madweazl

How far above the water is your Radion mounted? As mentioned earlier, makes sure you multiply your results by the immersion factor (1.32 I believe). You're the second member that posted really low PAR that I've read about in the past week or so (another reported 0); I'm curious if something has happened to the PAR meter (ambient light in your room is likely well above 3 PAR).

You should have observed a larger decline in alkalinity than calcium (proportionate; a drop in calcium of 18ppm should have resulted in a drop in alkalinity of 2.8 dKh if not more in a young tank); if that didn't happen, my first inclination would be test error in regard to the calcium results. How long has the tank been up and running? Water changes alone are typically enough to keep the average reef tank at acceptable levels for the first six months (certainly not a rule, just typically happens). I use the BRS Pharma soda ash/calcium chloride two part with good results but prior to that was making my own with Arm & Hammer Baking Soda (i.e. Randy's two part recipe) with good results as well. I think the vast majority of tanks are running on kalkwasser and/or two part; simple, effective, and inexpensive for smaller tanks.

The coral may have come out of a tank that had very little PAR (most LFS are super low). It will survive at 50 PAR so you may want to cap the light at the 30% peak to see how it responds. I generally try to bank direct flow off the glass to diffuse it but I think you're OK on those settings because the pump looks to be more than half way up the side and the euphyllia looks to be on the bottom of the tank.

OK, I could only go down to a depth of 7" because a coral is in the way but PAR was about 95 (the lights are also 7.5" apart on center because my mounting bracket gets in the way). This was at the 60% peak. At 30%, PAR is 55. PUR was 69%.

What color setting are you using? They produce the most PAR between 50-60% color and fall off quite a bit on either side of that range.

OK, are they about 3" apart?

That is still quite high but with two, should be fine for LPS. Have you checked the PAR yet? If not, I can set up a couple Kessils to match your configuration and get you some numbers for a ballpark.

With a Kessil A360WE 18" off the water, you'll be lucky to see 50 PAR anywhere in the tank with the light at 100% intensity so it's extremely unlikely that it's receiving too much light; to get respectable PAR levels, they have to be mounted 6-8" off the water unless you're running multiple arrays, closer together. In your setup, that probably leaves the edges of the tank, dimly lit (meaning you'll need another). What setting (mode and %) are you running on the MP10? Few corals do well in a constant flow situation that is hitting them directly. Ultimately, I believe you have a tank that is relatively sterile due to its age. I would suggest double checking salinity with a properly calibrated refractometer (i.e. 35ppt solution), conductivity probes are all but useless most of the time.

Buddy wont be able to make it but I can still help out.

I can lend a hand and might be able to rally another retired jarhead.

My point is, would you attempt to keep corals under 445 and 460nm lights because you like the way it looks, or provide the coral with what it needs to remain healthy (with an understanding that littlelise1985 is attempting to find a better solution)? Coral pigmentation comes from wavelengths across the entire spectrum, not just blues. I understand the appeal of viewing a tank with heavy blues due to florescence, but the colors of many corals cant be maintained without a more complete spectrum (especially when considering only two wavelengths). Edit: I don't mean for this to sound like an aggressive rant, that isn't the intended tone.

The Radium also has a significant amount of spectral output from 460 all the way up to 850nm. As far as I'm aware the Current Marines only have 445nm and 460nm diodes on the blue channel (possibly some RGB mixed that is insignificant).

I have a small horde butting up against some acropora that I'd like to get rid of as well. I tried mashing them all up and cutting the bejesus out of them with a razor blade one day but that only made about 20 of them instead of the three or four I had in that area. I may try injecting them with Aiptasia-X or hitting them with the boiling water like I did to get rid of the couple aiptasia I had.

The butterfly exhibit and the Natural History Museum was hands down my favorite. The environment they set up was awesome, so many neat plants and the butterflies were incredible. Hah, a retired jarhead talking about beautiful butterflies, time for me to go do something manly...

You dont think this is a bit foolish? Overall color doesn't do well under extremely blue lighting. Sure, it will look nice initially but good luck keeping that color long term if you're only running the blues. Additionally, even with only the blue channel running, you would have some resulting PAR.

What meter were you using to measure PAR? Regardless, some level will be present. I wouldnt go making big changes until you figure out why you didnt get any results. 6500k MH are known to be one of the best growers of corals, they just dont display the corals in a flattering manner (the reason most LED users run them with heavy blues).

The AquaticLife T5/LED hybrid fixture might be configurable in a manner that would allow you to mount one or both of your current fixtures.

I'm sure you have a few billion more you just haven't noticed.

From another thread: Each data point in the Radion schedule has a series of color channel values and a brightness value. The brightness value is applied as a multiplier to the color channel values. What is referred to as "Relative Intensity" or simply "Intensity" in EcoSmart Live is the result of the equation of the individual color channels multiplied by the brightness. Each color has its own spectrum contribution and is a factor in this equation. The orange slider to the left of the Radion schedule controls the brightness value of all data points during the day (between start day and start night). So instead of going into each daytime data point and adjusting the brightness slider, you can accomplish the same result with one slider adjustment. We hope this helps.

You can also pick up a cheap hand held TDS meter from the likes of Amazon for $15 that will give you a good idea of what your tap TDS is. Ours is around 100 (Stafford water) and I get 2 after the RO membrane (BRS 4-stage). Handy for checking the condition of your RO membrane.

It's hosted on Thingiverse

I saw one for sale on one of the forums and the seller stated it restricted a lot of flow from the pump.

Eyes are a terrible judge for "measuring" lighting. Small amounts (e.g. 10%) of green and red will "whiten" a blue appearance. At Bluest Setting (0% color): Bluest UV-A 2.8% Violet 13.0% Blue 62.7% Green-Blue 10.3% Blue-Green 7.1% Green 1.5% Yellow-Green 0.9% Yellow 0.2% Orange 0.3% Red 1.2% Here are the measurements at 60% (1 o'clock on the dial): UV-A 1.1% Violet 5.6% Blue 44.7% Green-Blue 9.5% Blue-Green 8.2% Green 5.0% Yellow-Green 10.8% Yellow 2.5% Orange 4.1% Red 8.5% Whitest Setting (100% color): Whitest UV-A 0.9% Violet 4.5% Blue 40.7% Green-Blue 10.0% Blue-Green 8.7% Green 5.6% Yellow-Green 12.3% Yellow 2.8% Orange 4.8% Red 9.7% Source: Dana Riddle

The spectrum of the A360WE changes very little from 0% to 100% color. Your nutrient levels have a much larger impact on nuisance algae (and cyano) than light. Almost all quality light sources will produce a spectrum capable of growing algae (and your coral since they basically have the same requirements in this regard). I have an Aquablue Special and a Purple+ over my tank that produce a lot greens, yellows, and reds (I'm guessing what you're concerned about in regard to algae growth).

Something else to consider is the PAR of the A360WE maxes out at around 60% color and when you move up or down from that setting, PAR drops off quite a bit. Is the light mounted at the same height it was on the previous setup? A one inch difference makes a huge difference in PAR as well (.e.g. moving it from five inch above to eight inches above would reduce PAR by approximately 50%). And for what it's worth, I've run them up to 85% color and noticed no difference in algae growth.