billaweed
Stumped Irishman
I'm curious as to whether or not you can have too much light. Or if not having enough actinic can effect the growth of your corals.
Is There a such thing as TOO much light?
- Thread starter billaweed
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DonW
R.I.P.
You can have to much light, that causes bleaching and other coral problems. Actinics are just for looks and dont do much.
Don
Don
billaweed
Stumped Irishman
I have a 50 gallon tank and I'm currently running 4.25 watts per gallon all daylight. my fixture is only sitting maybe an inch from the water. Without masuring I'd say he height of my tank is about 16 - 18 inches.
you're not in danger of having too much light with your lighting situation.
billaweed
Stumped Irishman
but should I still have to worry about my placement? It seems like everything I get ends up shrinking in size. Example; I got a rock covered in shrooms and each shroom was bigger than a silver dollor. Now they are about quarter size. its the same with everything.. like my leather only gets half the size now compared to when I first bought it. Its been that way for a long time.
My water perameters are supreme as of a couple days ago too. Only thing I can think of is my lighting/ placement
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I really don't think your problem with corals shrinking is due to a lighting problem. You're actually in the low to mid range of watts/gallons. No where near enough light to be an issue, even with soft corals.
billaweed
Stumped Irishman
I still get a lot of growth in my tank, but it just doesnt seem like the bloom to their full potential. Should I get more light?
[quote-ronj] what kind of lighting are you running?? what color bulbs??[/quote]
I'm running all T-5's. 1@14,000k daylight, 2 @ 12,000k daylight, and a 460mn Actinic. all are 54 watts. Would MH's do better?
It seems like it would have to be my lights causing the blooming problem because this last weekend I had my water tested by me personally and the LFS and everything checks out.
the other tanks I bought the corals from didn't seem to have as intense lighting.
It could be anything from water quality to flow to lighting difference. Could be your water is too clean for softies, maybe they don't like the flow...or your bulbs are old and need replaced. I just really don't see how 2 54 watt T5s are causing this problem. How about some more information about your tank. How long has it been set up, what are you water parameters...what is your maintenance schedule like...what do you test for and what are your test readings...what brand test kits.
mmkeeper
Well-known member
The mushroom could be that way do to too much direct flow.
Reeferdude
Reeferdude
To answer your question directly. Yes you can have too much light. You can have too much of anything.
theJ
Well-known member
Mike, I think he is running 4x54w t5's. If that is the case, I would say yea, those blue mushrooms prolly don't like all the light, especially they were tossed in and not acclimated.
***Of course, water params are the first thing to take a look at, just like mike mentions above.
For what its worth, I had the same issue with the same kind of blue mushrooms, 6x34w t5's. I placed the mushrooms in the sump under 24w of t5s, and they opened up huge in a few days. I still have issues with any zoos, mushrooms, and polys we place in there. Most of the zoos we have will only grow in shaded areas, polys have to be acclimated pretty slow too.
Do you have a sump with lower light? try tossing em in there for a few days
***Of course, water params are the first thing to take a look at, just like mike mentions above.
For what its worth, I had the same issue with the same kind of blue mushrooms, 6x34w t5's. I placed the mushrooms in the sump under 24w of t5s, and they opened up huge in a few days. I still have issues with any zoos, mushrooms, and polys we place in there. Most of the zoos we have will only grow in shaded areas, polys have to be acclimated pretty slow too.
Do you have a sump with lower light? try tossing em in there for a few days
Tony_Romano
Well-known member
What are you feeding tank?
SB0169
Red Volitan
This is a very important point as my mushrooms nearly died in a high-flow area. Lower in the tank with calm water works best for me, as the lighting demands are not high.
billaweed
Stumped Irishman
I have a sump with refugium. I have one florescent flood lamp covering the fuge. Its a 100w intensity bulb. would that work? to let you know I have cheato in there as well. I see some Zoa polyps in there that seem to do ok.
I'm currently not feeding much of anything. I toss some mysis shrimp in the tank for the fish a couple times a week. Sometimes Ill toss a tablespoon of Iodine and Chromaplex in there bi-weekly.Tony_Romano said:
theJ
Well-known member
100w intensity so thats like 24w in the florescent world. thats fine, its just an experiment to see if the shrooms open up some more. They should open up real nice for you in a few days if lighting was too intense for them in the display
aquarookie
Pure Poison :)
My shrooms did not mind my 250 watt halide over my 54 gallon tank, but they DID mind clean water. They were shrinking too, until my overflow broke and I ran sumpless for a while. They loved the extra junk in the water, opened up and started growing. Not that you should have a dirty tank...
Herefishyfishy
Smart Bass
Not unless your light source is hydrogen nuclear fusion based. The sun which is a large fusion reaction; at the tropics to the equator is vastly brighter than our tanks and corals are. Many wild corals are often near the surface and even exposed in low tides.
The main issue, is what are the corals used to. If put under brighter light than they are conditioned to, they can and often will bleach out or brown out. They can be injured or killed when weakened. This is not from too much light, it is from too fast a change in light.
Actinics can add to the total light and more to the coloration as viewed.
billaweed
Stumped Irishman
Hmmm.. I dont have much of a bioload. I have a 50 gallon tank with one fish, and a handfull of hermits.
could very well be that I have more filtration than i need.. I have a sump/refugium loaded with live rock an cheato. I run a skimmer, and I have a lot of filter feeders like, feather dusters, kenya's, colt corals, etc...
I also have a 3 inch sand bed that is actually 4 inches inchs some spots.
Herefishyfishy
Smart Bass
How long has the tank been set up in it's current location/configuration?
