T5 Lighting Question

[kevinathom]

I have a general question and would appreciate thoughts from the ARC. I have a 65 gallon tall aquarium with a mixture of SPS and LPS corals. For lighting, I am using am Aqualife 4 bulb fixture which has 3 timed settings: White, Blue, and Night. I am running the White mode for 4 hours using one Giesemann Pure Actinic and one Giesemann AquaBlue+ T5 bulbs. I am running the Blue setting for 10 hours using two Actinic+ T5 bulbs. Most corals seem to be doing well, but I have a couple of favias that seemed bleached out. I don't know if these settings are optimal, and I am interested in knowing what other people doing with their T5s. Thoughts?

 

[kevinathom]

Does 4 hours on the white lights sound right?

 

[tonymission]

It doesn't.

And I would only use Actinics as a true supplement to essentially reduce par and give a little bit more "pop" to the corals.

On my 8 bulb fixture I run two actinics otherwise I would roast my corals and I'll take the reduction for a little more fluorescence. 6 bulb I don't run any because I feel they're really just there for the human eye and I figure I don't have enough bulb slots on that fixture for that luxury.

Now I don't know much about favias (besides being able to kill them easily), but are they bleached or are they dying? Dying could be a result of anything and bleached is probably too much light.... which doesn't make sense with a 4 bulb fixture.

What are these "modes" on your fixtures? I don't understand that part of all this. Do they essentially just turn on specific slots in your fixture? So if you had your daylights in the blue slots and selected blue mode then your daylights would turn on?

 

[kevinathom]

Thank you Tony for the reply. The modes are essentially timed slots for two bulbs each. So, in my current configuration, the two actinic + T5s run from 8 am to 8 pm (12 hours - I misspoke in my initial query). The other 2 T5 bulbs come on from 10 am to 2 pm. So I am running all four bulbs for 4 hours - 10am to 2pm. I am relatively new to the hobby / obsession and it is fascinating. I am just now trying to understand how the lighting can affect the tank. The favia was one of my first frags 10 months ago. It initially started to die but then two heads remained stable but weak and not growing. I also have a few acans (like the one pictured). Most seem to be doing well and are putting out new heads. The one pictured is like the favia - stable but weak. I've moved them to different areas in the tank with no change so I'm thinking it could be the lighting. That said, most of the tank seems to be doing well but I'm still interested in whether I can do better with the lighting.

 

[rdnelson]

Personally, I think your on periods are to long. 12 hours of light is too much. If it were me, I would cut back the blues to 8 hours and run the whites for 4 hours. As in, blues on for 2 hours, then all lights for 4, then blues for another 2. Also, are you feeding the favia?

 

[kevinathom]

This is very helpful. I will try cutting back to see how they respond. I am feeding them mostly reef frenzy and cyclops weekly. Reef frenzy goes into the tank 2x a week without targeting.

 

[rdnelson]

Try a little target feeding as well. I think it is hungry. Twice a week may be a little lite on feeding depending on your fish. What kind of fish do you have?

 

[kevinathom]

The fish are well fed. I have two tangs and for damsels which get fed a couple of times daily. I increase the food to the others and see what happens. Thank you for the suggestions

 

[kevinathom]

I just wanted to follow up on this thread. I cut my lighting as indicated above. My corals immediately started looking better. One of the most dramatic changes was on the psammacora. I had almost given up on this piece since it kept getting more and more bleached. I thought it was my tank. Wouldn't you know that when I changed the lights, it became a new coral. The people on this forum are great, and I appreciate all the advice from my fellow reefers. Maybe one of these days, I'll know enough to return the favor, but in the interim, I thought I'd share my lighting experience FWIW.

 

[lsu_fishfan]

kevinathom;1025547 wrote: I just wanted to follow up on this thread. I cut my lighting as indicated above. My corals immediately started looking better. One of the most dramatic changes was on the psammacora. I had almost given up on this piece since it kept getting more and more bleached. I thought it was my tank. Wouldn't you know that when I changed the lights, it became a new coral. The people on this forum are great, and I appreciate all the advice from my fellow reefers. Maybe one of these days, I'll know enough to return the favor, but in the interim, I thought I'd share my lighting experience FWIW.

Looking good! How long did it take to heal?

 

[kevinathom]

The healthy part started to green up almost immediately. The bleached areas started to fill in after about three weeks or so. Now it is spreading to the surrounding rock. I never would have guessed that it was getting too much light until the guys at Pure Reef and the forum corrected me. I was thinking that if a little light is good, a lot has to be better. I was clearly wrong in this case.