I am currently running 150w sunpod with 14K HQI bulb that came with the light. I am running into some problems with mushrooms and pulsating xenias. Before running MH, I had PC and my mushrooms were big and my xenias were pulsating like mad. After the switch to MH 5 months ago, my xenias don't pulsate and they are shrinking along with my mushrooms. My mushrooms are losing color. I have my MH like almost a foot above water level. Should I switch to 20K bulb?? Will a 20K bulb have less penetrating intensity vs. 14K? (Less prone to bleaching out corals) If so, what brand of 20K HQI bulb do you recommend?? Thx in advance.
Light Specialist, please
- Thread starter bkoo29
- Start date
The more the mushroom opens and cups up the hungrier it is. The pcs do not put out as many lumens as Mh. the xenias sound like they are melting i had the same problem with the 2 batches ive tried with them wish i could help you out on the xenias. They are lowering lighting coral. But fair well in some Mh tanks.
At one point, the xenias all dead and I thought that was it for them. But like a week later, they start to grow slowly. The Xenias are now growing at a very slow rate and doesn't pulsate. Any solutions? when I bought the xenias from the MAX convention, the pulsating motion sold me. Need help to figure out how to pulsate my xenia. :dontknow:
I think the problem is that you guys are too radically increasing the light intensity too fast. Going from weak PC to intense MH, is a HUGH change to the corals, especially in a small tank. With any coral you need to gradually introduce them to more and more light over a long period of time or they will bleach out and/or die. I would recommend putting the MH light higher at first and the corals in the sand, and then slowly lowering the light closer as the corals get adjusted better. Then once the light is as low as it will be then slowly start moving your corals up on the aqua scape. This will help not stress the corals and should help them open up better. Hugh light intensity changes stress corals, when they are stressed they can shrivel up and/or die. When I had mushrooms and xenias they were always in the sand, they hated high light... Hope this helps:top:
I agree with Gavin (Rukis) it is not wise to switch light with out re-scheduling the new light, specially if it a much higher in intensity the animal need to adjust to their new light source, minimizing the photo period and increasing them slowly for example 5hr the first 3days and increase it an hour every 3 day until the final cycle is achieve.
