[zhenya]

Hi folks,

I have prepared some pics to describe the story of my new light bulbs experience that nearly cost me all of the corals that were on the top section of the reef in my 75 gallon tank. In short, I have ordered 2 new bulbs to replace my 8 month old Ushios and figured that the new bulbs being of the same wattage should not present a problem if I elevate my fixture 4" higher...I was very wrong to say the least. After about 8 hours or so after the new bulbs were turned on I noticed that all of the "SPS" except one A.millepora colony that were on the very top had their polyps withdrawn and tissue had become very much lighter and in case of another A.millepora colony some of the tips had become almost white. I quickly grabed some window screen material and made a double layer screens over the tank. In the following few days to a week I observed further deterioration of the mentioned colony of Millepora and some M.digitata had lost tissue on the tips of the branches.My dark brown/green Pocillopora had become very pale beige color and after seen this I desided to switch back to my older Ushios. All the corals that had sustained damage have been recovering slowly in the following week and I'm pleased so far by the progress.The only coral so far that had not shown much in terms of regaining its former color is the plaiting type Montipora that was at the top.
This is a shot of the A.pulchra and the coral that is next to it what I believe to be a A.valida but I could be wrong on that,so don't quote me on that


And this another shot of the same corals that I took yesterday.As you see the color is slowly coming back to them and I see a much better polyp extention on them during night time especially.



I'll add a few more attachments to show the damage on some of the Monties.
What was very interesting to me to observe is that some corals showed partial "bleaching" and some turned brown on me.I expected to see a uniform lightening of the Acroporas with increase in PAR perhaps but it was not the case.So, now I'm working on the canopy/fixture trying to make some sort of pulleys so I can still use those new bulbs becouse i relly loved the look of them. I also replaced my regular PFO ballast with the PFO HQI ballast.In the later days I'll try those new bulbs again after I raise the fixture by at least a foot or so for the first day.But first I need to allow my corals to recover.
Frankly, I can not forgive myself for not being more carefull and underestimating new bulbs PAR and overestimating my 8 month old bulbs.I should have known better then that.

[zhenya]

Here's couple of more pics showing browning of the coral, acropora in this case.

And here is a millepora colony that showed no damage at all



And here what my tank looks like today

[loui]

Very nice tank, looks very natural.

[Ilia]

Is it looking any better Gene?

Also how are the frags doing? Mine is now sporting completely purple tips.

Ilia

[SueT]

Gene, I am so sorry this happened to you and your tank. I would never of thought any different than you did. Glad things are coming back around for you.

This scare's the heck out of me as I am replacing my bulbs in January. I have decided to lose the 3 250w iwasaki's for 2 400w 10k XM and a single 250w 10k XM. Now I am afraid of the logistics cause I cannot raise my canopy over the 180g. I have some volunteers that are coming over to help me take maybe half of my rock out and I wonder if that will be adequate along with lessening the lighting photoperiod.

Please let me know how the corals do for you Gene. You know I'm interested.

[Reefland]

You didn't mention, or I didn't see it, what did you replace the Ushio's with? Are these mogul base or double-ended bulbs? The viewing audience needs to know.

I hope your corals recover bud, we all know how it feels to watch our prized pieces dimenish.

Scott Z.

[zhenya]

Hi Friends and Thanks for the well wishing

I did not mentioned type of bulbs I got on purpose becouse I did not want to sound like I blame the bulbs.It is me who is at fault here and the bulbs were...CoralVue 250W 10K bulbs.They looked incredibly crisp white without any hints of the yellow that Ushio has.I actually turned off actinics and did not see any difference in appearance when those bulbs were on.Now that I have an HQI ballast I know they will look even better.I just have to acclimate my tank properly to them.They abviously had so much more intensity then my 8 month old Ushios that 4" of extra hight did not help at all.

Sue,

I hope you'll take all the precautions to acclimate your tank to the new bulbs.As you see, I miscalculated and almost lost all the pieces that I raised from tiny frags. It might take a month or so for my plating Monties to regain their beautiful jade green color but I'm hopefull that it will happen. However, it may never happen and I accept it,lesson learned
Here's the pic of them before the new bulbs were used so you can see what I'm talking about.

Ilia,

It is getting better by the day and the frags you gave me are getting much more color to them.It is sort of red right now but getting more on the purple side of the pallet

[SueT]

Gene, I absolutely am going to do everything in my lighting acclimation process I can. Aren't the HQI ballasts the ones that also overdrive the bulbs?? If so I imagine then the corals were shocked by the increase of lighting to new bulbs plus the HQI factor.

Hopefully when they recover they will return to their coloration of before although they may be a bit different due to the HQI increase.

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by SueT

Gene, I absolutely am going to do everything in my lighting acclimation process I can. Aren't the HQI ballasts the ones that also overdrive the bulbs?? If so I imagine then the corals were shocked by the increase of lighting to new bulbs plus the HQI factor.

Hopefully when they recover they will return to their coloration of before although they may be a bit different due to the HQI increase.

Hi Sue,

Yes, you are correct that those ballasts overdrive mogul bulbs slightly but I only got this ballast after the fact and after I switched back to the original Ushio bulbs that I had previously over that tank. Even older bulbs are looking better driven by that HQI ballast so I'll hurry up and try those pulleys and raise my canopy becouse I think those CoralVue bulbs will be great,I just need to acclimate my corals that are on the very top very slowly to them.
What really was confusing to me is that I switched from 175W to 250W Ushios in one day without doing anything except elevating canopy by 4" or so for few days. In this case I had the same wattage bulbs and color temperature but had terribile results due to my negligence.
I'll post results by next week when I'll finish with the canopy and fire them up again.

[kevinpo]

Hi Gene,
Sorry to hear about your scare. I hope they all recover to their original colors.

I have had similar things happen. I am using a PFO 250W HQI dual ballast with a Radium 20,000K on one side and a Ushio 10,000K on the other (on a 75 gal). I changed out the Radium for a Coralvue 10,000K (both bulbs were new) and did not like the color changes (lightning) of some of the corals. I also tested the Coralvue 15,000K bulb. I really liked this one! I sold it but plan to order more next week.
I also added an additional 400W Radium next to a 400W Ushio on my home tank and am seeing a RTN strip through the center of a table that may or may not be light related (I'm doing a 160 gal water change in the morning)

On another note I also tested the PFO 400W 13,000K bulb (on a cube tank). The color is great but the intensity is marginal after about 120 days resulting in slower growth and darkening on some of the high light corals.

I have the advantage of having many frags of the same coral from the same parent colony located in 4 different tanks under 4 differnt lighting schemes so I have a good idea of what the average color and growth should be.

Regards,
Kevin

[zhenya]

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for your input. I've been doing some reading on those bulbs and it seems that quite a few people had reported the same results as I had.
I thought I was loosing my marbles but it looks like this bulb does put out more then any of the mogul bulbs I've had so far,including AB and Ushio if the same wattage.
So, you did liked the 15K bulb? I'm thinking of ordering the 15K myself and trying them with HQI ballast as well.
Maybe I should quit playing with lights,eh?

[MtnDewMan]

Sorry to see the problems. Funny how delicate these creatures can be huh?

I just switched to Radiums to see how they do, I will keep an eye on things for sure.

Good luck Gene ... keep us posted ....

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by MtnDewMan

Sorry to see the problems. Funny how delicate these creatures can be huh?

I just switched to Radiums to see how they do, I will keep an eye on things for sure.

Good luck Gene ... keep us posted ....

Hi Chuck and Merry Christmas!

I've been following your thread on the Radium bulbs with interest . Tank does appear bluer(sp?) to the eye but I'll be interested to know how your corals react to new light sourse...growth,coloration...all that good stuff

In my tank, after I replaced new bulbs with the old Ushios everything seems to normalised and coloration and polyps extention is back to its original state.
I have to take couple of new pictures from the top and post them for an update.I'll try to do it later on today. I still have those XM 20K bulbs that I have to try on the HQI ballast,just to say to myself that I did try it and see how the tank reacts.On a regular PFO ballst they were just a tad too blue even after a month of burning in.If I don't like them still,I might just do away with fluorescents and keep them for the blue color instead of actinics...I've got this chiller sitting next to the tank doing nothing...

[Poseidon]

Wow... can't believe I didn't read this till Today... Sorry for your near tragedy Gene!! I am replacing my bulbs in Feb!! So I will definately do that when I can PAy very close attention to the results. I was leaning towards the Coral Vue 15K myself. I have the Icecap HQI ballasts myself and I love them they are very compact and are SILENT!!!!

BTW if you ever Frag those Monti's I'd love a piece or 2!!!

Mike

[zhenya]

Mike,

I didn't know IceCap made HQI ballast,I though they just made an electronic ballasts that were driving any HQI bulb or mogul. I should have checked them out as I'm not a big fan of the bulky PFO,although I must admit they work perfectly and last forever

Those green caps...I take frags all the time it's just that shipping in this cold weather is a problem in my book.Maybe in the spring if you still interested
Here's couple of new pics I took yesterday, the caps getting greener by the day and some other pieces improving as well. Keeping my fingers crossed.

[MtnDewMan]

Hey Gene ... keep us posted ..

I don't think I would ever try a 20000k off a standard ballast. I think a lot of energy is lost. It's an HQI ballast or nothing for one of these bulbs in my opinion.

[Poseidon]

Thanks Gene I'll Remind you come spring!!!

http://oceanencounter.com/Merchant2/...gory_Code=ICMH

Reading the description is doesn't ACTUALLY say "HQI BALLAST" but hey it still works for me!!!

[JB NY]

That's strange the CV10K would cause bleaching. Maybe it's due to some of the higher output in different wavelenghts. The CV10K peaks aroung 450nm not 420nm like the Ushio, maybe that's it.

I found a really good way to acclimate to new lighting is turn off the MH after 4 hours then after an hour turn it back on. Doing the on/off 4 on 1 off was recomended by eric bournman once and it seems to work very well for me.

FWIW I had a radium lamp bleach my alveopora, when I put it over my tank that had Ushios on it.

Good luck with the recovery!

-Joe

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by JB NY

That's strange the CV10K would cause bleaching. Maybe it's due to some of the higher output in different wavelenghts. The CV10K peaks aroung 450nm not 420nm like the Ushio, maybe that's it.

I found a really good way to acclimate to new lighting is turn off the MH after 4 hours then after an hour turn it back on. Doing the on/off 4 on 1 off was recomended by eric bournman once and it seems to work very well for me.

FWIW I had a radium lamp bleach my alveopora, when I put it over my tank that had Ushios on it.

Good luck with the recovery!

-Joe

Hi Joe and Welcome to Reefland!

Thanks for your input and especially for all the testing that you did.I actually bought those bulbs based on the results of your tests.
I agree that it shouldn't have happened but it did and I'm glad that I changed over to old bulbs when I did becouse the tank is recovering nicely now.
I think shortening light period might help but if the bulbs are to do damage they'll do it very quickly.I'll give it a go again,though,becouse I really liked how tank looked with those bulbs on.

[JB NY]

Originally Posted by zhenya

I think shortening light period might help but if the bulbs are to do damage they'll do it very quickly.I'll give it a go again,though,becouse I really liked how tank looked with those bulbs on.

I thought the same thing on quickly bleaching a coral. Eric explained that corals take time to ramp up to fully using the light. It takes place over a 4-hour period. So if after 4 hours you shut down the light, not enough time has passed for the coral to expel any of its zoox. Anyway I've had great success with that method, so thought I would throw it out.



Yeah the lamps put out some nice color.