to much or to little light

[Mrfresh]

So I have ai vega leds over my 90 gallon tank. Ive had them on there almost the whole time thw tanks been up. Close to a year now. I still can not find that sweet spot for lighting. Im still bleaching out some of my sps. I will admit I did have the uv on at first but once I saw the bleahing happen with in a day I turned them off all together. I thought I was running them on the low side but I still have bleahing and no coloring back up of some of my corals...

Im assuming I have to much light. Heres my idea why. If its not enough light the whole coral would lose color.if its to much light the spots directly being hit by the light bleah out.

On some of the corals that have bleach, the spots not reciving direct light still have color. Is this a ok way to assuke I have to much lighting or not enough? All other tank par are right...

 

[NanaReefer]

I know you said your parameters are right but could you please post them. Other things can lead to sps bleaching, loss of Zooxanthellae. Are you getting any polyp extension at all?


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[greg 45]

you can never overpower the sun

 

[Bartmmackey]

Enough water flow?

 

[Mr. Microscope]

you can never overpower the sun

Sure you can, but not with Vegas.

I would say play with light acclimation. Lower the power of your system until your bleached corals brown out. Then, they will gradually start to color back up again. Raise the power like 5%/week.

 

[-Logzor]

Cut your intensity by 50% then see if there is an improvement after 2 weeks. Increased feeding may also help with the bleaching.

 

[CJO]

Do you have access to a PAR meter? That's really the best way to determine how much light you have/need.

CJ

 

[Mrfresh]

What par are you looking for?
Salt 1.024
Alk 6.7
Cal 500
Phos 0.00 on Hanna checker
Nit 0.0
Orp 300
Light par ranges from top coral at 600...which loves it. To bottem of the tank 200par...

I have a massive amount of flow I run a mag 18 on a 90 gallon tank.
With head height I am turning the tank over about 14 times an hour
I also have 4 lrg koralia Powerheads in there....

I have PE on some of my sps.
Some of my Millie's have no color loss and great PE others are white where the light hits them and some do have PE and others don't,......



Should I go to t5s with blue LEDs in it or MH with blue LEDs? Or even better MH with t5s added to it.....

 

[bct15]

Your alk is low, are your sure the coral are bleached or is the skeleton exposed? Bump your alk up to. 7.8-8.1 slowly over the next week.


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[mike007]

I agree the alk is low. Also you might step up a little on your coral feeding.

 

[Rick]

more importantly than the alk being low your calcium is way high if you wanna run your alk at 7 better get that calcium to 400 or just under, you will get pale colors with lower alk but if youre doing things right the pale colors are generally pastel sorta zeovit-esk, id stay between 8-9dhk and keep that calcium at 420-435

 

[Mrfresh]

Wow sorry I punched in the wrong number alk is 7.8 not 6.7

I will let my cal deop a little as well...

I used to feed the tank 2 times a week with coral frenzy but from what a friend told me im running to clean of a tank thats why im having some issues. So I will be feeding the coral daily and feeding the fish more. Along with cutting my fuge in half... I have about 30 gallon fuge with MM on the bottem and completely full of cheato. Along with a 180 euro reef skimmer running ozone on the system as well 24/7....I might cut the ozone to only a few hours a day.

Thanks for the input and ill post pics and keep u guys updated

 

[Mrfresh]

I found the problem!!!

I took some water to my friends shop. He tested everything...
Salt 1.0245
Phos 0.0
Nit. 0.0
Cal 440
Alk 5.1........ what the F how did this happen....

I guess while I was in the dominican for vacation my timer for my pump stoped turning on. So my tank got to alk anywhere from 1 day to a week....
Im going to try and raise my alk back to 7.8 by the end of this week. I think a good water change and hard dosing and I should be fine....

Thank you everyone for ur input.