Need help-Don't understand lighting and probably killing things.

[Dapozer]

I keep researching and reading of what i am supposed to do, things to buy and the new and cool, So I set out on a great journey into a small/nano reef. I have a 16g IM Nuvo ( had it for over a year) but that is another post. My problem here is lights and wondering if I am cooking my coral. I bought a AI Nano to upgrade from the stock lights, I built a custom arm to get the light 7.5 inches from water level. This covers the entire tank well. I have 2 Zoa frags, a star polup frag, birdnest frag, and a small torch frag. It appears that the toch (16 inches from light) and the birdnest ( 11 inches from light) are doing fine, 1 zoa frag at (13 inches from light) is doing OK but not great. the other Zoa (11.25 look good and seems to be reaching, however the star polyps at the same height are starting to retract and not look active. They looked great yesterday and in the am but when I looked at 4ish they look bad. The zoa and stars and torch are new as of yesterday. Here is my light schedule and where I think I am off some. Ideas?
Light schedule for Nano
Time W/B/R % Ramp (min)
7:30a 3/7/7 10

8:00a 14/22/22 60

10:00a 27/28/28 60

12:00p 32/45/45 90

3:00p 22/43/43 60

5:00p 14/24/24 30

6:00p 3/7/7 15

6:45p 0/2/2 10-Lunar
40% thunderstorms 1x day

 

[fishguy69]

Can you get the light higher, off the water?

 

[Dapozer]

Yeah no problem, how high? how would this differ from just lowering percentages? would the mix of spectrum's be better?

 

[FinsUp]

That was my thought, too. It may be too close to the water.

 

[jahmic]

What was the stock lighting, and when did you make the switch? You should run LEDs fairly low at first to acclimate corals slowly.

That being said...there's really no benefit to running a thunderstorm mode. In fact, it undoubtedly annoys my nems if I use cloud cover or Tstorm mode on my radion. I'd remove that from the program first to see if that helps...it's an unnecessary variable in figuring out what may be wrong with your tank. Also...you mention that at least one of the corals that looks unhappy was added yesterday...give it some time to acclimate.

Have you tested all of your parameters?

 

[Dapozer]

I switched the lights from stock to the Nano on 11-23 and started with a much lower percentage with maxing out around 30%, I increased to the new program or the one listed 2 days ago. What I can test all looks good, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 2ppm, ph 8.0, temp 78.5 Light has bee installed since 11-23-13, Alkalinity is a tad high at 13 but that is after a water change and buffer added. How high should I get the light? It is a PVC mount and I can add or delete height easily. Thanks for all the help, Just want to do it right this time around.
Shawn

 

[kmcmurtry]

Star polyps don't take to moving great and big lighting changes, at least in my experience, and take extra time to adjust. Mine stayed closed for what seemed like a week last time i moved them. In my first tank they looked dead for a week for sure and then magically they were opening again and growing like weeds.

 

[fishguy69]

I have heard 11-14 inches off the water works the best. Like others have said a tank will take time to get use to a different light. Give it some time. Alk is a bit to high (IMO). Let it ride...

 

[asn-naso]

I would leave the light where it is, and set the light to 10% for a couple/few of days maybe even longer and see how the corals do. It can take weeks for them to adjust to the brighter lights.


If they open and look OK at 10%, after a few days increase it slowly.

When I swapped out the PC for crees in my BC, I actually gave some of my ZOA's a sunburn.

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