Jestersix

Corals losing color. Can't figure out why.

Well the lights are 24 inches from the bottom of the tank.

I will try all blue for a while maybe up it to 30% blue and 0% white. It just sucks because i dont like the blue look. At ultimate aquarium they have a 14 gallon nanocube with a 360 over it. A gold torch and acans and zoas on bottom. Theyre at 80%blue and 20%white. Much more intense and shallower tank than my set up. Hmmm so hard to pinpoint the issue.

Like i said i have zoas and a duncan halfway up the tank. Theyve been with me since i got the light and theyre not stressed
 
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Yesterday was at 9dkh and i dosed 2 part alk. Going to try and bring it to 10dkh.

I got an awesome deal on test kits yesterday. Brand new salifert nitrate test kit and lightly used nh3 and n02 kits and a very used calcium test kit and a hanna phosphate checker for 20$. He also gave me a TDS wand.

Will be using it later today.

I think its interesting these little zoas can handle the light but the euphyllias cant. Hopefully the decreased blue and lack of white will help them heal. I just hope my sunset montipora can tolerate the lowered light conditions.
 
You don't need to use all blue. Call kessil in Richmond if you need more information. Like I said earlier Kessil has made the light spectrum to work at all blue/ white combinations. At least that is what we were told on our tour of their facility. I think you might be causing yourself more grief than is necessary. I suspect in a few months you will be able to increase the intensity to where you want it. Again 16 in. Is not very deep. An article I recently read about light noted that some intensity is lost between the light source and the water, but not much. Therefore even if your lights were higher it won't make a lot of difference. The key how much water is between the top of the water and the bottom, and then where the corals are placed. 30 percent is a good starting point, and 15 percent blue/ white is good.
 
F6553066 said:
An article I recently read about light noted that some intensity is lost between the light source and the water, but not much. Therefore even if your lights were higher it won't make a lot of difference.
Click to expand...

This really isn't true unless you are talking about a laser. LED aquarium lights all have different optics, but all of them project light in a beam that gradually gets wider further from the light source. As light moves away from the source, it is dispersed in a wider beam and therefore "intensity" is lost. The chart below shows that the PAR value with a 45 degree optics on an LED drops at least 100 PAR in just about 4 inches. Depending if you have the "wide" or "narrow" version of the Kessil, you could drop PAR values in your tank by 100-200 PAR just by raising the fixture an inch.

LED-Lighting-Performance-PAR-Chart.png


F6553066 said:
Like I said earlier Kessil has made the light spectrum to work at all blue/white combinations.
Click to expand...

All the research that I've seen indicates that this can't really be true. Changes in the hue of the light will affect different corals in different ways: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2014/5/aafeature
 
I guess we just read different articles, and you might be right. However, I'm not talking about how different corals react to light intensity. What I'm saying is that according to Kessil they tried to make their light spectrum to fit the needs of corals no matter the combination of blue/white. According to John at Kessil the company didn't want the customer to fail by trying to get the perfect spectrum. They bundled the individual LEDs to do this as the light is emitted and mixed immediately. According to Kessil the coral grow about the same with any combination of blue/ white. Adjusting the colors is only to get the "look" each individual wants. What I am saying is that with the kessi's the corals will do just as well with a 50/50 combination or 30/70 etc. like I also said I have 6 Kessil's over 3 tanks and all are adjusted with different blue/white combinations. Lastly, some corals need more wattage than others,sps vs soft corals, etc., and in your case you have lower light corals generally speaking, in a shallow tank, which is why in my opinion start at 30 percent and raise the wattage to about 60 max.
 
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