AI Hydra 52 settings help?

[harmonyexotics]

hey guys,

probably should post this in the lighting forum, but i want info from sps people. Ive got a 30 gallon tank that will be sps dominant. Right now it has only been set up for about 2 months or so. I have a single Hydra 52 fixture mounted roughly a foot above the water line.

Someone gave me a ponape birds nest and a green slimer just to test the tank out and see how they do. All parameters are within reasonable levels (to me anyway). But the corals are very faded. Im attributing it to the light intensity/photoperiod time, and want info from you guys to see if there is something that i should change.

Currently the lights come on at 11am and ramp up over a 2hr period. Sunset is at 8pm and has a 2hr ramp down time.

Settings:
White 30%
Violet 30%
Red 30%
Green 30%
D Blue 60%
Royal Blue 60%
UV 50%

Are these settings too extreme? Not intense enough? This is my first tank with LEDS. My last reef setup was a 90 gallon with a 6 bulb t5 fixture.

As far as levels, NO3 is less than 5ppm, Alk is about 12(shooting to get down to 10 or so) not detecting any phosphate, and Ca is about 450.

There are only 2 fish in the tank that are fed once a day. 5g water change once a week. Auto top off to keep salinity swings down. ~6 gallon refugium with sand and macro. Fuge light runs 12 hours opposite Hydra.

Thats about all I can think as far as tank params.

Thoughts and suggestions appreciated!!!! Thanks guys!!!

[harmonyexotics]

There is one small wammin watermelon zoo frag and a single mushroom that seem to be doing great. Just the sps look faded/brown.

[michika]

Did they fade after their arrival in your tank or did you receive them that way?

[harmonyexotics]

They faded after i got them. The slimer was NEON green, and now its brown. Its in the top 2/3 of the tank. The guy i got it from had it under leds as well...just not sure of the intensities

[harmonyexotics]

The zoas doing the way they are makes me think something with the water quality making the sps unhappy...but everything test ok. Unless the dkh is too high. both frags still have decent PE

[michika]

What is your intensity set at on your light? It will help me make sense of the values you've posted.

Any photos to share that might help?

[harmonyexotics]

The settings posted above are the intensities of the individual colors. Everything starts out at zero and then at 11am slowly ramps up over a 2hr period to reach those intensities. Then at 8pm they take the same 2 hrs to ramp back down to zero. I was running the deep blue at 1% as moonlights, but thought that may be affecting them so i turn them off at night now

[harmonyexotics]

So basically from 1pm to 8pm the lights are running at the above values.

[harmonyexotics]

There is a wp25 in the tank set on 100% in Else mode for strong random currents if that has anything to do with it. Nothing is being directly blasted by it tho.

[michika]

Ok, so your intensity is set at 100%.

I would venture to guess based on your post your light is too bright for your SPS and they need to be further acclimated to its intensity.

[harmonyexotics]

So, if thats the case, how do i get it off 100%?? I thought thats what the controller was for when i set the percentages that i want? if it was on 100%, wouldn't that make all the color channels 100%?

[harmonyexotics]

Here is an attached photo of my settings

[harmonyexotics]

Maybe ill just cut all the settings in half and leave the amount of time theyre on the same and see what happens