Who is Doug?

Man...I am getting really confused now.

Oh ok...I guess I figured out who Doug is then.

Sounds like you have the "diagnosis" right then. I too have lost corals to bleaching from too much light too quickly. I agree about the birdsnest too--have to be careful about how much light they get. Even my hot pink birdsnest turns pale in high light. Once I moved it to lower light, it colored back up.

doug is fishytime.

Dude....your tank is less than two months old....period. Ask others here how old they feel a tank should be before it can sustain sps? I have the exact same light you have and the depths of our tanks are similar. Your acros are not losing color because of the light. Your tank simply isnt ready for some of the more sensitive sps. Hence the reason I recommended montis or birdsnest if you wanted to try putting some sps into a tank that young.

Why don't you start a new thread about this issue? Or maybe PM him? Just because someone doesn't do something the way you suggest, doesn't mean it gives you the right to harass that person. Not all newbies are willing to take advice...they're already experts, dontcha know? ;)

On the subject...I find this awfully interesting. I would also be really interested to find out if there is a "perfect" PAR/PPFD for individual corals. I bet there is.

lol but i am not complaining about major lose of color. My green tabling acro got slightly lighter, but in turn my pink birds nest actually became pink. before it was like a dull purple with blue polyps and now its actually pink. But when i am talking about the light being to intense for certain corals its true. at first i set the stylo higher in the tank and the base orange started to go white, so i moved it back down to the sand and the base color came back. now after 1 day of cutting down the lighting the stylo and the green polyp birdnests are starting to gain color again (the birdsnest bleached out during shipping). I know my tank is young but i haven't lost any colonies, just had some issues with smaller frags. no biggy. but this thread isn't about me, more about an informative link talking about photo periods.

Exactly, so why don't you two go make a thread that you can scrap it out instead of using this one? This thread is an interesting topic.

Mods? Would be nice if you could clean this thread up please. :)




I wonder also how effective this cutback photoperiod would be for people who don't have supplimental lighting, or lack the ability to turn certain bulbs on an off independently. Like, say my 33g tank which has 2 T5s which are on for 11 hours a day (I think lol). Seeing as they aren't overly intense, I'm wondering if a cutback photoperiod would be beneficial or detrimental. I'm looking to add a MH to the setup, so eventually it will be a moot point for me, but in the case of others whose lighting isn't overly intense, I wonder if a longer photo period would be more or less beneficial. The same that I wonder if a tank with 250w halides would need a longer photo period than that same tank with 400w halides over it? So, in simple terms without all this thinking out loud (lol), does PAR/PPFD play into the equation?

Yes, let's keep on topic please.

I am not at all harassing Laurier (we know each other outside the forum). Is this not the reason why we post here? To gain insight and benefit from others experience(s)? I am just saying that he is making changes to the way he is running his system based on the fact that he feels the light is too intense for his sps.( 6x39w HOT5s???). I am just trying to make the point that his system is very young and this fact is more likely the cause of some of his sps loosing color.

Reducing the lighting cycle will darken the colors of sps. The coral reacts to the lack of light by darkening itself in an attempt to absorb as much of the available light as it can. Much like the difference between wearing a black shirt or a white shirt in the summertime(mmmmm summer).

I have 3 250w MHs on for 10 hrs a day, no other supplemental lighting.

I like seeing my fish so I don't see me cutting back on the photoperiod anytime soon :mrgreen: