hey long time no see guys havent been on in a while. so a while back i switched to Led fixtures on my 90 i have 2 120w fixtures separate blues and whites both manually dimmable. my corals act like they are getting too much light even tho i keep dimming the lights. right now id say my whites are at maybe 10% and blues around 25%. some of the corals are bleaching but still growing and my my softies and lps seem to be retacted and not wanting to open fully and not growing , except the GSP that im convinced will outlast a nuclear fallout
Welcome back Ben. Do you have any lens on the fixture? how high are the lights hanging? I know another person is having the same problem. He has 60 degrees lens on his fixtures and he is hanging his fixtures about 10" above the tank. I think his lens and the intensities it creates is what causing his corals to bleach as well.
Hey ben, im running reefbreeders with 60° optics on my 210 thats 30inch deep. They recommended that I hang them 16inches from the water. They are at about 8-10 off now and the corals om the sand have better color. Will raise mine to 16inchs soon. Good luck and hope this helps.
I believe that my fixtures have 120 degree optics but my lights are only 8-10 inches off the water so that still may be a problem
Also does my description of my corals seem like too much light
Sounds like it COULD be too much light, but more than likely was just too much light too fast.
What did you switch from, and what were the initial percentages before you saw problems?
If you switched from a 2 bar T5 unit hung 8" above the tank to LEDs cranked to 100% 8" over the tank you would have definitely induced light shock.
How long have you had the LEDs, how long after putting them over the tank did you notice problems?
I switched from an 8 bulb t5 unit roughly the same height. My less have been on for about a year now and I gave noticed the problems since tge beginning and as I turn down the lights it does seem to help I started at around 50% blue 25% white and have been gradually lowering it over the year with improvement but I’m almost out of white adjustment now so not sure what to do I’m gonna try raising them. I also looked at my fixtures closely today and there are no lenses just the LEDs
Sounds like you light shocked the corals. I used this guide when switching from halides to my Chinese LED fixtures. The best/easiest thing I think you can do right now is cut back your photo period substantially and keep your LED’s all the way down. Coral can survive extended periods of low or no light, but they hate too much light and sudden changes.
http://delreefclub.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=57&Itemid=62
Another thing to note, when I hacked my Chinese LED’s for my controller, I discovered that the “low” knob setting was actually more like 25-30%. I started acclimating at 10% and a 4hr white, 6hr blue. As I acclimated everything, my seasons greetings monti started bleaching, so I cut the power back and didn’t change anything for 2-3 months til it colored back up. I just got to my ideal photo period last week and I’ve been running the LED’s for 4-5 months now. I’m going to start ramping up the power again soon. No casualties so far.
Thanks bnelson I’ll try that and see if it helps