new lights are turning zoa's a gray/purple color

[asn-naso]

I installed the LED's this past weekend, and noticed some of my zoa's are turning a grey, they almost look as if they have too much zooxanthellae in them.

I turned down my lights a little, but would like to eventually turn them back up.

It is happening in different locations in the tank. In fact, I would say the lower half. The only thing I can see in common would be the extra shimmer in this location due to the return being on that side of the tank.

Any ideas on how to stop and reverse this? And yes, I will move this zoa's to the other side of the tank.

thanks

 

[Walter White]

Im not sure that grey would be attributed to too much zooxanthellae but then again i'm no expert. What LED unit did you get? When my zoos were moved from MH to LED I had to start them at the bottom and shorten my full daylight period to 3 hours them slowly moved them up then start increasing the photoperiod .30 minuts a week until they were happy again.

 

[dvenson]

sounds like bleaching to me raise the light up a lot and over the next few weeks slowly bring it down.

just because it looks the same does not mean the PARs are the same that is what is causing the color change. IMO

 

[asn-naso]

I always thought bleaching was when the coral turned white. Check out these pics. The first one shows 3 pink zoa's that were bright pink, and you see that they are starting to change. The others on that frag used to be pink, but are now gray/blue/purple. The 2nd pic shows some orange ones that are starting to change too.


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[Heffe01]

Corals can go through light shock...kinda like a sunburn. Which may be what your seeing. Either raise tue fixture or lower the intensity and see what happens.

 

[asn-naso]

So, I can't raise the lights, because they are in the lid (BC29), hopefully dropping the output by 50% will help.

How long does it take something like that to heal, and return to normal.

 

[Heffe01]

Maybe a few weeks. I have heard alot of people complain about color changes when they switch to LED's, but after a few weeks they normally get back there color or better.

Was this an upgrade from the stock PC bulbs to LED's or did you have other lights before that? Cause if you made that switched them out from the PC bulbs...there is deffinetly gonna be a huge increase in PAR...which isnt really visible to the eye.

 

[asn-naso]

Yep, switch from PC. And huge switch. Went from 2 36 watt bulbs, to 28 3 watt CREE bulbs.

 

[Heffe01]

I would turn them down either further. Maybe around 25%...+- to get the spectrum right. And then increase it by 5% each week. You prob dont need to run them above 60% for them to look good and get great growth.