Paratore Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 I have two ocean revive LEDs above my SPS frag tank. The lights are about 20" above the surface of the water. Frags are only about 3 inches under the surface. The frags are encrusting nicely but their color is not the best. The colors seem like they are faded. Not bleached but not nearly as dark and vivid as they should be but growth is good. Is my lighting to strong or not strong enough? I have my blues at 45% and whites/full spectrum at 30%. Is there anyone else that runs OR's on their frag tanks that could shed light on what they keep their light percentages at? Or could anyone help me figure out why their coloration may not be up to par? I read a lot about it and I know it could be like a million things but I feel like it's my lights but it could be something else. Any ideas? All my parameters are steady. Alk-9.0 Calcium-450 Mag-1250 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Z Reef Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 There's a ton of different things it could be. How about full parameters list? What's your nitrate/phosphate at? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paratore Posted August 12, 2015 Author Share Posted August 12, 2015 I'm at work right now. I'll get those for you guys when I get home! If they were high though wouldn't the SPS be turning a brown color? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Z Reef Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 Yes but if they are zeroed out you can have lighter/bleached looking corals too. Happened to me, starting blaming lighting but once I backed off all the vodka dosing and bio pellets, my colors came back. Feeding will also play a part. There's a ton of scenarios, unless you just switched to those lights it's hard to say they are the only culprit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badxgillen Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 Many people run those lights and have great color, Jeff at Cuttle Fish & Corals and myself included, so it may very well be another factor. Might want to investigate the previously mentioned parameters before changing the lighting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paratore Posted August 12, 2015 Author Share Posted August 12, 2015 Yes but if they are zeroed out you can have lighter/bleached looking corals too. Happened to me, starting blaming lighting but once I backed off all the vodka dosing and bio pellets, my colors came back. Feeding will also play a part. There's a ton of scenarios, unless you just switched to those lights it's hard to say they are the only culprit. I've been running the OR's since the beginning, so maybe it's not the lighting as you suggest. I had been running GFO since the beginning and read that I may be cleaning the water to much so I haven't been running it for about two weeks to let my phosphates creep up slowly. Haven't checked nitrates in a while but last time I texted the water there were at 0 (API test). I'll test nitrates and phosphates when I get home tonight. Feeding wise I have two tangs in the system right now. My little yellow tang for Algae control and then a blue tang I have under observation before placing in the display. I feed about once a day. So my bio load is fair with these monster poopers haha. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paratore Posted August 12, 2015 Author Share Posted August 12, 2015 Many people run those lights and have great color, Jeff at Cuttle Fish & Corals and myself included, so it may very well be another factor. Might want to investigate the previously mentioned parameters before changing the lighting.I've seen tanks with these lights and know they can yield great results, such as yours and Jeff's that's why I'm trying to figure out what's going on and thought it may be my light intensity. I'll test my other parameters tonight and see what they tell me. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
softy Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 If your parameters are all good.... check the lights for failed diodes. We had them slowly burn out on us on our ORs. But like everyone stated.... it could be a number of variables. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paratore Posted August 12, 2015 Author Share Posted August 12, 2015 Checked both my nitrates and phosphates and both came out as 0. I have a little bit of Algae so that may have influenced the test. It was also just the standard API test and nothing fancy. I think I'm gonna go down to TPA tomorrow and have them run all the tests on my water to make sure my test kit is working ok and to get a second opinion. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishboys Posted August 13, 2015 Share Posted August 13, 2015 If your parameters are all good.... check the lights for failed diodes. We had them slowly burn out on us on our ORs. But like everyone stated.... it could be a number of variables. How long had the unit been used before you found diodes failed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
softy Posted August 13, 2015 Share Posted August 13, 2015 all six fixtures failed within a range of 8 - 14 mo. likely a lot of it to do with failing fans. A couple the fans still worked. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exodus Posted August 13, 2015 Share Posted August 13, 2015 Checked both my nitrates and phosphates and both came out as 0. I have a little bit of Algae so that may have influenced the test. It was also just the standard API test and nothing fancy. I think I'm gonna go down to TPA tomorrow and have them run all the tests on my water to make sure my test kit is working ok and to get a second opinion. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Just like Blue Z mentioned if they are Zero that can potentially be the culprit. I have seen lots of posts from other reefers setting up a carbon/gfo reactor and bringing phosphates down with little to no nitrates and complain about fading. Might want to just start feeding a bit more than usual to bump those params up a little. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenbasketreef Posted August 13, 2015 Share Posted August 13, 2015 I think your water is too clean and starfing the sps. Try temporary remove GFO offline and feed the coral every other day. In about a week you will see the sps getting healthy again and some die off may occur for the one that too far at edge. When po4 creeps up to 0.04, put the gfo back online with half the media you normally use. If your skimmer on all the time, you may also want to stop 6 hrs a day, may be when off when you go to work and back on again when you are at home. Healthy sps should take the light spectrum from OR at 100% all channels at 20", assuming that you have 100% sps in that frag tank. If you have other corals may want to dim white channel and blue channel 100%. For sps I prefer to run OR at 100% and play with height adjustment to reduce intensity. Hanging OR 12-20" above water will be good level when using OR for sps only, you will get about 300-500 par at this height, will be less on older unit. Like softy said check to make sure all diodes are firing. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paratore Posted August 13, 2015 Author Share Posted August 13, 2015 Thank you everyone for all of the information! I'll slowly ramp my LEDs up to 100%, Jeff said he also keeps his at about 100%. I do believe that I may be starving them also. I would only feed my fish maybe once a day and feed the coral two times a week. I'll try feeding more and see how things go from there. I really appreciate you guy helping me out! I'll let you know how it goes in about a week! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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