Corals losing color :(

[Flow863]

My corals have never really been as bright as they are at the store and now they are starting to lose most of their color
I do biweekly 20% water changes on it
Its a 27 gallon cube with a 10 gallon sump and refugium
The lighting is a 120 watt led fixture which i heard is equal to a 250 watt mh
This light is pretty strong so i used to have it like 20 inches above the water when i ran both white and blues together but i now have it half that but only run the whites alone or blue alone
not together
Whites i run for 4 hours
Blue for 8 hours




Green torch on the right has very little green color left






Platehas lost most of the color and tentacles dnt come out only sometimes at night

 

[bigben2057]

never mind. I thought you meant you changed the water two times a week. I agree the lights are too strong.

 

[Buklau]

The lights might be too strong. Did you acclimate the corals to the LEDs?

 

[Flow863]

I did acclimate them to the light
I had them on the sandbed and slowly raised them
What do yall reccomend i do?

 

[Buklau]

Seems like you went too fast on the acclamation. Maybe try raising the lights and giving it more time. When I went to leds that was a big deal. If you go too fast you will bleach your corals.

 

[mfdrookie516]

I've read a lot of people saying that cheaper LED fixtures are giving them less color in their corals. No idea if that's true or not, just something to maybe research a bit.

 

[Sniperhank]

I assume those aren't the dimmable version of the taotronics...I almost want to say that they aren't getting enough light. I say this because the corals that are higher up do have some color, but are really reaching up. Your plate is browned out because it can't reach.

20 inches is really high above the water. I have my radions on at full blast only 6 inches above the water with no problems. I would lower that light slowly over the next couple of weeks to make sure you don't bake your corals. If I'm wrong, hopefully someone who is using this fixture will chime in. I really don't recall anyone saying they hung theirs that high above the tank.

 

[Flow863]

A friend of mine has 3 of these fixtures on his 300 gallon tank and his corals are doing really good
He has them pretty high off the tank as well
Here is a pic