How do you acclimate?

[chadfish]

Hey BRS.

I need advice for a full-tank mixed reef light acclimation protocol.

I had a bleaching event a while back. I saved a bunch of coral by turning the lights way down. I also turned off the whites. I don’t know what my PAR is, but I estimate a max of 80 near the top and 40 at the bottom.

Prior to that I was running an AB+ lighting schedule with a max of 160-180 PAR at the top and 80-100 at the bottom. Everyone was pretty happy. Montis, Slimer, birdsnest, Zoas, BTAs. (Until the event). I have a ReefBreeders 36” V2+.

Things seem to have stabilized with just blues, but nothing is really “recovering”. Meanwhile my high-light coral seem to be suffering.

How do I ramp back up? Or do I, do I just stay where I am? Can I add 1% a week? Per day? I don’t want to push too hard and bleach everything again, but I feel like I can’t just stay where I am either.

 

[srit1]

Your reefbreefers is a photon right? I have the same. I do things very slowly with everything (from ramping dosing, to ramping lighting). For lighting with my photon I move 1 channel up 5% on 1 hour each day. It quite literally has taken 6 months to get to the recommended SPS setting per reefbreeders.

On a tangential note, why do you think your par is so low at the top with that light? What do you have it at right now?

 

[chadfish]

Your reefbreefers is a photon right? I have the same. I do things very slowly with everything (from ramping dosing, to ramping lighting). For lighting with my photon I move 1 channel up 5% on 1 hour each day. It quite literally has taken 6 months to get to the recommended SPS setting per reefbreeders.

On a tangential note, why do you think your par is so low at the top with that light? What do you have it at right now?

I went from 40% blues, 20% whites to 18% blues no whites

 

[srit1]

How high/how deep are the coral to the light?

5 months ago, this was my par at 65% on channels 3, 5, 6, 20% on 1 and 2 and 40% on 4 (white)
300 par right on the purple stylo - thats ~12inches underwater with the light another 8.5" above the water surface.

 

[chadfish]

Here's the original lighting

And here's where I am now:

I don't have PAR values, but I'm ESTIMATING this:

As of now, The Sunset Monti isn't bleached, but the polyps are retracted. The Purple monti in the middle is mostly bleached out, the Red monti on the left is recovering, but still has white streaks. The PC Rainbow (hard to see in the middle/right) is dead, the red digi is basically dead, but the birdsnest (middle top) is unaffected and has doubled in size.

I'd love to ramp back up to my old schedule. I just don't know how to do it responsibly. I don't want to be screwing around with it, going back-and-forth (whites on, whites off) I want to follow an established protocol.

If I increase 1% a week for a month? Do I fade-in the whites before increasing the blues?

Thanks everyone

 

[srit1]

I asked about the lighting as the numbers just don't sound high enough to have caused the bleaching in the first place. That said, I would ramp up every day to get back to your old values in about a month.

 

[chadfish]

I asked about the lighting as the numbers just don't sound high enough to have caused the bleaching in the first place. That said, I would ramp up every day to get back to your old values in about a month.

Thanks. Yeah, not sure of the cause. I broke the first rule and changed many variables at once. But my knee-jerk reaction was to lower the lights.

 

[cablez]

That doesnt look like a led caused Bleaching bro.........thats nutrient, ph, or something else. But I mean it could be.........But I have adjusted my LEDS upwards of 30% in a single day and never bleached. Stress was caused elsewhere in my opinion

 

[Terry Martin]

That doesnt look like a led caused Bleaching bro.........thats nutrient, ph, or something else. But I mean it could be.........But I have adjusted my LEDS upwards of 30% in a single day and never bleached. Stress was caused elsewhere in my opinion

That would be my guess as well. I think 10% a week shouldn't be a problem at all. The par you have now is not enough for your corals to live on.