Bleaching Shrooms - Help Please

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#1
Hey all. I've used T5s since I started over 10 years ago. I switched to LEDs this past year when I moved. I have since lost several shrooms, I have an SB Reef black box mounted 9" above the tank over my 60 cube, 24x24x24". I slowly turned the lights up when I got them. I have since turned them down to 10% whites and 50% blues. No matter what I still have shrooms randomly bleaching and can't seem to figure out why. They are randomly bleaching at different levels within the tank. Some are fine, others bleach. Tank is all softies. Pics and parameters to follow.

Cal 450
Mag 1400
Alk 7.8
Nitrates 40 ppm
Phosphates .06

Hairy Shrooms Bleaching.jpg Dying Shroom.jpg Nuclear Sunset Bleaching.jpg 60 Cube 20.jpg
 
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#5
I can attest to that. I put a led light on my tank, FOWLR, and you can see random spots of concentrated light. So concentrated that I thought they were growths of corals because of the intensity of the little spot. It's an Aquaticlife reef led I got for dirt cheap and it doesn't even have lens. Just the leds on a flat board.
 
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#6
Some LEDs dont have the best lenses, so the led's spotlight and can become little lasers.
The light has 90* optics and 120* lenses. The light gives a very even spread across the tank. No concentrated spots. It gives little shimmer because of the wider angle lenses. That's not the problem.
 
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#7
Double check your Mag, I have found some soft corals act funny in my tank when I get higher than 1500, maxed out on Red Sea. Also even though you have Optics you can still have Hot Spots, par meter the spots where shrooms are loosing color? I would also turn down reds, greens, and whites even more until you figure out?
 
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#8
Double check your Mag, I have found some soft corals act funny in my tank when I get higher than 1500, maxed out on Red Sea. Also even though you have Optics you can still have Hot Spots, par meter the spots where shrooms are loosing color? I would also turn down reds, greens, and whites even more until you figure out?
Interesting you say reds and greens. Those seem to be the colors that are the most pin pointed, again even without lenses. The blues and whites don't seem to be that way on this light I have.
 

dontavo27

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#9
Maybe consider raising the fixture,
I have my LED 18 set above the tank, with red, green, and white LEDs set at 10% and blue, and purple at 40%
Even at that height I had to turn it down 10% to 40% do to it also bleaching some of my coral.
But thats just my experience.
 

djrice69

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#10
My SB box is mounted 14" high and I dont place my shrooms above the lights just off to the side away from the light but closer to the glass. Placement is key.
 
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#12
Double check your Mag, I have found some soft corals act funny in my tank when I get higher than 1500, maxed out on Red Sea. Also even though you have Optics you can still have Hot Spots, par meter the spots where shrooms are loosing color? I would also turn down reds, greens, and whites even more until you figure out?
I'll double check mag again. It's been consist at 1400 since I set the tank up a year ago. I don't have a PAR meter, but I don't think it's a hot spot since with 6 shrooms touching each other in the same spot, only 1 or 2 are affected. Red, green and whites are all on one channel. 2 red diodes and 2 green. I have the channel set the lowest it will go at 10%.
 
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#13
Drop you cal to 425 and your mag between 1325 and 1350. There is not need to have it that high
I don't dose either. But stay that high just with water changes. I've only had an issue keeping alk at 8. Without dosing it drops way down. Since the tank is all actual softies, I don't have anything to eat up cal. Minimal coralline as well. A couple guys in my FB group suggested maybe I'm having an alk swing, probably when I do wc's, so I'm going to check that today.
 

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