. Going to spot feed it tomorrow. Added calcium tonight (was at 400). Anything else?

Dtech07 · Jun 7, 2013

mike007 said:
You might want to raise lights. I had mine at 24 inches and slowly lowered them without any problems. Are you sure there are not any other issues like water parameters etc? What leds are you using?

+1 and if you can borrow or own a PAR meter i would do 400par off the top of your highest acro. But what is your tanks depth?

CubanPete · Jun 7, 2013

Tank is about 22 inches deep. And I don't have acro. Highest piece I have is a hammer, which is probably 16-18 inches under the LEDs.

Pappy · Jun 7, 2013

I'm confident in saying it is a light adjustment here. Most of what you described are bullet proof corals and if parameters are in check then its definitely light. LEDs are wayyyyy more intense than t5's so I'd recommend raising them and waiting couple weeks and slowly lowering from there.

rlman41299 · Jun 7, 2013

when you said you upgraded from t5 to led, did you switch instantly and not gradually acclimate your tank to the new led light? seem to me your livestock were shocked by the instant transition of lights.

CubanPete · Jun 7, 2013

I started out at 25% or so on the LEDs. For about a week. Then bumped em up a little over the last couple weeks. Obviously too fast. I'm pulling the lights waaay back. Blues only for a few weeks. 6 hours. And will raise the lights. Thanks everyone!

Pappy · Jun 8, 2013

CubanPete said:
I started out at 25% or so on the LEDs. For about a week. Then bumped em up a little over the last couple weeks. Obviously too fast. I'm pulling the lights waaay back. Blues only for a few weeks. 6 hours. And will raise the lights. Thanks everyone!

Good luck! Please keep us updated

!

CubanPete · Jun 8, 2013

Thanks pappy. I turned off the whites after only about an hour on yesterday. Less than 30 mins later, just about everything was as full as normal. I am going to raise and lower and ... Ugh ....wait. Lol

CubanPete · Jun 14, 2013

So I raised the lights more. Read an article about blue for 2, then add white for an hour, then 2 more blue for a week. Then increase white an hour each week, keeping two hours of blue on either side until you hit 4-5 hours of white. I'm super bummed. Casualty list :
Softball sized grape coral
Red octospawn
Neon green octospawn

Critical condition
16 headed Duncan down to 11 mediocre heads
6 inch neon tipped wall hammer, missing its middle quarter

Any ideas how to save these guys???

Rob&Gab · Jun 14, 2013

dont forget LED's are like laser BEAM's upgrading from T5s to leds is like going from not bringing your floaty's to the pool and jumping in the water not knowing how to swim.

Mrfresh · Jun 17, 2013

Just to humor us can u post ur nitrate and phosphate levels.
I have ai vegas at 100% 4 inches off my tank and didnt lose any lps.

Good luck

CubanPete · Jun 23, 2013

Nitrate is 0. Phosphate was .5ish. Since I moved my lights up, and kept whites totally off, everything is doing really well. Next weekend I am going to add an hour o white and start lowering the lights. Thanks for all the help.

Fishman793 · Jun 23, 2013

I just had a similar experiance with my chinese leds. I bought an acan from my lfs, which had t5s, and put it on the bottom of the tank. I run my blues at ~90% and the whites at ~60%. It was at the bottom of the tank in a corner, where the lowest amount of light was and it was absolutely fried under the leds. I lowered everything down to about 30% and then increased 10% each week once it showed signs of recovery. As long as your parameters are fine, I don't have any doubt that everything will come back to its original glory.