Bleaching?

[parrotchute]

So I'm pretty new to sps and last week I put in one of my first acros under my ai LEDs. On the side facing the lights, it has bleached, so I moved it lower and raised my lights a bit. It's frustrating trying to figure out what's too bright vs not bright enough. So, light wise, it'll bleach if too high and brown if too low? (notwithstanding other issues like nutrients or disease). Damn wish I had a par meter!

 

[little_fish]

how did you acclimate the coral to the lighting you have?

 

[marcah]

There is no doubt that sps are the biggest pain in the neck, between lighting like you said plus water params needing to be perfect to water quality ( nutrient load), and if water levels change to much they suffer, but in the end they are worth the work...:D
Cant you control the intensity of the AI's? most people I have read only have them at about 60- 70%..

 

[parrotchute]

Yeah, I can control them - I'm debating what to set them at. THey ramp all the way up to 100%, but that's right at noon, they probably average about 50-60% for the day. I raised them up a few inches instead of playing with the brightness - same diff..

haha, lf, I didn't acclimate them to the lighting at all....probably the reason, but you'd think they would have been kept at pretty bright lighting since I got them from a coral supplier, not the lfs.

 

[little_fish]

Ive had SPS bleach moving them from a high lighting environment to my lower lighting environment. My personally policy with any SPS is reacclimate to the lighting no matter what, but it dont do that with LPS or softies if they are moving from higher to lower light.

 

[parrotchute]

hmmm...
I'm really thinking about getting a par meter, but it's sooo expensive!

 

[little_fish]

Maybe someone has one locally you can borrow? Try your local reef club

 

[parrotchute]

I just bought one. Figure I'll sell it at a loss when I'm done with it. Or rent it out. Or whatever!

 

[little_fish]

I think it would be very cool to be able to track the par changes in the LED units year to year.