Lighting 15g SPS

spacetime · Mar 23, 2013

Hello,

As noted in other threads I am losing my Acros. I wanted to know if this is enough light (or too much light) for my 15g 24x12x12.

I have 4x24w Aquatic Life Fixture with individual reflectors, the fixture is mounted on legs approx 3" from the surface with an acrylic divider;

My bulb combo is as follows from front to back;

1 ATI Coral Plus (Day 6hrs)
1 ATI Blue Plus (Actinic 8 hrs)
1 ATI Blue Plus (Day 6 hrs)
1 Geiseman Pure Actinic (Actinic 8 hrs)

Should I sub out the Actinic for more par? Should I change the config (I hate how the day light and actninic are staggered from front to back the order is D A D A)

Thanks in advance.

bct15 · Mar 23, 2013

Lighting sounds fine,

How much of a temp swing do you see at the end of your max light cycle?

When you do water changes how big are they?

What is your alk and calcium before and after water changes?

How are they dieing, tips down, base up, RTN all over?

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Starblenny · Mar 23, 2013

I have an Aquaticlife 4x24W T5 in a 24"L x 16"W x 10"H AIO tank (but the display side is more like 12"W) and I think it's enough. The fixture is also sitting on my tank via legs. My bulbs from front to back is:

blue+
coral+
purple+
blue+

I run my actinic for 7 hours and my daylights for 6 hours a day. I think it's enough lights and my acros isn't complaining.

spacetime · Mar 23, 2013

tank is at 78- end of light is ~80-81 I'll have a better reading tom.

2 Gal water change in approx ~ 20 gal system weekly

~6 hours before water change
Alk 9.9 before water change
Calcium 410

After
Alk 9.3
Calcium 400-410

Both tests Salifert.

Its overall brownness on two pieces... and two frags from WWC (Tricolor table) have just been white with pale pale purple, all over.
The Tri-color are begining to show more purple and their bases are a much more solid color.

Psamacora is ok, there is also a green sps (larger polyped SPS) that is doing well.
Pokerstar polyps are not as green as they should be and blue is pale, but it is growing.

rics are ok, zoa's are not as vivid as they should be.

chalice corals are pretty great, better color than LFS, acans are great.

Aussie war coral is bleaching, but it was also in another tank I had it in.

I recently found out I was running too much gfo in my reactor 4 TBS, (per BRS Calc) I have since removed the reactor and cut down to 2 TBS in a media bag mixed with carbon.

Thank you both for replies I will post a picture tomorrow when I figure out this white balance.

bct15 · Mar 25, 2013

How often do you feed your fish and what is kind of fish are in there? Below are some things I know about sps, but they are stated in a general sense and are not exact just to try and explain some stuff.

The algae that lives within the coral lives by pulling nutrients out of the water, and in turn provides nutrients to the coral. The amount of algae (color) on the coral is proportional to the amount of nutrients required for that specific algae. If the nutrients are low that color will seem low. If the nutrients are too high, the coral itself will have problems growing (uptake of calcium carbonate to form new skeleton) so there needs to be a good balance. So I you have good color and low growth nutrients might be a little high, bad color and no growth nutrients are to low. Sometimes low nutrients will give good color but the coral will start to recede from the tips down.

Also, the coral (in a general sense) allows and controls the growth of the symbiotic algae, if the coral is overfed then it will get all of its life support from the food and will no longer require the algae. Then the coral will inhibit the growth of the algae and will seem dull, brown or colorless but have good polyp extension. So if you have bad color but good growth, maybe the coral is over fed.

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spacetime · Mar 25, 2013

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/na...15g-small-polyp-stony-branch.html#post1267945

made a new thread in nano forums lots of new pictures. but here are a few to demonstrate. I've swaped out the Geiseman Pure Actinic for an old Blue+ and the tank is a more crisp blue.