Coral troubles some bleaching, some dying, some great???

[JonsReef]

Actually, if I recall dong is a scientist of some sort. He is quite knowledgeable. I would trust him. It isn't just the 2 of them. There are countless threads on RC with the same issue.

I'm not doubting dong's credentials or intelligence, but rather his hasty logic in this circumstance only. If he is truly trained as a scientist, he'd be the first to admit that an observation is the basis for an experiment but by no means conclusive evidence of a phenomenon.

It seems silly to me to keep comparing the different lighting technologies in such an observational and unscientific way. If I bought a car and it just so happened to break down, would it make sense to assume that ALL cars were faulty and that I should just switch to talking the train all the time because everyone said trains were more reliable? Nonsense.

There are many many posts about difficulties with MH and T5 lighting as well. Until someone can adequately control for all other variables/parameters and truly compare LED vs. T5 vs. MH, all of our advice and suggestions are merely anecdotal at best.

 

[mchartier]

There are so many variables just in tank husbandry alone that could be causing the issues. Yeah there are coincidences on RC also but there are just about the same amount of success stories with LEDs also. What if Dong and Brewtality used the same kind of salt, couldn't that be considered the cause?

 

[JonsReef]

There are so many variables just in tank husbandry alone that could be causing the issues. Yeah there are coincidences on RC also but there are just about the same amount of success stories with LEDs also. What if Dong and Brewtality used the same kind of salt, couldn't that be considered the cause?

Exactly my point. Thank you

 

[dz6t]

JonsReef, I just based on my own experience with early generations of LED, not that all LED are bad.

There was little research, if any done on LED's effects on corals, especially different kinds of corals, before people built and sell LED for reef keeping. For example, early generation LED fixtures used only warm white and royal blue chips because they were readily available even they were not designed with reef keeping in mind. The effects of these LED fixtures to some corals are discussed by many people on here and RC etc. Some coral such as zoas and mushroom actually do very well under these early generation of LED but not some LPS and SPS. There are actually scientific studies done and some hypothesis were brought up, but those will be published in the near future if people who did the studies decided to.

Most people keep mix reef with LPS, SPS and softies. Some coral are sensitive to certern spectrum, too much of it will induce photo inhibition and cause damage. People who keep their "early generation" LED way up high or run it will a fraction of its full power generally see all corals are doing OK except slower than expected growth. When blasting a lot of light on a mix reef with these LED, people will see some coral started to bleach and go down hill from there while other corals are doing fine. For example, red acan will turn orange and slowly die away in some case. These obsevation normally will not caused by the salt you use.

I am not sure which part I offened you and if that is the case, sorry about that.

We are here to help each other out and let's keep it that way.

 

[dz6t]

One thing I want to point out is that I do believe LED is the future of reef lighting, just need more research done. I am currently working with a LED manufacture oversea on LED for reef lighting which include redesign of spectrum and light directing technology. Hopefully we can get the prototypes build in the near future and I will do test on my reef tanks. Stay tuned.

 

[P-Nut]

....

 

[brewtality]

Ok before this thread turns into Ford vs Chevy. Back to the point maybe. I have to agree that the LED may have caused the bleaching but not necessarily because it is LED. It isn't early generation LED as far as I know either. The Maxspect are relatively new I believe. I DO think I may have overpowered them a bit though as I was running them at high intensity for a longer time period. I also had the candy cane higher up under the lights. I did not really acclimate to the lighting as I should have. I am a noob so I am making some noob mistakes. I am just looking for some advice on what to do from here. Dumping the LED is not an option. So any light suggestions as far as what color channels and for how long would be very helpful.
The lighting has 4 channels all controllable through 8 time points. Are my lights on too long, too intense, not long enough, etc. Currently I have the A channel 7-8k ramping up to 40% and down to 0 over 6 hours along with the D with is 3k soft white and blue 460-490nm. I have the blue B and C (400-410nm actinic, 410-420nm actinic, 440-460nm) channels coming on about half way through the 6 hour frame and ramp from 0 to 60% and back to 0 for about 6 hours so when I am home viewing it is under blue actinic most of the time. Looks a lot nicer and the corals really pop under the current setup....when they are open...thanks again to all.

 

[dz6t]

Thanks for the inform and haha, you just open another can of worms (just kidding).
According to some, (which please take it as a grain of salt), the ramping of "individual" LED channel, which has very little (or none) scientific data to show how that mimic the nature, is quite stressful to some corals. There is a online paper I ran across by a famous guy who warn against the new LED with adjustable channels (how to use them that is). He said the channels adjustment are to achieve certain light spectrum, once the desirable look/color is set, all channel should ramp TOGETHER. I have no personal experience with this so just share what I read.

 

[dannyp02908]

ive also heard the same. That ramping them changes spectrum as well.

 

[dz6t]

ive also heard the same. That ramping them changes spectrum as well.

Exactly, well said.