Sps questions?

I just added some easier sps frags to my 14gal biocube. I have led lighting and good flow. I am acclimating them to the lighting and have them on the sand bed. I was going to move them up slowly into their final resting place. I was thinking about moving them up a few inches a week. Is that too fast? I think it would take me three steps to get them to their final position.
I also was wondering if people with a well established larger refugium also run phosphate remover? I dont want to starve out my fuge but dont want phosphates in excess in the tank to hurt the new Sps frags.

 

I think it all depends on what SPS you have. I put an ora green birdnest on the top of my rocks, about 4-5 inches from the water surface and about 13-14 inches directly under my light (BoostLED Mu 135). It grows like crazy and shows no ill signs from getting extremely intense light.

 

your plan to light acclimatise sounds good to me Crusty

I have been treating my SPS frags like that for almost 2 years now
after losing a couple early days due to failure to light acclimatise

Steve

google Simon Garret, as he has an article or 2 about this subject
to sum it up

he indicated that SPS corals unlike their softie and LPS counterparts cannot deflate to reduce the amount of light they are subjected to
additional soft corals can secret protective mucus which again protects them from to much intense lights
SPS corals do not have these advantages and as such it is his prefference to start them low for a couple of weeks and then move them into final position, but he also stated moving them up in stages is also a good option

whilst it is not certain SPS corals that are not acclimatised to light will have issues
, issues could arise, such as bleaching or worse ( STN and RTN both mentioned as possible consequences of a coral subject to the stress of exposure to more light than they had grown accustomed to)


his writtings convinced me to try it
and I have not regretted it

Steve

 

Thanks Steve, Ill def check that out

 

so its been about a week since i moved my frags up on the rock work. I have a couple pics to post to get some feedback on placement of the birdsnest. I think my par38 leds might be to close to the water??? They are about 6" off the water. They have 60deg optics. The birdsnest is about 10" under the bulb. The frag is not directly in the center of the beam but close.


What do you'll think? I also upgraded my return pump from the stock biocube pump 137gph to the 29 biocube stock pump 243gph. So i have a koralia 1 400gph and 243gph return. The birdnest polyps seem to be extending nicely but it feels like it might be to much light? I have a piece of egg crate and a single layer of mesh screen in between the lights and the tank. Ive seen Evils par plots for the bulbs from nanotuners but they are kinda confusing and im not sure what par a birdnests needs to be at?
lmk thanks guys

 

For some reason I have a hard time thinking that sps need light acclimation-as they are a high light coral-most coming from being kept under high lighting-doesn't this make sense? I've only got 3 lil acros and started them out in my tank 10" from my t5ho. Or are you guys just talking LEDs here?

 

Give the bird nest a little time to adjust to the new spot and it will do great. I have a couple bird nests directly under a very intense LED fixture. IMHO it would be hard for those two bulbs to provide "too much" light for those corals.

Tanks looks good by the way.

 

I'm not sure about the par really, but one of the main reasons that people have fixtures with 60 or 40 degree optics up so high is for the coverage. Those optics don't provide the greatest spread so they have to be raised in order to light the entire tank. It's not really because the light is too intense.

 

First, not all sps are equal. While most acros may grow near the surface of the ocean, many other species can come from much deeper.

Secondly, as far as I'm concerned, aquarium lighting is still in it's infancy. It's fantastic that we have a variety of lighting systems that can maintain corals, but there is such a thing as too much light. A 400 watt MH on a 10g tank would be an extreme example. While some acros might survive it, they would need lengthy acclimation. Furthermore, unless you know for certain what type lighting your frag is used to, it's always a good idea to light-acclimate. Nobody likes seeing their new coral bleach and die.

And last but not least, what most people fail to understand is that high-noon does not last all day long. It is a short duration when the sun is directly overhead. The rest of the day, corals receive much less light in their natural habitat as most is reflected by the water's surface. Light acclimation involves duration as well as intensity.

Hope this helps.