Am I burning my corals with light?

[derek_s]

I have the solana with 150W HQI halide. It came with a 14k current usa bulb, and I just a week ago switched it for a 20k Ushio. Now some of my sps corals appear to be bleaching towards the light source, but look fine away from it. I figured since the current usa bulb was only a month old, the switch wouldn't warrant an acclimation. Was I wrong...?

I am running the bulb 8 hrs a day currently, same as before. Just wondering if the Ushio really packed that much more of a punch... If that's is, what's the remedy?

BTW, not all corals bleached, just some, mostly near the top. Bleachers include pink birdsnest, blue digi, green digi, tricolor validia. Some that were in a similar place but that didnt bleach were red digi, green birdsnest, and maybe a couple others.

 

[ralph atl]

I doubt it

 

[jmaneyapanda]

Just because its 20K doesnt mean it isnt stronger (more PAR). It may have shocked the corals a bit. Drop your photoperiod to 4 hours and bump it slowly. I recently did the same thing by switching old bulb for new.

 

[darren24]

Hey I used an Ushio 20K a while back. It must pack a good amount of PAR for a 150 DE because my corals did not like it at first. All of my acans at the time closed up tight. That was going from a 14K phoenix to the Ushio 20K.

 

[derek_s]

jmaneyapanda;180949 wrote: Just because its 20K doesnt mean it isnt stronger (more PAR). It may have shocked the corals a bit. Drop your photoperiod to 4 hours and bump it slowly. I recently did the same thing by switching old bulb for new.

How slowly should I increase? I.e. add an hour ever week, etc?

 

[derek_s]

dawgdude;180960 wrote: Wait you changed back to a Ushio 20K?

Not sure if you mean me or Darren, but I am switching to, not back from the Current USA.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

corvettecris;180961 wrote: How slowly should I increase? I.e. add an hour ever week, etc?

That si what I am doing. It is driving me crazy, because it is one light of the three, and it seems like its never on.

 

[derek_s]

Thanks, I'll give that a shot. Will the burned part recover rapidly (assuming that is the problem) or will it have to regrow? I have been looking really close, but cant see any polyps in the white part, but I also cant see the obvious holes that are usually present when the SPS dies.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

I just snipped mine, for a fresh start.

 

[derek_s]

UPDATE: Still seems I have some recession, even at 4 hours. I moved all mobile frags to the bottom. My superman has come back some, others not yet. I bought a Sera calcium test today to replace my API, and it tested my calcium at 500 (API was significantly lower, maybe 380 ish). I havent noticed any precipitation, but will tis cause a bleaching or sensitivity to light? all I can think of right now.

I'm gonna test it once more and do a WC.

 

[derek_s]

Did the WC, everything looks ok that I can test. I turned off the GFO for now. Also, I verified that all bleaching is coming from the light source. I looked relly closely, but cant see polyps on some of the spots. No idea what's going on here.

 

[darren24]

Hey no the 14K to the Ushio was a while back. I have now switched from 14K Phoenix (again) to 20K Aqualine B's. They are "blue" all right but get good color pop from them.