Are my new lights too bright?

[the6goat6man6]

I have finally upgraded my system, from a 40 gal 20/20 to a 70 gal 40/40. I got all new equipment to accomidate the larger system. SWC skimmer, bigger koralias, better lights.

My old system ran on a 6 bulb T-5 setup(3-10k & 3-460 actinics), no I have a bigger tank they are too small but make a great fuge light.

So I got some Evolution LEDs.......AWESOME!!!!!! I love them, but I think my corals don't! Well not yet, I hope. I used all of my old systems water, LR, and the DSB (I left it intact in the old display. Now it is the fuge, I only removed the rock and corals.)

Everything looks good, water perrameters are perfect. When I did the switch I drip acclimated everything, just to be carefull. The crab, snails and the one fish are doing good. But all zoos, mushrooms, leathers, LPS and duster worms are all shriveled up. The duster worms feathers aren't open all the way and one is hanging his head out of the tube about a 1/2 to 3/4 inch.

My question is are the lights too bright???? Should I try to raise the height of the lights?

 

[Krish]

Sometimes raising the lights or putting egg crate over the top of the tank to somewhat minimize the light helps acclimate them a bit. I went from 260w pc's to 500w MH's and I guess the corals didn't mind because I didn't have any at the time :lol:. Fish didn't mind though. What wattage lights did you go to? Is it remarkably brighter??? Any chance to get a picture?? Also, did you use the new lights the same day you did the transfer? It could very well be just the transfer itself affecting them that they will need time to adjust to, but with that said, increased lighting sometimes does affect the corals where they'd need time to adjust to the increased lighting.


Just for kicks, here is what my 75gal looked like when I switched from PC's to MH's :lol:

 

[the6goat6man6]

I didn't think when you use LEDs watts didn,t factor too much. Any way this is what I had and what I now have. I will get some pics.

I HAD(now my fuge light) a Current T-5 108w
I now have Evolution LEDs, 100w(x2) 3G, total of 200w of LED

YouTube - Evolution LED 200 Watt Lens PAR Readings

 

[the6goat6man6]

I have the lights off right now give me time to power them up slowly and i will get pics, ASAP.

 

[Krish]

I didn't think when you use LEDs watts didn,t factor too much. Any way this is what I had and what I now have. I will get some pics.

I HAD(now my fuge light) a Current T-5 108w
I now have Evolution LEDs, 100w(x2) 3G, total of 200w of LED


YouTube - Evolution LED 200 Watt Lens PAR Readings

Yea, I think you are kinda right in terms of the PAR rating making the difference and not so much wattage. You'll have to excuse me tonight. I may have to refrain from answering much questions because my back flared up today and I took something for it and I'm kinda in la la land so my thinking is kinda impared LOL! The medicine says do not operate heavy machinery while on it and I guess the heavy machinery for me tonight is the keyboard :lol:

 

[the6goat6man6]

feather duster lost it's head. not sure if it's dead or not.

 

[thatguy559]

you need to put some window screen on it until your corals adjust to the new lighting or you can raise the lights higher!! you are burning your corals

 

[Skimmy]

yup...
LED's are massively bright and will shock your corals for sure...
you want to start out with like 3-4 hours a day and ramp up to your normal light duration over the coarse of say like 2 weeks.
also if you can place it higher while corals are acclimating that is another option.
also, how recently did you do your system upgrade? have your corals been closed up since then?
might be a combination of both of those things...

 

[Luckedout]

yup...
LED's are massively bright and will shock your corals for sure...
you want to start out with like 3-4 hours a day and ramp up to your normal light duration over the coarse of say like 2 weeks.
also if you can place it higher while corals are acclimating that is another option.
also, how recently did you do your system upgrade? have your corals been closed up since then?
might be a combination of both of those things...

Agreed. Probably a combo of both, but acclimating to the LED's is key.

 

[krisfal]

Can you adjust the output of your LEDs? I just got LEDs and switched from 250w MH, I was advised to start at 50% power. I did not shorten my photoperiod at all just reduced the power of the LEDs and a little over a week with the new LEDs I have not seen any adverse reaction, in fact my blue Ridge coral on which I have not seen polyp extension during the day in over a year, now has great polyp extension.

My plan is to ramp up the power about 5 % a week until I am at about 80% (this is on recommendation from somebody who switched to LEDs about a year ago) and then tweak the color to see what I like.

 

[Skimmy]

his LED's arent dimmable... otherwise, yes, thats the way to go.

 

[the6goat6man6]

I raised the lights, about 24 in over water, removed one light (amazing it still lights the whole tank). And ran the whites only one hour, blues about 4 hours. Everything looks bad, the mushrooms look like they have sores all over. The toadstool leather has a hole in the middle, the duster worms and xmas tree worms lost there feathers and are exiting there tubes. I thought I took all precations before and during change, except the lights, did not know. Water tests perfect? The Bangai Cardinal and emerald crab look great, snails...so so.

Here are some pics of the lights:

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BLUES ONLY

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Blues and whites

When I changed everything over, they all seemed fine, didn't notice anything tile the next day. I even had a rock with about 10 mushrooms on it in there for a little less than a week with no problems.

What about the PVC pipes? I rinse all of them before I used them, Could the glue be a problem? I am running a large amount of carbon since I thought of this.
I am not very happy with the results! The lights look awesome, but I wish I new they would have this kind of effect!(if thats the problem, time will tell)

So how long should I run these lights and how slow should I bump it up? I figured I would use one light up high till/if everything comes back around. Then add the other light, up high. Get them up to the right time, then slow lower them.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
THANK YOU TO EVERY ONE!

 

[the6goat6man6]

I don't know why the top pic isn't working?

 

[the6goat6man6]

I fixed it, one day maybe I will get computers

 

[Krish]

I fixed it, one day maybe I will get computers

Haha!! :lol:. Tank looks great!! Is it really that blue on the second shot (as in would you consider that an accurate photo of the actual color)?

 

[DTECH07]

Sometimes raising the lights or putting egg crate over the top of the tank to somewhat minimize the light helps acclimate them a bit. I went from 260w pc's to 500w MH's and I guess the corals didn't mind because I didn't have any at the time :lol:. Fish didn't mind though. What wattage lights did you go to? Is it remarkably brighter??? Any chance to get a picture?? Also, did you use the new lights the same day you did the transfer? It could very well be just the transfer itself affecting them that they will need time to adjust to, but with that said, increased lighting sometimes does affect the corals where they'd need time to adjust to the increased lighting.


Just for kicks, here is what my 75gal looked like when I switched from PC's to MH's :lol:

Can you sleep at night what SPF does the Coral wear LOL??

 

[Krish]

Haha! SPF 3000! That shot was with the canopy lid open! No corals ever went into this tank besides one small colony of zoanthids. I ended up switching tanks before corals went in.

 

[the6goat6man6]

Haha!! :lol:. Tank looks great!! Is it really that blue on the second shot (as in would you consider that an accurate photo of the actual color)?

Not that great of a pic, but yeah, they are pretty blue but it looks great. I did not want to leave the lights on any longer, I will try to get a better, more accurate pic.

I like the BLUE look of these lights, deffinatly no yellow!

 

[Skimmy]

so how long did you run the 2 fixtures over your tank after the change to "burn" the corals??
and how long after you did the the tank change did you do the light upgrade??

but if you have just one fixture now doing 4hrs of blue and 1 hr of white, just spend the next 2 weeks ramping up to an 8-10 hr light cycle.

 

[the6goat6man6]

so how long did you run the 2 fixtures over your tank after the change to "burn" the corals??
and how long after you did the the tank change did you do the light upgrade??

but if you have just one fixture now doing 4hrs of blue and 1 hr of white, just spend the next 2 weeks ramping up to an 8-10 hr light cycle.

Well, because I was stupid and did not know this would happen, they were ran about a day before I realized.OOCH! I know, I am dealing with it every second of the day. I know it is my fault and I feel really bad!

I set up the new tank with extra rock from my sump and water from water changes. It ran for about two weeks, after a week I added a new rock with some mushrooms on it. It was in there for about 5 days. Never had a problem, I know it wasn't long but I figured if the mushrooms were fine and open, looked good. The sump and fuge weren ot hooked up yet because the fuge was the old display and the old water was needed from the old sump and fuge for the new fuge.

The lights were on the new tank the whole time it had the mushrooms in it, they were a little shaded, but still got alot of light.

I am begining it is something with the water, maybe something I am missing. I have a rock in the fuge that has a few mushrooms on it, and they are all closed up too. I can't tell if they have sores like the ones in the display.

NOTHING LOOKS GOOD except the B. cardinal and the E. crab? The Tstool leather has a hole in the center and I am not sure what to do about that. The D. worms have dropped there feathers and left there tubes. The snails are "frozen", not moving around.

I have more flow in this tank could this be a problem? nothing is "blowing" over and the sand is not blowing around?

Here you go, I bought some little neck clams to feed an anenome(about 8mounths ago). To keep them alive I threw them in the sump, well, they are still alive, they even survived my first crash? I did not acclimate them, just threw them in the tank. They are fine? I don't understand?