Need help with my lighting please I DONT UNDERSTAND

[Patches&Penny]

What am I doing wrong? Why are my zoas and palys stretching?

At first I had the light about 4" higher then it is in the pictures I posted and my light was at 50% at its peak, I seen stretching in my zoas so i upped the power gradually to 70% at peak, my zoas were still stretching so now I lowered the light to where it is now and the lights are still at 70% and I'm STILL getting stretching

What is going on? Can someone please help me fix this.

 

[Fred2482]

The Zoas can take time to adjust to the lights after you change. Any idea of the actual par where the Zoas are?

 

[Patches&Penny]

I dont have a par meter. I've called every LFS looking to rent one but no one has one .

Could you recommend a good one I could buy online ?

 

[Saltyreef]

It could be flow or nutrient related.
Better off keeping the light lower until you figure it out. If you ever do.
I could never give a solid answer on this. I have zoas doing fine and some stretched like that.

 

[Fred2482]

I dont have a par meter. I've called every LFS looking to rent one but no one has one .

Could you recommend a good one I could buy online ?

They are pretty expensive. You can rent them from BRS I think.

 

[Saltyreef]

Id try the seneye for a cost effective par meter.

 

[JustAnotherNanoTank]

Get more flow in there. They’re comfortable is the way I see it.

 

[tankstudy]

Some species of zoa and palys will have that neck like stretch regardless of how much light intensity you have.

Personally, they look pretty good and healthy to me. If you want that look where they are glued to the plug, or no neck or stretching, you'll need to increase the intensity greatly but like I said, not all species react like that.

Based off your photo, your lighting may not be sufficient. I'd recommend going 100% intensity and lifting it back up so you get the proper spread of the LEDs, otherwise you'll notice any corals on the outer rim of the LED's reach start doing the window plant effect. Start with that and wait a few weeks. Adjustments take a bit of time to be seen and varies greatly between species.

 

[Patches&Penny]

I guess it all comes back to "it's impossible to meet every individual corals requirements" if you have a tank of variety.

I feed 2 times a week and I do 2 water changes a week 2.5 gallons each. My flow is upgraded though pushing 210gph with the return pump and 110 gph with the circulation fan

And the return has a 360 flow generator on it also , so the flow and the movement is everywhere

 

[tankstudy]

Yes it's hard to meet the demand of every species especially since they come from many different parts of the world and depths of water.

Your specimens look very healthy and personally, once they grow and fill in, you won't even see the stalks or stretching.