LED lighting intensity

[Jon]

I have an Al Hydra AI 32 HD light with the reef brite xho add on kit. I love the light, the app and the xho add on kit. The reef brite leds really make the colors pop.

All of my corals are doing well and my tank seems very healthy. That is, until I recently bought an expensive meat coral and can not get it to inflate as it should. At night when the lights go off, the coral inflates enough so that you can’t see it’s skeleton and looks like most corals do at night. But when the lights come on, the meat coral gets pissed and sucks in as much as it can. It’s obvious the coral is not dieing and because this is happening when the lights come on leads me to believe that it doesn’t like my light spectrum.

So here is my question... Has anyone experienced this before and if so how far back do you reduce your lighting intensity. Before I had the meat coral I ran my lights under this spectrum and everything was happy

UV 50, violet 70, royal blue 105, blue 120, green 20, red 10, moon light 40, cool wight 40

I have now dialed it back to this spectrum hoping to appease the meat coral:
UV 15, violet 40, royal blue 40, blue 40, green 20, red 10, moonlight 25, cool white 40

Most of my corals are still thriving under this new spectrum except a couple zoas which are pissed off and closed up. I’m thinking over time they will get use to this. But the meat coral is still unhappy!!! I want to give it a chance to get use to this new spectrum so I’m leaving it like this for atleast a week before I try something else. The meat coral is on my sand bed placed on a small pvc cup.

If this continues for another week should I reduce the lighting intensity even more????

Any help or advice is appericiated
Thanks

 

[iTzJu]

you didn't really have to lower the spectrum, you could of used the AI acclimation mode to achieve this next time.

I would keep an eye on it. prolonged of it being unhappy can tear the skin on the skeleton. it might of got shocked with your initial settings so just let acclimate to the new lights but definitely keep an eye on it

 

[Jon]

you didn't really have to lower the spectrum, you could of used the AI acclimation mode to achieve this next time.

I would keep an eye on it. prolonged of it being unhappy can tear the skin on the skeleton. it might of got shocked with your initial settings so just let acclimate to the new lights but definitely keep an eye on it

Thanks for the Info. I didn’t even know my light had that setting. Lol. Now I know what the crescent moon in the corner is for. I hope it comes back to life. It’s been like this for a month and was definitely shocked. I need to find some shade to move it into.

 

[Foxchase]

Thanks for the Info. I didn’t even know my light had that setting. Lol. Now I know what the crescent moon in the corner is for. I hope it comes back to life. It’s been like this for a month and was definitely shocked. I need to find some shade to move it into.

It could honestly be anything from lighting, to flow, to it just not liking the parameters in your tank or the stress of the move. For the most part, I'd leave it on the sand bed to acclimate changing things around will just stress it out more on top of stressing out corals that were previously doing good.

 

[DEL]

mine loves flow. light or no light it puffs up when hit with flow.

 

[Sponge]

Don’t know if this will help but I have had a meat coral for a little over a year and it has grown a great deal and swells up to an enormous size compared to its uninflated state. I do keep him very low in the tank and on the darker side of the tank. But it does not seem to be bothered when the tank is at full intensity ie the four hours in mid day when all lights are on and at their highest par. That’s four kessils and four t5s. However it does like a good amount of flow as long as it is not blowing directly on it and it loves to eat.... A lot. It likes pellets and worms and meat. It likes direct feeding and broadcast feeding. Basically it loves to eat. It doesn’t love being moved. It always looks best and responds to feeding when it’s been left alone. The longer it isint moved and the more I feed it the happier it seams to be. Now to be clear. I may just have been lucky but that’s the recipe that has worked for our meat coral. Best of luck. They are beautiful animals and fascinating to watch. Not sure what else I can add but if you have any questions feel free to ask. FYI my alk is held at 9. And I do not let it fluctuate very much. This has worked for me but I am aware that different alks should be fine. It’s keeping it as flat and unfluctuating as possible that matters

 

[Sponge]

One more thing. Early on with the meat coral I had equipment failure that I felt absolutely killed it. Nearly all the flesh had dissolved and it was over 90 percent just skeleton. (I nearly threw it in the trash but I decided until 100 percent of the flesh was gone I would try to save it) I babied it in a hospital tank and it took months but it fully recovered and is a stellar looking coral. My point is good care and perhaps a lot of luck and it recovered completely from certain death. So keep your chin up. They absolutely can recover if the conditions are right.

 

[Jon]

Thanks for all the feedback. I’m going to leave it on the sand bed and have turned up my flow about 15%. I’m hoping this helps.