Cali Kid Corals

IM SR60 - back after a long hiatus

RandyC said:
You’d be surprised how much light corals can handle. A number of people cook acros in 700 par. I’ve had BTAs and torches in 350-400 par. I wouldn’t start a coral there, but coral is more adaptable to light than a lot of people think.

Also, keep in mind that a number of coral get exposed to air and have direct sunlight during low tide sometimes. They get on the upwards of 2000+ par.
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There are definitely exceptions, and i read about slowy bringing coral up to higher par as you refrenced not starting them there. He said zoas were melting, I only bring it up that 500 par at bottom of a mix reef may possibly be responsible. For zoas that's very extreme par levels imo.
 
RandyC said:
You’d be surprised how much light corals can handle. A number of people cook acros in 700 par. I’ve had BTAs and torches in 350-400 par. I wouldn’t start a coral there, but coral is more adaptable to light than a lot of people think.

Also, keep in mind that a number of coral get exposed to air and have direct sunlight during low tide sometimes. They get on the upwards of 2000+ par.
Click to expand...
There are definitely exceptions, and i read about slowy bringing coral up to higher par as you refrenced not starting them there. He said zoas were melting, I only bring it up that 500 par at bottom of a mix reef may possibly be responsible. For zoas that's very extreme par levels imo.

Thank you both for your comments!
I'm aiming to drop the PAR some.
I also want to get my Ca and alk down. I had a regimen that I thought was stable with Ca=480 and alk=9.3.
Got complacent. Didn't test for a month. Yesterday Ca=500, alk 10.5. I've been dosing All for Reef 38ml/day.
I keep reading it's about stability. I guess I need to be more diligent.
 
rxx2rxx2 said:
There are definitely exceptions, and i read about slowy bringing coral up to higher par as you refrenced not starting them there. He said zoas were melting, I only bring it up that 500 par at bottom of a mix reef may possibly be responsible. For zoas that's very extreme par levels imo.

Thank you both for your comments!
I'm aiming to drop the PAR some.
I also want to get my Ca and alk down. I had a regimen that I thought was stable with Ca=480 and alk=9.3.
Got complacent. Didn't test for a month. Yesterday Ca=500, alk 10.5. I've been dosing All for Reef 38ml/day.
I keep reading it's about stability. I guess I need to be more diligent.
Click to expand...
Maybe stop dosing that for a few days and large water change would be my first thoughts but i'm no expert in this area.

Just don't add more afr when ur already high seems common sense in my mind at least lol.
 
Darkxerox said:
I'd reduce addition not stop completely as you could have a rapid swing and AFR takes hours to become metabolized.
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I thought about stopping and test every day until the Ca and alk are where they were previously.
I am going to drop by 15% to slowly get them back into range.
 
RandyC said:
You’d be surprised how much light corals can handle. A number of people cook acros in 700 par. I’ve had BTAs and torches in 350-400 par. I wouldn’t start a coral there, but coral is more adaptable to light than a lot of people think.

Also, keep in mind that a number of coral get exposed to air and have direct sunlight during low tide sometimes. They get on the upwards of 2000+ par.
Click to expand...

+1

I’ve got some zoas getting 300-500 PAR. I wish they’d die, but they are doing just dandy!
 
Darkxerox said:
Julian's outdoor pond had zoas growing up the mangrove prop roots in full daylight. Probably 1500 PPFD or more (2:18)
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Is it certain zoas, cause I have some types starting to bleaching and shrink in my temporary grow out tank, because of having to run the stock white channels as well as blue. To much light.

I need to order the lights to modifiy lights for the cube that will be a dedicated frag/grow out tank.
 
@RandyC and @Darkxerox bring up an interesting point about wild par. According to this paper, which performed its measurements in the northern Red Sea, 0m of water can get up to 1800 par, 600ish in 10m, 300ish in 30m. That's a lot of par considering the depth, especially since many maricultured corals are grown in a very shallow depth of water, for ease of labor. The change in lighting from ocean -> tank may contribute to the attrition rate or loss of color in some maricultured corals but that's just my personal speculation. This isn't to say, by the way, that ou should put your tank under intense lighting. I'm just adding to the notion that corals can apparently tolerate a large range in PAR.

MichaelB said:
Is it certain zoas, cause I have some types starting to bleaching and shrink in my temporary grow out tank, because of having to run the stock white channels as well as blue. To much light.
Click to expand...

Could you try putting some of those shrinking zoas under the rack, or shaded in some way? This way you can see if it's lighting or if it could be something else. I've rarely heard about bleaching zoas, but I do hear about overlighting them, during which they look weird, close, etc

I do know that certain zoas are melt- and wither-prone, so perhaps this could simply be a case of zoas being picky about water?
 
tribbitt said:
@RandyC and @Darkxerox bring up an interesting point about wild par. According to this paper, which performed its measurements in the northern Red Sea, 0m of water can get up to 1800 par, 600ish in 10m, 300ish in 30m. That's a lot of par considering the depth, especially since many maricultured corals are grown in a very shallow depth of water, for ease of labor. The change in lighting from ocean -> tank may contribute to the attrition rate or loss of color in some maricultured corals but that's just my personal speculation. This isn't to say, by the way, that ou should put your tank under intense lighting. I'm just adding to the notion that corals can apparently tolerate a large range in PAR.



Could you try putting some of those shrinking zoas under the rack, or shaded in some way? This way you can see if it's lighting or if it could be something else. I've rarely heard about bleaching zoas, but I do hear about overlighting them, during which they look weird, close, etc

I do know that certain zoas are melt- and wither-prone, so perhaps this could simply be a case of zoas being picky about water?
Click to expand...
They honestly done better in main tank but don’t want them spreading on my crushed coral. Only 2 hours of white lights a day, verse 8 in other tank.

I'm not really a zoa person so I kinda ignore them. I expect they will do much better when i mod the biocube32 as a dedicated frag tank.

I'm hoping to have it up and running by the time of the frag swap.

I haven't tried any in the 65gallon tank yet. I might at some point to see how the lighting effects them in it.
 
These are the PAR numbers I got with the OR3s on.
The low numbers on the top are for some corals on the backside of the rock work at the bottom.


PXL_20241007_125017211.jpg
 
I'm glad you see the value in testing now;). j/k
For sure the alk and cal levels are too high and can cause coral to be unhappy.
I'm just curious, was there need to have such high PAR? Were you just experimenting with higher PAR?
 
I'm glad I've been testing, just should be doing it more often, sadly.
I did not think the PAR I would get would be that high.
Based on what I read about the iCon 24 inches above the sand bed I figured I'd be good. I was a little suspicious when things were lightening up.
I was also running the two OR3 blue plus all the time. They added about 100 PAR at the top of the rock work.
I'm super grateful for the resources of the club!
Never thought my PAR would be that high. Shoots, didn't even know it was possible.
Never ran LEDs before.
I had a 3x3 cube back around 2000. I ran two 400 watt SE bulbs, two 250 watt SE bulbs and eight 36 VHO's. Thinks did alright back then.
Don't even have any pics from back then. My Photobucket account is gone.
 
PXL_20241018_222438908.jpg


I liked the scape when it was more open. I'm trying to stuff more frags in there and got some Aqua Rocks that I cut up to try to fit them in until I can figure out where to ultimately mount them.

bt
 
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