Cheap lighting=bleached coral

[OodleyBoodely]

Ok, so I've touted the benefits of being able to run NO bulbs on an electronic VHO ballast for the past year. Well, for most of that time everything seemed to be doing great, corals looked great and were growing and reproducing well. The bulbs didn't last long, but, at $4.95 ea. I could afford to replace them every 3-4 months and still save big time over VHO bulbs.

Then suddenly (or so it seemed) I noticed that my frogspawn was bleached! No it didn't happen overnight, but so gradually that I didn't realize what was happening. All I noticed was that it seemed to be getting prettier-turning brighter and brighter green. When I finally noticed it the 'spawn was completely transparent with a flourescent green overlay. So, with this knowledge, I looked again at the rest of my corals and sure enough, most were showing signs of bleaching to some degree. My colt had white tips to the branches, the devil's hand was a bright green over white instead of green over tan, the tentacles of the torch and the two toadstools were much paler, too, and, the newish encrusting gorgo had turned a pale pinky brown.

Due to lack of funds, I was unable to purchase the new VHO bulbs right away and instead opted to replace with new NO bulbs that I already had in storage. By the end of the month, my frogspawn looked like a lost cause-completely transparent and receding into its skeleton. The encrusting gorgo turned pure white and holes began to appear through to the base rock all over the surface. The rest of the corals looked about the same.

About this time, my sister took pity on my tank and offered to buy one of the bulbs, so I got two newURI VHOs - one Aquasun and one Actinic White. After about 1 1/2 months all but 2 frogspawn polyps are regaining their zoanthellas and I still think the last two will recover, too. The rest of the corals have recovered and even the holes in the encrusting gorgonian show signs of new growth.

I still have not replaced the other two bulbs, but, they are already reletively new VHO actinics which should be good for another 3-4 months.

I thought I'd share this experience. I guess as the saying goes, 'if it's too good to be true, it probably isn't.'

[cath]

Oodley! That's a good account of your experience with your lighting. It's very helpful to read about the scare what you did to fix it. I'm so glad that your beauties are coming around.

[Doug1]

Hmmmmmmm I have run NO tubes on Icecap and bleaching like that has never been an issue. The spectral shift tends to degrade the bluer waves and as a result increases the red/green which shouldnt be a problem, unless I am way off base here, I suspect maybe water quality or something else

[OodleyBoodely]

I thought at first that it might be water problems too, and, I can't completely rule that out still, but, my tests showed good and with the new bulbs I've seen a very quick turn-around in the corals. One thing that may be the differance is the type NO bulbs used. When I first started using the No bulbs, I used 6500K Phillips bulbs from Home Depot. I went through two-three changes using those bulbs, but, then I could no longer find the 6500k bulbs and ended up using regular daylight bulbs in the cool color temp. Several months of these bulbs seem to have done the damage.

Doug, what kind of NO bulbs do you use?

[Rick O]

If I'm reading your post correctly you now have one aquasun and three actinics. If that's correct you may want to try to get one more aquasun. The increased par should help.

[OodleyBoodely]

Thanks Rick.

I'm planning to replace the others soon. Do you think it would be better to go with 3 or even 4 Aquasuns instead? Would that be more beneficial for the corals than a 50/50 mix? I have until now used 2 VHO actinics with 2 daylight bulbs in my system, but, truthfully I don't fully understand which type tube is more important to coral health and what is just for aesthetics. I know more about par values in mh than I do flourescents and I've never owned mh yet.

[Rick O]

The aquasuns will have more PAR. The 50/50 is next and the actinics will have the least. All aquasuns's would be better for the corals but you may not like the apearance of the tank that way. The aquasuns tend to have a pink hue to them. I was at a friends house tonight that has three aquasuns and one actinic (all VHO) and I thought his tank looked very nice. His tank is mostly SPS and does very well with that combination.

[OodleyBoodely]

Thanks again, Rick. I may try that combo with my next bulb purchase.

[Doug1]

FWIW I have used the Sylvania 6500K No tubes

[OodleyBoodely]

Yeah, I bet the problem was in the color temp of the NO bulbs I was using. They said daylight spectrum but didn't list the kelvin that I could find. They may have been a lot lower than 6500K. Oh well, we live n learn! At least I didn't lose any corals in learning this lesson.