led lights and soft corals

[rixster64]

hi all, new to rc. has anyone had or heard of problems keeping soft corals under leds, just that i heard they dont do well? after buying 2 x ai sol blue led units. reason i ask is i have a kenya tree which doesnt seem to be doing well, not extending at all. these units i have had for about a month now, started at 25% and increased by 5% weekly, now at 40%. i had 2 x 150w 10,000 and 12,000k mh and 2x 54w antinic flourescent. do i need to supplement the leds still?

 

[Northstar24]

Nope, I'm running AI Sol Blues and the Kenya weed has started taking over my tank. I regret ever putting it into my tank. I am running mine at 100% blue 90% Royal Blue and 65% white

If you want my honest advice, pull the kenya tree out now, while you still can

 

[rixster64]

hi, you had the lights up for a time then or did you start yours at a higher %. i think i'll keep it for now? hehe

 

[poksal]

I run LEDs and my soft corals are doing fine. No kenya weeds here though.

 

[rixster64]

i have kept the kenya in check, trimming when needed, and i think they look nice when fully open, its only a weed if its not pleasing to the eye of the beholder! lol.
do you supliment your leds with any other light or do you find the led gives enough of the specktrum?

 

[ReddyW]

Kill that kenya tree. You'll hate it later and you'll have to burn it off. Even if you keep it on the sand bed it will continue to spread. Some people keep them in their sumps for nutrient export, so you may want to keep it for that.

If you really want to keep it and see it explode, do a water change, or supplement a cheap iodine additive, or add diluted Lugol's solution.

http://www.reefs.org/library/article/e_edelman2.html

 

[chichimom79]

Bunch of Kenya Tree haters!! LOL When I upgraded to LED (Kessil) the only thing that got pissed off in my tank was my colt coral which is similar to a kenya tree. It took a few months for it to start looking better. I'm sure yours will improve as long as your tank is stable and has good parameters.

 

[Northstar24]

i have kept the kenya in check, trimming when needed, and i think they look nice when fully open, its only a weed if its not pleasing to the eye of the beholder! lol.
do you supliment your leds with any other light or do you find the led gives enough of the specktrum?

Its not that it isn't pleasing, its that its dropped braches all over my tank. I literally have 200 pounds of rock covered in it. When i pull it, it just comes back a short time later

I didnt have any coral in my tank at first, so I cranked mine up to the percentages that I am running now, when I have added coral, its come from an LFS that has all of their coral under LEDs, so acclimating wasnt an issue for me

I do not supplement my LED's. I have thought about adding some cyan and some UV, not because I can't grow corals, but because it will help with the coloration of the fish and corals. AI will have a program in which you can customize pucks for the AI Vega, so at some point I will probably take advantage of the upgrade path they have for current Sol owners.

That being said, the White / Blue / Royal Blue combo has a fairly proven track record of being able to grow corals

 

[rixster64]

never really had a problem with water parameters, except when the shaft in my phosphate reactor pump broke, that was 8-9 months ago, and got that sorted.
i would of gone down the vega route, but they only just got across the pond, but i read about the upgrade so might look at next year

 

[KevinMs]

Bunch of Kenya Tree haters!! LOL When I upgraded to LED (Kessil) the only thing that got pissed off in my tank was my colt coral which is similar to a kenya tree. It took a few months for it to start looking better. I'm sure yours will improve as long as your tank is stable and has good parameters.

I've been watching this thread because I have a pissed off colt coral also and was wondering if LED's were going to be the doom of it. Right now my radions are at about 80% and i have moved the colt all over the tank looking for some sort of sweet spot with flow and lighting. No luck yet as it still looks shriveled.

 

[Northstar24]

If the colt coral doesn't like the light intensity, put it at the bottom of the tank or under an overhang for a while

 

[rixster64]

moved a few softies lower iin as well this morning

 

[emily120289]

nice hippo!

 

[bjohanson1234]

Hey Angie, are you running the 150 or the 350 Kessil? I just got the 150 for Christmas and wanted to slowly acclimate my corals to the light. How fast did you increase the lighting?

 

[chichimom79]

I have the Kessil A350, not the wide. I started out at about 30-35%. Kinda hard to tell exact as it is just two knobs that you turn manually. I have moved up about 5% per week.

 

[bjohanson1234]

Thanks. The 150 isn't dimmable. Just going to have to gradually increase the photo period. At an hour right now. No ill effects yet. Still going to go slowly.

 

[RockStacker]

LEDs are a completely different beast compared to other bulbs - even MH.
The corals are not just adjusting to a new light intensity, but also different "taste" so to speak.

You will have to start the light acclimation at very low settings.
Either start with 20% intensity (or less) with normal photoperiod if the fixture is dimmable, or reduce the photoperiod significantly if the light is not dimmable.

 

[bjohanson1234]

3

LEDs are a completely different beast compared to other bulbs - even MH.
The corals are not just adjusting to a new light intensity, but also different "taste" so to speak.

You will have to start the light acclimation at very low settings.
Either start with 20% intensity (or less) with normal photoperiod if the fixture is dimmable, or reduce the photoperiod significantly if the light is not dimmable.

Went a week at 30 minutes. Going to up it 30 minutes a week till I get to where I was. So far, the corals have responded very well.

 

[poksal]

LEDs are a completely different beast compared to other bulbs - even MH.
The corals are not just adjusting to a new light intensity, but also different "taste" so to speak.

You will have to start the light acclimation at very low settings.
Either start with 20% intensity (or less) with normal photoperiod if the fixture is dimmable, or reduce the photoperiod significantly if the light is not dimmable.

Yep.. I have my Rapids cut back to barely on... but have a 36" AquatecLife 54 watt on full... on a 95 gal. I have a PAR probe now I take to LRSs and have found that LEDs (mine anyway) put out way more energy than any other lights at WAY lower settings. I think we are learning (I am) to use considerable less LED than we think we need. I get best results with my corals with far less PAR readings than I see at the LFSs with any other lights.

Digital waves or all kinds just tend to travel farther and decay less. This is why Morris Code was able to travel around the world with small tansmitters... etc.