LEDs running too high? Question about corals...

[Irchikg87]

Hi all,
I am fairly new here...
we are running a 10 gal Innovative Marine all in one tank. The light is an "Aquabeauty 35w." It's a nice little setup and we love it! But... Not sure on how the led lights should be set up. A few years ago we had a 75 gal with metal halides, so LEDs are new to us. I've read online that the ratio should be 3:1 blue to white, but at what %? We got some SPSs and we know that they like good lighting, so my husband cranked up the lights! However, my biggest concern is that our zoas are not showing good colors (at least that's what it seems to me). We bought some zoas at an lfs and they looked nice and bright in the store (bright orange inside and green outside), but when we put them in our tank, the Orange is so dull that's it's more of a mellow yellow... Are they being burned or bleached? Our plate coral started growing like crazy but what about the zoas? Can anyone point us in the direction of what the appropriate light percentages we should be running? For both softies and SPS?

 

[dailydriven911]

I'd turn the LEDs down to around 50% with more blue than white. LEDs are pretty powerful although it may not look like it as they are a single source point of light rather than a larger spread like t-5's and halides. How far off the water is the light? Some pigments just don't show as well under led but others look amazing. Some corals also take some time to adjust to led lighting. Not sure if the zoas were under LEDs before or not but that could be the difference.

 

[1guydude]

I'm diffrent. I run leds 100%
Maybe raise the light up?
+1 coral takes time to adjust to leds. Shaded or bottom of tank 1st imoe.
D

 

[Irchikg87]

On our light, we have an option of how many % white, and % blue... And each one has to be set. So should we do 100% both? We were pretty close to that in the middle of the day and I was thinking that's too much... How long would you say the coral need to get used to the light? My husband glued them all yesterday after being about a week and a half in the tank.

 

[Irchikg87]

The lights are less than 10 inches from the light...

 

[dailydriven911]

I'll assume you meant 10" off water surface? That's pretty good but I'd turn them down still. Some colors can look washed out under LEDs so I assume that's what you're seeing. Maybe try moving them around a bit and see if the color looks better. If your other corals have adjusted to the LEDs it's possible the zoas haven't yet and may be a bit stressed.

 

[Irchikg87]

Yes, thats what I meant. I know that this might not be a big deal, but it just bugs me that they are not showing true color and we actually did change the placement yesterday, but still, the Orange is not showing through. Eventhough we have different zoas with orange feet and the color is also not super bright, but at least still orange. Blue, greens, and purples look really good though...

 

[dailydriven911]

Yep some corals just don't have it under LEDs while others really pop. Sounds like what's going on

 

[tike]

I would run the whites at 50% and 100% 0n the blues for a month or so and the slowly adjust the white up. This will give any coral acclimation time to LED's if they haven't been under them before. When I first switched to LED I ran both at 100% and promptly fired a few corals. HTH

 

[Husker12181]

+1 to starting at a lower level and ramping up. I have seen a few LEDS fry plenty of coral.

The great thing about LEDs is that you can make them brighter or dimmer without having to move the fixture.

 

[Irchikg87]

We lowered the white to a maximum or %45 during the daytime, while the blue is at %100. I find it too purple for my taste... We'll have to try lowering the blues a little and possibly raising the whites... still not sure what would be best for growing corals. I've been having a hard time finding useful information on how to adjust led lights.

 

[Irchikg87]

Also, how can I tell when the corals are getting too little or too much light?

 

[mfinn]

One thing you need to remember is the blue leds are just as powerful as the whites. Too much of them can harm corals too.
Another thing, the corals need time to adjust to the more powerful led light intensity.
Not just a few days. They need weeks.
With my led fixtures, I started out at a total intensity of 40% and over 4 weeks went to 65% total intensity

 

[Irchikg87]

Thanks for the advise. Those blues can be pretty conceiving!

 

[tike]

Another thing I forgot to mention is optics on LED's. If you don't have them on the corals can adapt quicker because of the spread of light from them. I have 90 degree optics which focus the light straight down, which makes for a much higher intensity of light hitting the corals.

 

[1guydude]

+1 every coral, tank, and lights r diffrent
Imo 1-3months. Hths
D

 

[Irchikg87]

The tank is only 10 gal (we do want to upgrade in the near future), and the fixture pretty much covers the whole area of the tank. I see people using the same light for their 30 gal, so I'm now sure that the light is too intense. I will try lowering the total percentage to 40 like mentioned above. In the past, we had a 75 gal and couldn't grow any SPS because of poor lighting. So now that we have a small little tank and nice bright light, it makes it difficult to do the guesswork on how bright it really needs to be. Also, we are starting to get hair algae... Do the light affect that as well?