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Unread 02/25/2018, 05:29 PM   #26
Jcohen9999
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cdearing View Post
I have been searching but everyone has a different idea. The AI site has some crazy photos of the lighting schedule which I don't want to try. I have tried multiple different lighting ideas from people, some saying red and green need to be very low, some saying white needs to be super low, some saying UV can burn your corals. It's very confusing. After lowering my lights as suggested in the previous posts and being gone from home a couple of days, my green hammer is worse. Maybe I need to try the cheap lighting like suggested to see if that works.


I just set up my hydra using the Saxby presets. His tank looks awesome so it can’t be all that bad.


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Unread 02/25/2018, 05:35 PM   #27
BrettDS
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Are LEDs killing my corals?

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Originally Posted by cdearing View Post
I can't imagine I would have ammonia in my water since I have RO DI and check tds pretty regularly. Had my whole system redone last summer at a cost of about $500. Also, we are on well water so don't think I'd have chlorine either. We change out a whole house filter and iron filter regularly.



I have a refractometer that I use with regularity.



My corals are not bleaching, just shrinking. The soft corals don't seem to be bothered in the least.


Ammonia comes from fish waste and can also come from dead fish or corals as they decompose. If you have a smaller tank and something dies and isn’t removed from the tank it can create an ammonia spike that will kill other things and create more ammonia. Sometimes something can die behind a rock and you have no idea that it’s causing problems.

While a regularly functioning tank shouldn’t have detectable levels of ammonia and you shouldn’t need to routinely test for it, when you are having problems of unknown origin and especially when you are starting to get some die off which can cause ammonia it definitely makes sense to test for it. I don’t know for sure that’s what’s happening here, but I think it would be prudent to test for it and rule it out at least.


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Unread 02/25/2018, 06:02 PM   #28
LQT
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Originally Posted by cdearing View Post
No I do not know what my current alk is.
Do you have a test kit for it?


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Unread 02/27/2018, 02:12 PM   #29
cdearing
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Got to home depot and get a pair of T5 strip lights and a 4x GE 6500K bulbs. See if these arrest your fall and help a bit. These are great spectrum for coral, but bad to look at anymore where people want a bluer tank. If so, then ditch your LEDs and get a nicer T5 setup.
Went to Home Depot today. They don't have 6500k lights only 4100. Ideas?


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Unread 02/27/2018, 03:06 PM   #30
jda
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They are pretty cheap online, or see if a specialty lighting store has them. Go slow... they put out a lot of spectrum.


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Unread 03/01/2018, 04:22 PM   #31
cdearing
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Home Depot only has 4100k light bulbs. I wonder where else might have them. The reduction of the power on my LEDs didn't seem to help so far.

I'm going to try water changes with water from a different source to see if that helps.


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Unread 03/01/2018, 04:56 PM   #32
cdearing
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Originally Posted by jda View Post
They are pretty cheap online, or see if a specialty lighting store has them. Go slow... they put out a lot of spectrum.
Sorry, didn't see your previous post. I just ordered an alkalinity test kit so will try that too.


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Unread 03/11/2018, 02:15 PM   #33
cdearing
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Alkalinity

My alk is about 8.6 so a little high. What should I do about that? I have reduced the lights to
10% UV
33% Violet
35% Royal
35% Blue
3% Green
4% Deep Red
24% Cool White

Changing the lighting doesn't seem to do much for my neon hammer which used to be the showpiece of my tank and is not shrunken to almost nothing.


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Unread 03/11/2018, 03:02 PM   #34
cdearing
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I've been using water from a different RO system for top off last week and just did a 5 gallon water change with that same water. Will see if that makes any difference.


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Unread 03/11/2018, 03:29 PM   #35
mitch91175
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Do not only look at TDS when you are doing your RO/DI. What filters are you using in it? I had an issue where I had 0 TDS but still had ammonia because of chloramines in my water. Issue was resolved with getting a filter that removed both chlorine and chloramine.


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Unread 03/11/2018, 06:45 PM   #36
BrettDS
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Are LEDs killing my corals?

Quote:
Originally Posted by cdearing View Post
My alk is about 8.6 so a little high. What should I do about that? I have reduced the lights to

10% UV

33% Violet

35% Royal

35% Blue

3% Green

4% Deep Red

24% Cool White



Changing the lighting doesn't seem to do much for my neon hammer which used to be the showpiece of my tank and is not shrunken to almost nothing.

Keep in mind that once the corals start to decline they won’t recover overnight. It will take weeks or maybe even months of stability before you start to see improvement. And making frequent changes will set that back further. Corals are fairly robust and able to adapt to many different water chemistries and light levels, but it takes time for them to adapt. If you keep changing the light levels or lights or raising it lowering the calcium and alkalinity levels you’re just going to set them back further.

The best thing you can do now is to stop making changes. An alkalinity of 8.6 dkh is well within the good range. You will be much better off trying to keep it stable at 8.6 than trying to make another change and lower it. Keep an eye on your corals and make sure they don’t continue to get worse, but don’t expect them to recover in a few days or even in a week or two. And don’t think that not seeing them recover soon means that something is wrong.

Keep things stable and give them time and they will recover and start to flourish again.


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Unread 03/11/2018, 06:51 PM   #37
mitch91175
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BrettDS View Post
Keep in mind that once the corals start to decline they won’t recover overnight. It will take weeks or maybe even months of stability before you start to see improvement. And making frequent changes will set that back further. Corals are fairly robust and able to adapt to many different water chemistries and light levels, but it takes time for them to adapt. If you keep changing the light levels or lights or raising it lowering the calcium and alkalinity levels you’re just going to set them back further.

The best thing you can do now is to stop making changes. An alkalinity of 8.6 dkh is well within the good range. You will be much better off trying to keep it stable at 8.6 than trying to make another change and lower it. Keep an eye on your corals and make sure they don’t continue to get worse, but don’t expect them to recover in a few days or even in a week or two. And don’t think that not seeing them recover soon means that something is wrong.

Keep things stable and give them time and they will recover and start to flourish again.
You hit the nail on the head with just sitting back and waiting. It is hard to do in our instant gratification society. I myself am guilty as charged with being impatient. I told my wife now that I am keeping SPS that I WILL learn patience. May spend more money than I need to on frags in the mean time, but still have to be PATIENT!


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Unread 03/28/2018, 04:27 PM   #38
cdearing
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T5 6100K bulbs

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Originally Posted by jda View Post
Got to home depot and get a pair of T5 strip lights and a 4x GE 6500K bulbs. See if these arrest your fall and help a bit. These are great spectrum for coral, but bad to look at anymore where people want a bluer tank. If so, then ditch your LEDs and get a nicer T5 setup.
I found these on Amazon. These are hydroponic grow lights. Would these work? How high off tank should I set them? Shorten the time period too? This is scary.


T5 4FT 8 Lamp Fluorescent Fixture
$132.00
ETL Certified - High Quality Components - Quality Guaranteed
4 High Output 6500K Vegetative lamps included
Multiple Hanging Options - Vertical or horizontally


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