Too much light

[SSalty]

I believe I am having troubles with my corals because of too much intense light. I have the TX5 over my 55 gallon with all ATI bulbs. My SPS/LPS are pale in color and even my brains on the sand bed are a bit bleached. Even my zoanthids on the bottom of my tank prefer to grow under the rock, away from lighting. The only way I can keep ricordia's are to have them placed under a ledge on the bottom of the tank.

I am not saying this is a bad thing in regards to you fixtures, but probably shows how powerful and high quality they are.

I run my lights for a total of 7 hours.

I am curious to what your thoughts are in regards to the TX5 over a 55 gallon.

Thanks.

[Aquactinics]

TX5,

How long have you been running the TX5 over your 55ga? If you just started using try cutting back on your photo period and slow bring it back up over the next week or so. Or you can use our riser brackets and raise the fixture off that tank. That should help reduce the intensity.

Thank you,

Tom
Aquactinics

[SSalty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14769441#post14769441 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Aquactinics
TX5,

How long have you been running the TX5 over your 55ga? If you just started using try cutting back on your photo period and slow bring it back up over the next week or so. Or you can use our riser brackets and raise the fixture off that tank. That should help reduce the intensity.

Thank you,

Tom
Aquactinics

I have had the TX5 for almost 2 years. I have changed the bulbs every 10-12 months. I prefer to have the fixture sitting directly on the tank so I can't directly see the bulbs from my living room. Could I just remove a bulb permanently? Or is this bad for the fixture by having one bulb removed?

Thanks.

[Aquactinics]

SSalty,

Do not remove any of the lamps and use the fixture. It can possibly shorten the life of the other lamps. Your better choice of action is just to reduce the photo period. Cut back about 2 hours and see how everything does.

Thank you,

Tom
Aquactinics

[SSalty]

Is that the only harm done by removing one bulb?

[Aquactinics]

SSalty,

We do not recommend removing any lamps. If you find the 5 lamps too bright, simply turn off the amber switch and now you will have three lamps and no damage to your fixture.

Thank you,

Tom
Aquactinics

[fishieness]

You can also replace the ATI bulbs with something else such as current bulbs that will have less PAR.
We have a TX5 on a 55 gallon at work and never had any problems. Sps are anywhere form the middle to the bottom, but there are also a bunch of mushrooms and zoos in there that never had any problems. I would do what tom says and start out with only 3 bulbs on for a while and then add the other two. Shortening your photoperiod will also do the trick.

But out of curiosity, what lighting did you upgrade from? I'm interested because I think I'm going to upgrade to a TX5 also. :)

[SSalty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14781460#post14781460 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fishieness
You can also replace the ATI bulbs with something else such as current bulbs that will have less PAR.
We have a TX5 on a 55 gallon at work and never had any problems. Sps are anywhere form the middle to the bottom, but there are also a bunch of mushrooms and zoos in there that never had any problems. I would do what tom says and start out with only 3 bulbs on for a while and then add the other two. Shortening your photoperiod will also do the trick.

But out of curiosity, what lighting did you upgrade from? I'm interested because I think I'm going to upgrade to a TX5 also. :)

The TX5 is the first fixture I have had.

[volcom69]

Maybe you have a lack of nutrients in the tank, how much do you feed the tank, do you dose any aminos at all. I run this same fixture on my 70 gal when i first installed it i noticed fading and some bleaching on the top half of my sps, i cut the time period down and started to feed more and they colored back up.