Lighting cycle help.

[SteveZ15]

I have 2-14k,150w mh and 2-39w ati blue plus and 2-39w ati purple plus.
Hanging 14 inches above a standard 40 breeder.
I was running like this t5 on 1pm -11pm mh 4-10 pm
I have mostly zoa and lps but a few caps ,2 acro and 2 birdnest frag.
is this too much?Should I shut the t5 when the mh come on?
I shut the t5 just to see how it looks,it looks nice like that,if i shut the t5 when the mh come on but over lap the t5 by 15 mins on each end will that be enough light?
I want to see if they will color up more but I dont wanna not give enough light.

 

[RFADCT]

I would run t5's 11 -11 and mh 1-9
Color will get better with more actinic and purple and less white.

 

[ecvernon]

When I was running a forty breeder I would do a max of 6-7 hours of metal halide and10 hours with four t5s. If I ran the metal halide any longer I would start to bleach sps.

 

[ecvernon]

What coral are you trying to color up? If you give too much light your sps may like it, but your lps and zoas may not act the same. Sometimes there is a balance in mixed reefs when it come to lighting. A lot of times placement and flow is key

 

[SteveZ15]

I have all the lps and zoas low or on the sandbed. I have a couple monti caps some birdsnest frags and a acro valiada .I just want to make sure I am giving enough light,I have no way of teling if the fixture is too high or too low. I didnt want to lower it because everything looks good,I am new to reefing and the nest and acro are my first real sps ..Just in some pics the corals look really vibrant I didnt know if it was because of leds or my lighting was off. I noticed the red cap was lightin up a little so I moved it under the green cap to shade it some,before it was directly under one of the mh bulbs.Also a lot of these come from a led tank.I would like to get a par meter just to see where its at but thats a lot of money.And I just dont know if the acro should have more color or not,the pics I find they are all different shades.I just get nervous because I want to be able to see a change and notice when something is wrong. most of the sps are inthe upper half of the tank.Its easy with the lps but I know the sps are more sensitive.I wanted to see what other people are doing with the lighting,sometimes its that one thing you miss.I had no way of judging my light because everywhere I go tanks have leds. Thanks for the answers. Here is a pic of the acro does this look about right?

 

[RFADCT]

Def min the mh time. Doesnt look happy in my opinion .

 

[RFADCT]

When did you add it

 

[SteveZ15]

About a week ago it hasnt lost color since I had it,I was searching pics of it and they are all different colors so I dont know how its supposed to look. Amm-0 nitritr-0 nitrate.02 phos .02,hanna cal-460 alk 8.2-8.6 mag 1410 all salifert, it looks a lot more purple with just the t5s.Should I cut a hour off the mh?

 

[ecvernon]

Is it a wild aqua cultured colony? Reason I ask is because I have been getting great deals on them lately and they all react differently in my tank. If you see that the colony is not losing color and has good polyp extension IMO you should leave it. A week is not a long time. I have some pieces that started to "color up" after 1-2 months of stability. I recently bought a off white colony which turned bright green after two months. If it is not declining in any way you could give it time or even move it higher to see I color improves

 

[ecvernon]

I also noticed that with the aquacultured colonies, in my tank when the base grows out and encrusts further that's when they start to take off in color an growth

 

[RFADCT]

I would stop your alk from swinging, keep it at 8.3. Might wanna grab a kalkwasser. It's gonna take a week or three to come back around. Might get ugly before it gets nice again. My acro's do the same if they come from mh's. I don't really go for growth more so color so I keep my white led's to a minimum for better color. My whites on my light are bright as all hell, I keep them at only 60% mid day. When I ran mh I ran my t5's for 14 hours starting at 8. The halides came on at 11 to 7. That did it for me on a 180

 

[SteveZ15]

I got it from coral theory,How do I know if its bleaching?I thought it was ok the pe is better than the pic that was taken the day i got it.How do i know if I am giving it too much light,not enough it will turn brown right?

 

[RFADCT]

I agree with ecvernon. Once encrusted it will flourish but might take a week or three as instated before. The polyp extension doesn't look good. I would keep it there and maintain a stable alk

 

[RFADCT]

Get a magnify glass

 

[SteveZ15]

The alk is steady I put the difference because the test was in between the 2 lines the test chart goes in increments of 2ccs ,so on the chart it should be inbetween those 2 numbers. I use b ionic 2 part..

 

[RFADCT]

I would leave it and let time tell.

 

[SteveZ15]

Thanks for the help.