duncans looking dull

[Marinne13]

I have had my big colony of Duncan's in a 30G with a Reefbreeders LED fixture for about 3 months and it was looking amazing, great color and polyp extension

well I recently moved into a 75G last weekend and pulled out my 6 bulb aquaticlife T5 fixture, it does have ATI bulbs: 3 blue plus, 2 coral plus and one purple plus...my Duncan's seem very dull in color now, almost yellow brown on the tentacles?? are they bleaching? I only run all 6 bulbs for 4 and a half hours a day and the colony is on the sand bed.

my levels are good, 0 nitrates, 0 phosphates (no algae in the tank at all), 8 DKH, 440 calcium, temp 79, salinity 1.025

is it just that the T5 fixture is that much worse than the LED's? I agree that my tank does not look as crisp without my LED fixture but I already had the T5 fixture so It saved me money

any thoughts??

 

[ErinCahir]

They look healthy to me still.

I know when I swapped to the LED initially I couldn't believe how amazing everything looked. I would guess it's the same when you move down to fluorescent (... only the opposite, I guess).

 

[Marinne13]

The only thing I am considering is hanging my light up higher... Maybe 8 inches off because my light is 328 watts and I only have LPS

 

[emmett0122]

in my 55gal i have a 4 bulb t5 ho with 1 coral, 1 purple +, 1 blue +, and 1 antinic and your duncans look just like mine and mine seem happy and healthy and +1 to erin as if you went from led's to t5's there not going to have the color and pop

 

[kbuser92]

+1 to the above. If I were you, I wouldn't worryabout it, but personally, I would save up for another fixture to match what you have now.

 

[Marinne13]

I hung my T5 fixture, it's now 10inches off the surface not 3 (looks way softer and I am sure my LPS will love it)...just can't waste it you know, no one really buys big fixtures like that so I might as well use it

 

[kbuser92]

I understand completely. Not with the advent of LED's they don't. However, it would be a good light over a freshwater planted tank...

 

[Marinne13]

True but the 75 is the only 48' tank I have...I will see how they do with the light higher

 

[mariobrothersleeve]

It honestly looks like to much flow for them. They are the gigantic Duncans and looks shortened up by flow. Otherwise color looks dead on. From my experience with them, they are very low light and in this case they could be place under an over hang.

 

[mariobrothersleeve]

You should have kept the programmer and mp40..... :-)

 

[Marinne13]

they are barely getting any flow, just enough to move them around a bit...I know but the MP40 was way to much for my LPS in the 75, I could never get it low enough and not blasting everything

 

[mariobrothersleeve]

Really? Don't get me wrong I wish I got the mp10 but that thing runs fantastic. I'm running typically at 60% with another 1050 in the tank and the lps, even the elegance are happy. That thing sure can put out some flow!

Changing lighting will affect the corals for a while, but they will get used to it

 

[Marinne13]

yeah, just couldn't get it right...right now I have 3 power heads and it seems just right, none are over 500GPH otherwise I would piss everything off