Mushrooms reaching to the sky

[mrhasan]

What sort of LEDs? Because there are the ones which can barely illuminate a chromis and then there are ones which can melt away corals like forest fire.

[Jus_sum_guy]

Honestly I don't know.
I bought this tank off a guy that had a gorgeous reef in it!
He custom installed where he added a 2nd switch to the hood to turn on the blue light and turn off white light and vice versa. Or have them both on at same time.

I take it I'm going to have to measure the light output somehow....?

Again....they just started doing this today after weeks of having them. Also my hammer coral, war coral and Xenia are growing FAST without feeding...

[Jus_sum_guy]

I turned on the blue light about 20 minutes ago and they are now settled down and laying flat again and zoas are not reaching anymore. Wierd!!

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by Jus_sum_guy

I turned on the blue light about 20 minutes ago and they are now settled down and laying flat again and zoas are not reaching anymore. Wierd!!

So they were in fact getting less light. You can try keeping both blues and whites on and see how the corals react. And the blues will make your corals look prettier too.

[Jus_sum_guy]

I can keep both on at same time during the day?
Figured white only was better for them to grow aka simulate Sun I suppose...?

Time to upgrade lights I suppose

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by Jus_sum_guy

I can keep both on at same time during the day?
Figured white only was better for them to grow aka simulate Sun I suppose...?

Time to upgrade lights I suppose

Corals need all sorts of crazy spectrum because of different chlorophyll within them. White lights are more oriented toward growth while blue spectrum (along with UV, green, red, etc.) plays important role in producing the colour. Hence reef lights will either be full spectrum or a ratio of blue and white LED mix. Since you have two separate channels (blue and white), you can use timers to simulate change in lights over the day. An example would be, start with blue for like 2 hours, turn blue and white for 4 hours, turn off blue and keep white for an hour or so and white to blue only for rest of the day (sunrise/sunset effect). I don't have any proof that its is of any help but corals do love the change.

Light upgrade is always fun. Been there done that

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

I leave my blues on at 100% for at least 2 or 3 hours longer than my whites.

BTW, I NEVER have just the whites on and they're only at about 30%. Your mushrooms and Zoas were definitely NOT getting enough light or were missing the blue spectrum.

Consider changing your lighting schedule around to have blues on say 11 hours and whites on 8 hours, rather than just whites on most of the time.

Cheers,

Anthony