Failure to thrive

[dkeller_nc]

Hmm - for 4 foot reef tank? Sure, everyone's budget and priorities are different, but I suspect one would have a really hard time finding a reef tank lighting solution for an 8 square foot tank area under that amount, at least for new equipment. Keep in mind, that figure was for a no-frills T5HO 8-bulb fixture.

Kind of obviously, one doesn't need 8 bulbs for a low-light zoa and mushroom tank - one could probably get by with 4 bulbs at the minimum, while 6 would be better. But either way, it's still going to run $300 at a minimum. It's definitely not a cheap hobby.

 

[PMc]

Hello All,

Tonight's Monday night report is about lights. I tested water parameters over the weekend and they were all withing normal limits so I will spare you the details. The Nitrate was up a small tic, presumably from the attempt to feed heavily.

I had some exchanges with Mr. Conti from CoralVue about repairing the Maxspect. His initial thought was a burned out LED on one of the pads. I couldn't find one on visual inspection. I replaced the driver board but it didn't change the problem. Mr. Conti was right from the start. I read about a way to test each LED pad with a nine volt battery somewhere on the internet. It lit up each channel on each pad except for the blue channel on the number one pad. Since everything is wired in series, a fault in the blue channel on the number one pad would explain a failure of the blue channel on all three pads (I think).

CoralVue offered to take the unit in for service. They would have run the problem down faster than I did but I don't have a back up unit and I was worried that I couldn't keep things going while the unit was out for repair. I ordered a new pad this morning by priority mail. I hope to have a functional unit by Wednesday evening.

Almost every item in my system has some sort of a back up but the lighting system. The BRS video mentioned by dkeller_nc and commented on by reefgeezer is worth a viewing and makes the point that the creatures in our systems are really adaptable as long as there is some degree of stability. I am guilty of monkeying with my settings far too much before I realized that I had a spectrum problem. Even if I can resurrect the Maxspect, I think I am going to look at adding T5s as both a backup system and a foundation for the LED unit.

My problem will be reintroducing the proper spectrum to mushrooms that have been deprived for an unknown period of time. At this point, I think I will start the blue channel at 10% and ramp up as quickly as the mushrooms seem like they can tolerate it. I have no idea how fast they can respond. Advice is welcome.

The ramp up period will give me time to save my pennies for a T5 fixture. It will be far closer to the $400 end than the $4500 end mentioned in the BRS video. My wife has a sense of humor but...

I hope to post again next Monday night with a refurbished LED unit and initial response. Thanks for all the help. I feel like I am making progress.

Mc

 

[dkeller_nc]

For a ramp-up, I'd suggest no more than a 10% power increase per week. That might be overly cautious, but your concern about nuking some corals that have been acclimated to a pretty low spectrum output that they can use is valid.

 

[PMc]

Weekly update 3-4-19

This was water change weekend so no water test results. The weather was crap here so I took the opportunity to clean down everything as well.

The new LED pad arrived on Wednesday of last week. Installation returned the fixture to complete functionality. I set the blue channel to 10% for a 10 hour photoperiod. I was trying to avoid shocking mushrooms that hadn't seen much of this spectrum for an unknown period of time. The initial reaction was encouraging but not over the top. Everything looked like it was opening up a bit more but there was no overt trumpeting.

Yesterday, 5 days in, I increased the blue channel to 20%. Today, the mushrooms were obviously more open with the newest colonies responding the most. The only Yuma was obviously trumpeting up today and a purple frilly was also obviously brighter and more open.

The photoperiod has been increased to twelve hours. The plan is to increase the intensity by 10% per week until I get some sign that the local population is displeased. I am not sure how I will recognize that. Failure to open fully? I have seen them exude mesenteral filaments but only when really irritated and I hope not to go that far. The interesting aspect will be to see how far it goes.

Thanks for the interest and the help. I will post again in a week.

Mc

 

[CAPT_Dave]

There is an awful lot of turnover in this hobby. I'll bet you can find a used T5 fixture for $50 on your local Craig's List or reefing forum. Then just get new bulbs.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[PMc]

There is an awful lot of turnover in this hobby. I'll bet you can find a used T5 fixture for $50 on your local Craig's List or reefing forum. Then just get new bulbs.


I would never have thought of Craig's list. Didn't find anything today but I have time to look so I will keep my eye out. Thanks for the suggestion.

Mc

 

[CAPT_Dave]

Google reef forums for your town. That's where you'll find it. For me it's SDReefs. Everything in the lobby if you're just a little patient.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

 

[dkeller_nc]

Yeah, if you choose to go the T5HO route, it's usually possible to pick up a 6 or 8 bulb ATI fixture for 1/2 to 2/3rds the price of a new one, depending on how old it is and whether it has functioning bulbs.

For a mushroom/soft coral tank, I personally prefer fluorescents because the color rendition is better IMO. I run LEDs over my SPS tanks, though, primarily for the intensity and low power consumption. My goal in the next year is to convert some of these systems to a combination LED/T5HO lighting option.

 

[PMc]

Monday night report for 3-11-19

Water test was good this weekend with the exception of Alk at 10.5. I overshot the mark somewhat but the Ca is still 375 so I think it will all be fine to just let the Alk fall back into the normal range.

I increased the blue channel to 30% yesterday. The mushrooms were trumpeting up more before the intensity increase. The increase in intensity seemed to knock them back yesterday but today they are trumpeting up even more. As On The Spot observed, the older mushrooms are not responding with near the gusto as the new ones. The older ones do not appear to be stressed - just not as happy with the new intensity. I am hoping that, over time, they will begin to respond as well.

I will be traveling for a few days coming up so the ramp up in intensity is going to slow down and Monday Night reports are going on hiatus. I will post when I get back and then slow the pace of reports until there is something to actually report.

Thanks all for the help.

Mc

 

[PMc]

Monday night report for 4-1-19.

The tank is improving. I ramped the blue channel up to 40% two weeks ago and then left on a short trip so it stayed at 40% for two weeks. Yesterday I moved it up to 50% matching the white channel. Nothing looks stressed. I think the existing mushrooms are coloring up well. Most of the new additions are expanding better. As On The Spot observed two months ago, the newer colonies are responding much more quickly than the older colonies. The only Ricordea colony is trumpeting quite a bit.

This coming weekend I will probably start moving both channels up together 5% at a jump. Nothing is looking stressed and i would like to go up faster but I don't want to torch the older colonies. I have no idea how quickly they can respond but I would like to seem some positive sign before pushing harder. By all accounts, I should be settling out somewhere between 50% and 100% anyway.

Water testing was non remarkable.

Yesterdays oddity was the discovery of a 5cm sea cucumber in my sump. I have no idea when he came in but it was likely a few years ago. I haven't added a frag larger enough for even a small one to hide in for a couple of years. It's curious I haven't seen him before. I attempted to ID him but it seems about an impossible task. H. impatiens seems most likely but there are too many possibilities for to do more than guess. I was torn about leaving him in there or taking him out but some of them are toxic enough to kill a tank in the event of a fatality so I took him out. Seemed a shame to do so but I wasn't willing to take the chance.

Thanks for the attention. Unless something goes off the rails, I will post again first of May.

Mc

 

[PMc]

Update for 5-7-19

Hello All,

Life happens and I am a little later with this update than I would have liked but there is little news anyway.

I continued to ramp both channels 5% per week since the last post. At 70%, 10 days ago, most of the colonies stopped trumpeting as much. This last weekend, I stayed at 70% rather than increase to 75%. The newest colonies are still doing well. The oldest colonies have not done well. I moved them to lower, shadier areas of the tank but they just have not responded since I discovered the light problem. Despite the slow ramp up, they do not seem to be able to respond and are actually looking bleached now.

I am not encountering any significant algae issues. Water parameters are boring and normal. Nitrate is slowly coming up. My nuisance foraminifera has regressed to some degree but it is still present. Chaeto in the sump seems to be slowly regressing. Skimmer is still offline.

Future plans are to consider adding a T5 fixture to better balance lighting and then look at further livestock. It seems like it has been slow but it is vast improvement over where I was two months ago. Thanks,

Mc