250W halide too much for 40B

[firebirdude]

So I've been using a 250W DE Halide over my 40B for a little over a year now (14k Phoenix bulb about 12" from surface). My growth hasn't been too good and a lot of my color is washed out. This goes for all corals across the board. All my other specs stay pretty stable as I dose 2-part and have a ReefKeeper used to monitor pH, temp, control ATO, etc.

I bring home a new coral from the LFS and that's when I realize how brightly colored up it is compared to the rest of my tank. 3 months go by and I forget about it. Bring home another frag and.... all over again. The new frag is now, by far, the brightest coral in the tank.

[vette.tech]

Can you post some pics, might help

[bdsage]

photoperiod?

[stancfii]

I think you need to feed your corals to compensate for that much light.

[sirreal63]

Originally Posted by stancfii

I think you need to feed your corals to compensate for that much light.

I would agree, as light increases so must nutrition.

[Chris Lakies]

Originally Posted by sirreal63

I would agree, as light increases so must nutrition.

Bingo!

[kc350twin]

I agree with what most have already said it depends on a lot of things and how your tank reacts. Every tank is different and I for one cannot not push a bunch of light over mine. It took me a long time to realize this due to me trying to copy others success with their lighting.

I think it's a little too much light for any length of time for such a shallow tank. That is based on my experience though. I have a 112cube(36x36x20) w/a 250w Radium, 4x24wt5's and 2 Reefbrites. The halide is now only on for a hour and my colors have deepened so nicely. The rest are on for 10 hours.


What's the photoperiod on the tank?

Easy no cost experiments to try and see if it is too much is raise the light or shorten the photoperiod or both. The changes may take a while to show positive results so don't make the change and in a week put it back.

[Chris Lakies]

A really great tool is a PAR meter. They are pricey however they can tell you a lot about what is going on. Mine has been indispensable for the past couple years.

[d2mini]

As long as the distance from the bulb to water, and the distance from the surface of your water to your coral, and the overall intensity is the same as wherever it came from, your light shouldn't be the issue.

Have you compared?
And what kind of light is your LFS running?

I think that with proper light acclimation, it shouldn't be a problem at all.
And if it still is, you should look at things other than light. A 250w phoenix bulb is pretty much guaranteed to grow coral under normal circumstances, so I'd be looking at water quality.

[firebirdude]

Thanks for all the replies guys. I read them all back in January and really didn't have much to say, except "that makes sense. now let me do something about it." lol

The photo period is 7hr. 10am-5pm. The bottom of the halide reflector was about 11" off the water when I made this topic. I currently have it at 14". My stand is on the high side, which puts the tank up high (rim at ~5.5ft), so moving the halide much higher than 14" from that will start to result in an uncomfortable amount of light bleed in the room. As in, us looking directly at the bulb. lol I've already been battling a small green algae problem, so I really haven't fed the corals at all. I have Reef Roids, but have only used it maybe 3 times in the past 3-4 months. Again, afraid of making the green algae worse (it's starting to pull back as it is).

I can't really say much has improved. My alk is always in the 8.4-8.8 area, my calcium is always 440-480 area and my mag is always in check (easy). I do 15% water changes every other week with Reef Crystals. I do have some corals that are certainly doing well, but none of the LPS/SPS grow all that much. They have polyp extension and have been looking healthy for months (some over a year), so that's a great sign. But very very slow growth and looking washed out. Tried twice at introducing Acans low into the tank with poor results. They look ok for the first 4-5 days, then start to shrink bit by bit. A month later, skeleton is showing and it's nearly done for. I've also had two groups of 8-10head of zoanthids slowly shrivel up, but yet, have some red and gold zoanthids in that same area that are blowing up (over 150 head). Xenia is going nuts, of course. I've got a hammer that's a little larger than a softball that I've had since the beginning....and it's still right about the same size it was when I bought it. Extends well every day. It just doesn't grow and looks a little pale green color.

[Bpb]

May have missed it but what's your reflector/ballast you're using and how old is the bulb

[firebirdude]

Icecap ballast, 14k DE Phoenix bulb that gets changed ~10 months (probably 6 months on the current one), and unknown reflector. Bought the reflector off another reefer in very good condition. Pretty solid design with mirror on all sides. A lot like this, but double-ended.


About like this:


As for water flow, I have two WP40s. At first, they seemed like a ton of flow. And while they still crank out flow, it doesn't seem as impressive. Maybe I've just gotten used to it? Before, I couldn't crank them within 2-3 dots of max power on the wave maker. Not only because it was a ton of flow, but also because of the noise. Now I have them both 1 dot from max and can barely hear them. Maybe it's the scum/coralline on them inhibiting flow? Still seems sufficient though. I can see the polyps on the SPS blowing around a bit.

[Bpb]

Gotcha. Well I'm with the others, I don't think your problems are light related directly. Sounds like nutrition. If you're running a skimmer, try pulling off the collection cup for a few weeks and see if things perk up a bit

[firebirdude]

I am running a skimmer (SCA 302), but run it very very dry. So dry that the muck just builds up in the neck of the collection cup over a period of weeks. I rarely empty it because it's never full. But it seems if I bump the air inlet the tiniest bit so it skims wetter, I wake up the next morning to an overflowing collection cup. Which is what caused my algae problem in the first place. It overflowed all the collected skimmate back into the tank all overnight (probably ~6-8 months ago). That's the first time I really started having an alage problem. Over the next day, green alage started getting real nasty. Also about the same time I noticed my pod population shrinking. And now, been awhile since I've seen any.

The skimmer has been a bit of a fight with me and it's not really its fault. The light from the fuge causes algae to grow in the body of the skimmer over time. It takes awhile. But sometimes I pull the whole skimmer apart and scrub all I can reach. This means, when I reinstall it, the air tube needs to be adjusted from where it was. Now that the body/neck is squeaky clean, the bubble line sits much lower. I usually let it sit there a couple days to allow the slime coat to reform before adjusting the air inlet. But next thing you know, the bubble line goes from base of neck to over the lid. lol

My next tank design will be much different. This is my 3rd saltwater tank. I've started a list of things/pitfalls that have annoyed me/I've learned from. Next tank will surely be years from now. But whenever I do it.... it'll be done differently. lol

[stancfii]

Increase your food and doubly increase your export (via ATS, caulerpa, chaeto). That's a great bulb/reflector combo, and at 14" you're still probably hitting 200+ par on the bottom.

[firebirdude]

Bare bottom tank BTW. lol

I swear, my next tank.... the sump is going to be the same size as the display. LOL

[firebirdude]

Actually I have two WP25s. Just found the box. Think that's enough?