can i run mostly actinics and only a little mh?

soondubu

soondubu

Member
got the new lights and have been running them about 10 hrs a day.
250w x2 10K mh and t5 54W actinics x4.
amazingly bright.
however, the tank gets too hot with all these lights on and the evaporation is three times what i used to get.
the highest temp when i got them was 86F.
now i add water, turn on the fan, alternate the mh's to be on one at a time, to keep the temps about 81 to 84f at all times.
can i just leave the actinics on most of the time and do the mh's about 2 to 4 hrs a day?
i realize that what i do with my lights at this point doesn't really matter since i don't have any corals or anemones, but i am getting them soon....
 
madysmom

madysmom

Member
i dont see why it would hurt anything if there are no corals in there i would slowly just cut back though maybe wait to turn them on in the morning and turn them off earlier than normal at night. and if i could make one suggestion, i would maybe consider a plain blue backgroud or plain black, it will accent your fish much nicer. hth
 
soondubu

soondubu

Member
thanks for the compliment!
you know, that is an excellent idea!!!
a blue or black background will be the next addition.
i got that background when i first got the tank.
thought i was going freshwater so i needed a little background...
little did i know at that time that it would lead to this much reading and researching.
lots of money and obsessive attention to the tank.
i just want to make sure that the critters in my tank and the live rock benefit from the lights that i have for them.
and the coming soft corals and zoos!
 
madysmom

madysmom

Member
sounds great, my hubby suggested that maybe you could just raise up the light a bit and that will help to keep the temp a little lower. gl with everything and the back of that background should be blue or black for you already. and if you wet the back of the tank, stick the background up, and smooth out the bubbles you should be good to go.
mandi
 
sandman12

sandman12

Active Member
If u keep having temp swings like from 80-84 ur tang will haev ich in no time and then ur other fish will get it. I would get a chiller.........then plumb it outside.
 
hirock

hirock

Member
Personally, It looks like the lamps are within normal limits. If you are using some sort of glass or acrylic pane ontop of the aquarium, remove it and use a fan to blow across the top of the water. This will drop the temp to a more favorable zone, but increase evaporation rates.
If you live in a hot climate, the ambient temp inside your home may also be a factor. Also, being so close to the window will also raise the temp of your system due to heat absortion/attenuation caused by the window. Just a few factors that may help you with your delima.
GL
 
soondubu

soondubu

Member
the blue hippo had the ick already and got over it!
he actually came down with it before the mh arrived.
gave it to the two fire fish i think cause they had these little white dots on them as well....
watched it a few days cause i had no idea what they were, saw the spots wax and wane.... and then gone.
didn't want to set up a qt or anything, but the lfs said the clean shrimp would help. i see the blue hippo and the shrimp get along famously so i guess it doesn't hurt...
image of the ick tang cropped...
 
spmnarciso

spmnarciso

Active Member
How long has it been simce the ick. I fear the ick is still present. I hope all goes well. I had ick, that seemed to lighten up and all of sudden***poof***4 fish dead! As for the lighting, do what you can to leave the MH on for that long, thats what it is there for ...as close to natural environment as you can get. Cooling the water with a chiller, adding fans on the water surface, or demoting the lighting to multiple VHO, or even better T5s.
Good luck.
 
soondubu

soondubu

Member
i have 4 t5 actinics but can change two to 10k's.
but then what's the point of having mh's?
i guess it will have to be the fan method to increase evaporation.
i use sterile water which come in 1.5liter containers, to replace the evap.... purest water available - sterile and distilled...
guess i should get the ro unit to keep up with the evap...
will not get any new fish until the fish have been ick free for a month....
 
soondubu

soondubu

Member
have had an algae bloom by the way, the snails helped to eat it up and the rest, i brushed off with the mag floater....
but today noticed this stuff.
this is the good stuff, right? i saw the blue hippo eat the large piece that is shown on this picture.
 
hirock

hirock

Member
It's hard to see actually what it is, but from the sound/look of it, probably a calurpa species. When I first saw it, I immediatly thought of the dreaded Bryopsis Algae (Bryposis plumosa). But what turned me off the idea was that you said that your Tang and snails have consumed it. With that said, it looks like a favorable form of macroalgae. (IMHO) Never to fear, it sounds like it will make a good snack for some of the algae-eaters in the system.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
For now running just the actinics is fine.
If your temperature climbs to 85 or 86 you shouldn't let it drop more than a few degrees. I'd suggest turning on the fan at the same time the MH come on and setting your heaters at 83F to stop the temp from dropping.
There's nothing wrong with 85F. I can be damaging to reef animals to go from 85F down to 80F in 24 hours though. If it's only once in a while then they can recover in a couple of days, but if it's every day they will never get a chance to recover and will perish.
 
dburr

dburr

Active Member
I run my atinics 12 hours.
My MH are on 7 hours each but 1 starts 2 hours before the other. It's kinda like the sun moving across the ski and it's easier on the heat of 2 MH on all day long. For 5 hours both will be on.
HTH
 
soondubu

soondubu

Member
thanks for all the help folks.
the temp fluctuates from 81 to 84 with the lights....
have a cheap heater from when i thought i was gonna do freshwater....
is there any one where you can dial in the numerical temp?
the lights are the ones for sale on ---- by the aquariumlights guy...
not that cheap - about 700 shipped with the feet and the moonlights.... good service and shipping dept...
cheaper for that package than what i found online, and i wasn't about to spend the time to build an ugly lighting collage..
i believe that the ro unit is next to that i can turn the fans on over the water....
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator

Originally posted by soondubu
is there any one where you can dial in the numerical temp?

All of the good heaters allow you to set a temperature.
Don't always trust the temp reading on the heater though. Test it out in a bucket.
 
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