too much light? only 4 T5s on a 72 gallon

[pascal32]

I'm starting to wonder if I have to much light on my 72 gallon bow front. This tank is for LPS & softies only.

light: nova extreme with
dusk/dawn 10.5 hours - KZ& ATI Blue+
par (top) 70 (middle) 65 (bottom) 45

daylight - 6 hours - add ATI blue + and ATI Blue +
par (top) 166 (middle) 134 (bottom) 78

* Frogspawn mid-tank look great.
* mushroom on bottom look great
* favia about a 1/3rd up is lightly bleached
* acan mid tank will not inflate
* duncans on top went from a medium green to a very light green (neat, but suprising)
* pally mid tank doing well, and reaching a bit (confusing the crap out of me)

there is low flow in the tank.

parameters (salifert and elos kits):

KH - 8.8
CA - 450
Nitrate - 10
Mg - 1400
Salinity - 35 ppt (calibrated refractometer)
PO4 - .01 PPM (hanna ULR converted to PO4 PPM)

I do not feed much at all - probably to a fault. is there any truth to the higher nutrient more light, lower nutrient less light?

any thoughts?

[FishFolk]

I'm not an expert or anything but i doubt you have anywhere near "too much" light.

[pascal32]

The funny part is I agree :). I'm heavily leaning towards needing to get phosphates up lightly by feed more.

[awestruck]

I don't think you have enough. I have a 65g. with (2) x 150w. MH and (2) 65w. pcs. Some softies and lots of lps.

[awestruck]

Another thought: lps can't get blasted like sps with water movement, but nor can they have really slow moving water. When I first got my elegance coral, and after reading "low flow", that's where I placed it and it wasn't too happy. It's in higher flow now and very happy. Granted, it's not getting blasted, but it's moving and doing well. I added another power head to get water moving more randomly which helped all of my corals immensely. Same goes for my favias, trumpet, acans, pagoda, merulina, 2 x lobos, and chalices.

If possible I would increase flow as well as adding more light. The palys are more than likely reaching because they're not getting enough light. I've also seen corals lose color because they're not getting enough light--not enough to photosynthesize well. HTH :)

[Gravesj1s]

Blurry,
Ime, favias do better on the bottom.I've only found the Mias pot of gold to do well in brighter light.

Though I dont have much experience with acans ,Ive grown one colony best in indirect light.It seemed to tolerate being in the light but on the bottom but it lost all its colors other than dominately reds.I found feeding it directly and keeping it shaded brought back some of the greens ,yellows &oranges.

[jacksonpt]

How tall is the tank? I've got a 4x39 over my 16" tank and things are thriving. My lights are a retrofit using a hamilton ballast and a single reflector, so I doubt I'm getting the light output/intensity you are.