Too much light?

[miller_time]

Hey everyone, questions. I have a BC29 with the Coral life clamp on 150 MH that I added about 4 months ago. I have it probably 8-10in off the water.

My problem seems to be that if I move any of the coral any higher in the tank than mid way they get very angry. I tried moving them there and letting them adjust for a bit but the corals just start going down hill... My zoas never wanted to fully open and started loosing color and my candy coral, acans, hammer, mushrooms, and even GSP aren't happy except on the sand bed. or at least close to the bottom. I'm starting to wonder if this is too much light for my tank, growth is great on the sand bed but I want to be able to decorate the rock and not just have row of coral on the sand.

Is it I just have the wrong corals or is it really too much light and I should just go back to the PCs?

 

[gixxer600]

most of the corals that you mentioned are generally lower light corals with the exception of the LPS so the sand bed is a great place for them. But is this lighting an increase form what you had before? If so it might take them some time to adjust. Try a shorter light cycle for a little while and then gradually lengthen it or slowly move each coral up in the tank a little at a time. Hope this might help.

 

[freezerrat]

I have a 12g nanocube with a 150w halide about 8" above the water. Zoas, 'shrooms, a few lps, some sps. Mix of everything. And everyone is happy. So I would say your light is fine.
This pic was just taken today.

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[miller_time]

freezerrat;562301 wrote: I have a 12g nanocube with a 150w halide about 8" above the water. Zoas, 'shrooms, a few lps, some sps. Mix of everything. And everyone is happy. So I would say your light is fine.
This pic was just taken today.

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Did you do anything to acclimate the coral up higher in the tank? 3 months ago I acclimated the tank to the light using layers of screens and shorter photo periods.

I just cant figure out why all of the coral closes up when its higher in the tank. Zoas, mushrooms, and GSP wont open and acans, and candy coral start closing up. I'm at a lost!

 

[miller_time]

Yep, the shield is still there and fitted tightly. So I should be good there I think.

 

[miller_time]

phoenix 14k about 3 months old.

 

[miller_time]

11am- 9pm

 

[miller_time]

Yeah i've wondered if that was too long, but I read a long post on another forum where people were running lights for 12 hrs and not having problems so I thought I would give it a shot. So you think that with the shorter photo period the corals might stay happier higher up in the tank?

 

[acroholic]

You don't need a photo period longer than 7-8 hours with metal halide lights, regardless of where SPS are placed in the tank.

 

[miller_time]

Yeah, I knew that I just love looking at the tank and I work a lot out of the house and hate it when the lights are off, so I let it have a longer photo period, the coral doesn't seem to mind except for the fact that I can't move anything off the sand bed. I'm still pretty new at the salt water thing so I'm not keep SPS right now, just some softies, and LPS for now.

I guess I will just cut my photo period down and see if that helps.

 

[freezerrat]

Miller_Time;562317 wrote: Did you do anything to acclimate the coral up higher in the tank?

I really didn't do much to acclimate. Being such a shallow tank low placement wouldn't have made much difference I figured. A couple of additions didn't seem too happy so I placed them under a shadow. But that's about it. It did worry me and maybe I've just been lucky.

 

[miller_time]

hmm, I just don't get it, my zoas that I moved half way up the tank are starting to close up a bit again, I'll leave them be and see if they adjust, I don't know what else to do!

 

[jr78]

nice tank by the way