- Location
- 34th Street Manhattan
Hello everyone,
(Reposting this under an emergency tag as I really need some advice on this topic from someone about lighting.)
For my 55 gallon 48inch tank I purchased: 2 15K ATI Coral Plus T5HO Fluorescent Bulb and 2 Atinic ATI Blue Plus T5HO Fluorescent Bulbs. For my four bulb fitting Deep Blue Solar Extreme T5 H.O. Quad Light System.
Before this I ran the lighting unit for about 11 months before before updating the bulbs. It came with factory lighting which were 10k 54 watt bulbs. Two blue atinics and two day light spectrum bulbs. I ran atinics from about 8am to 10pm with daylight from 9am to 9pm. For the most part growth in the tank amongst softies was good (zoa's and such).
I made the change of lighting about a month ago. The light schedule timing is unchanged. And I've been watching some slow dissipation that I'm not too happy about. At first I thought there was some "shock" going on and that these corals would "bounce back". That theory progressively drops out the window on a daily basis and is the reason for this message.
The worst hit coral is my meteor shower - of which all its beautiful orange eyes are faded out and now the other parts of this are also turning white. It turned hard on me in the past 10 days and I'm worried this might be lost if I dont react soon.
The coral that reacted first (within days of change) was the long tentacle plate coral. I noticed some white around the outside and moved it to hide a bit under a rock... but its progressively declined in a slow fashion (unlike the rapid drop off of the meteor shower recently). It's tentacles remain long and strong though.
the Frogspawn coral has also shown some recent "retreat". While the colors are still gorgeous - I can now see the white of those trumpets whereas before the tentacles flowed so beautifully long you could never see the bony structure.
The candy cane kryptonite corals are okay but they haven't opened fully yet. No discoloring.
The tooth coral has good and bad days. Some days it looks large and in charge and other days it has periods where its closed during daylight hours. Which is unusual.
The zoo's and leathers are in perfect condition.
My two birdsnest which were dying before the light change (fell behind some rocks) are in love with this new lighting and starting to come back in great fashion.
Lastly my montipora coral looks rather indifferent to the whole situation.
I checked my water param and noticed my nitrates were hitting up close to 5ppm a few weeks back. I punched that thing down to 1ppm (checked yesterday). And I have kept all the calcium, alk, mg, strontium, etc levels in line with where they should be. Also my gravity is tracking a in the 1.025 range which should be suitable for corals and not the fish. PH has never gone below 8.
As of last weekend I looked at my tank and its mixed result and I officially ruled out water conditions. And I turn to this forum to confirm that my lighting is too much and that I should experiment with the light schedule (or even get new bulbs).
Let me know what you guys/gals think. Much appreciated in advance.
(Reposting this under an emergency tag as I really need some advice on this topic from someone about lighting.)
For my 55 gallon 48inch tank I purchased: 2 15K ATI Coral Plus T5HO Fluorescent Bulb and 2 Atinic ATI Blue Plus T5HO Fluorescent Bulbs. For my four bulb fitting Deep Blue Solar Extreme T5 H.O. Quad Light System.
Before this I ran the lighting unit for about 11 months before before updating the bulbs. It came with factory lighting which were 10k 54 watt bulbs. Two blue atinics and two day light spectrum bulbs. I ran atinics from about 8am to 10pm with daylight from 9am to 9pm. For the most part growth in the tank amongst softies was good (zoa's and such).
I made the change of lighting about a month ago. The light schedule timing is unchanged. And I've been watching some slow dissipation that I'm not too happy about. At first I thought there was some "shock" going on and that these corals would "bounce back". That theory progressively drops out the window on a daily basis and is the reason for this message.
The worst hit coral is my meteor shower - of which all its beautiful orange eyes are faded out and now the other parts of this are also turning white. It turned hard on me in the past 10 days and I'm worried this might be lost if I dont react soon.
The coral that reacted first (within days of change) was the long tentacle plate coral. I noticed some white around the outside and moved it to hide a bit under a rock... but its progressively declined in a slow fashion (unlike the rapid drop off of the meteor shower recently). It's tentacles remain long and strong though.
the Frogspawn coral has also shown some recent "retreat". While the colors are still gorgeous - I can now see the white of those trumpets whereas before the tentacles flowed so beautifully long you could never see the bony structure.
The candy cane kryptonite corals are okay but they haven't opened fully yet. No discoloring.
The tooth coral has good and bad days. Some days it looks large and in charge and other days it has periods where its closed during daylight hours. Which is unusual.
The zoo's and leathers are in perfect condition.
My two birdsnest which were dying before the light change (fell behind some rocks) are in love with this new lighting and starting to come back in great fashion.
Lastly my montipora coral looks rather indifferent to the whole situation.
I checked my water param and noticed my nitrates were hitting up close to 5ppm a few weeks back. I punched that thing down to 1ppm (checked yesterday). And I have kept all the calcium, alk, mg, strontium, etc levels in line with where they should be. Also my gravity is tracking a in the 1.025 range which should be suitable for corals and not the fish. PH has never gone below 8.
As of last weekend I looked at my tank and its mixed result and I officially ruled out water conditions. And I turn to this forum to confirm that my lighting is too much and that I should experiment with the light schedule (or even get new bulbs).
Let me know what you guys/gals think. Much appreciated in advance.
