Trouble with my corals, could it be the led's?

[carey]

So I took the plunge with my new 180g build and got 3 led panels, the tao knockoff. They are dimmable as well. I installed them about 3 weeks ago and have nothing but trouble with them.
The first week I had them on 50% for blues and whites and lost several corals due to frying them. Ok, my bad, then adjusted them down to 25% each and most of my corals wont even open. My huge gspn looks to be just about gone and my duncans are on the sandbed and wont open. My gigantic toadstool opened for a few days but now nothing, not a single polyp is opening.

I am just about ready to put back the t5 12 bulb fixture and call it a day. Everything grew under that light wonderfully and quick. From mushrooms to sps. My mushrooms are under rocks and still wont open. I can say only one coral is doing ok and thats a leather that is half way up in the tank.

What should I do? Wait it out some more or save what I have? I dont think I can go any lower really on the dimmable leds and going higher just fries them.

Any help would be most appreciated, I am new to leds, maybe I am doing something wrong....

 

[manbeast]

12 bulb to led shouldn't be to much of a stretch so questions first
What's your photoperiod ?
How far above the tank are the LEDs ?
90 or 120 degree lenses ?
My personal experience a with switching to LEDs was not as bad but I was only, and am still primarily doing soft corals, I started at @ 30 percent on the whites and blues and every 7-10 days bumped it up about 5 percent without much issue. The only thing I have noticed is a sight diatom out break for 2-3 days after upping the percentages and then it would just disappear.
My two tad are @ 9" above my 24" deep 65 gallon.
They have the 120 degree lenses.
And my programmed photoperiod is scheduled like this
7:30 am 3 nightlight LEDs come on
8:30 am blues come on
9:30 am whites come on

8:30 pm whites go off
9:30 pm blues go off
10:30 pm night lights go off

The night lights on my units are much to bright to be considered night lights, as even only 3 at full power will get my corals opening up.
I found with the LEDs it's better to err on the side of caution maybe up them until you see your corals open slightly and leave it there for a week and then bump it 5% and wait another week. My lights have been up for months and I'm still only at around 80% on blues and 50% on whites

 

[Sniperhank]

If it's like when I upgraded to my radions, it's the intensity causing issues.

 

[Gregcoyote]

I had an easier time because I upgraded from MH. The LEDs are far more intense than the softer T5 lighting. Previous advice is good, start real slow and work them up to it.

 

[mr_X]

You cooked the corals immediately putting them under the LED panels without a good acclimation. Now the damage is done. You have to wait it out. No need to switch to T5s.

 

[Gregcoyote]

That's the problem with LEDs, for some reason people don't expect them to work or something. They are far more powerful than most anything except MH. The tank will look darker but will still be delivering more PAR than the T5's did. I run mine a full power but my reef is 34" deep. And this reef was initially grown under 1500 watts of MH. Your corals should recover, but it might take a while. If we lived closer I would bring my PAR meter over and you would be shocked at what those lights put out.

 

[mr_X]

I think they way surpass halides Greg. Efficiency per watt I mean.

 

[Gregcoyote]

I think they way surpass halides Greg. Efficiency per watt I mean.

Yep. I agree, but they vastly outperform T5's. Here's how mine works out:

I use 540 watts of LED to replace almost 2000 watts of MH and actinic. And I have 30% more PAR or greater.

 

[mr_X]

200 is plenty on the sand bed! You could get by with 50. ...and shut that bird up!

 

[Gregcoyote]

200 is plenty on the sand bed! You could get by with 50. ...and shut that bird up!

Yes, I know and at the ends of the tank it drops to about 100 PAR. Gives me lots of choices as to placement. The bird never shuts up. This is the one you're hearing now. He loves to pull hairs out of my mustache, it hurts.

 

[carey]

So is the consensus that I should wait it out? I have them on 25% each now and no improvement with the coral such as them even opening. The gsp rock I believe is shot, moved it out last night to t5 setup and it still isnt opening. :-(

 

[Gregcoyote]

Are you certain it's the lights? It's pretty hard to nuke GSP, but it could happen. I think if you don't see some polyp extension in a week at lowered power levels, I would look to other potential issues.

 

[mr_X]

Yes, I say wait it out. Once I changed out my metal halides for new lamps. Didn't use window screen or anything like that and the tank looked awesome.....well, for about a week, and then everything started melting on me. It took months for them to fully recover.

 

[Gregcoyote]

I certainly agree, but I haven't ever seen GSP bleach. It should be the first stuff that comes back out IMO. The hard corals could take a while.

 

[Sniperhank]

My symphodium didn't take too well to the radions. Even some of my Los aren't happy. Thinking about turning them down again.

 

[carey]

I'm still at 25% and the duncans look very bad, they have receded into the sockets and now my stunner claice is bleaching on all the ends......Even the leather that was doing really well didnt open today. Should I go with just blues maybe at the lowest I can get them or is it too late?
All those corals i mentioned are on the sandbed.

 

[mr_X]

Yes, just blues is fine right now. Actually, that's more intense than the whites for them.

 

[carey]

ok, starting tomorrow i will run the blues on the minimum setting. I hope it will save them, some of these corals I have had since i first started. :-(

 

[Animal-Chin]

On my 55 I went from a 4 bulb t5 to 2 tao's with 90 degree optics. I hung them 6 inches and started them at 50% for a week then turned them up to 75%. This was way too strong and I bleached out some sps really bad but my lower lps and softies like gsp were fine. I now run them at 25% and won't turn them up over that. It's more than enough light.

I'm assuming you've checked all you parameters? When ever I have polyp issues it usually is the result of low alk or ph...

 

[carey]

pH is a little low but everything else is just fine. And the ph isnt that low lol, maybe about 7.9...
The gsp "mat" is all glossy and has some brown algae on it as well. I was gonna blow some of the algae off and hope for the best. Since it was put under the t5's again it looks like a couple polyps "might" be trying to come out, so I'm hoping thats a good sign. I even had screening over the glass tops to help diffuse the high light.

I gotta say thank you to everyone who has responded, its really nice to have people I can go to when trouble arises. i willwork on placement today and get everything lower in the tank too, hoping that will also help. Though most are already on the sandbed.