Lighting ????????????

pchromis

pchromis

Member
I have been running a 37g with lr, a few fish, some soft corals and a sand bed. About 8 months now. question is about the lighting.
I have PC lighting 130w and always run both the 10000k and actinic lamps together. Being new to this happy, should I always run both together or separately?
The reason I am asking is that the brown diatoms on the sand is now turning red!
Thanks
 
O

oreo12

Guest
I run mine together for about 8 hours a day. The red stuff is red slime. Do you use ro water? how often do you do water changes? how much water flow do you have?
 
pchromis

pchromis

Member
I run the lighting about 7 hours a day. Weekly water changes 10-20%. I use RO water!
I also run a fuge with chaeto. All water parameters are good.
 
O

oreo12

Guest
Originally Posted by pchromis
I run the lighting about 7 hours a day. Weekly water changes 10-20%. I use RO water!
I also run a fuge with chaeto. All water parameters are good.
I am at a loss
 
pchromis

pchromis

Member
I have good flow. maybe I can point one PH towards the sand. I have two PHeads, one towards the surface, one mid level!
 
sfe

sfe

Member
Originally Posted by pchromis
I have good flow. maybe I can point one PH towards the sand. I have two PHeads, one towards the surface, one mid level!
I have heard about diatom blooms but never heard of it turning to red slime. Do you have a mag float or do you clean your glass? How long has this been going for and what type of cleaner crew do you have?
 
pchromis

pchromis

Member
Its really not slime-ish. I have turbo snails, bluelegged crabs. I don't know what a mag float is. And I do clean the glass. The rest of the algae, be it on the glass or rocks, is green. The diatom blooms have been present for several months, but the red began forming about 5 days ago.
 
O

oreo12

Guest
A mag float is for cleaning the glass one peace goes in the tank one on outside of glas the mag holds them together through the glass and you just move the outside peace to clean the glass nice and simple.
 
pchromis

pchromis

Member
Oh, yea the magnet with the velcro surface! Yea I do that too. But I have a stronger scraper for the tuff algae on the glass!
But what does that have to do with the red stuff?
 
sfe

sfe

Member
Originally Posted by pchromis
Oh, yea the magnet with the velcro surface! Yea I do that too. But I have a stronger scraper for the tuff algae on the glass!
But what does that have to do with the red stuff?
well if you use the mag daily you will never have the problem of tough algae being on the glass. When you neglect to clean your glass, you let bacteria host on it, calcium based algae harden on it and and blooms become to appear more. But that shouldn't explain your red slime. What kind of protein skimmer do you have and what's your biological filtration like? And do you use additives?
 
pchromis

pchromis

Member
I have a fuge with PS. All water parameters are good, fish are healthy, soft corals thriving. I clean the glass algae daily with the mag. It is just the red stuff on the sand bed.
 
sfe

sfe

Member
I don't really know. I know for a fact that this would not occur in a healthy tank. So there is something wrong in yours. Because this doesn't happen very much at all.
 
pchromis

pchromis

Member
Yea, But just to add a point, it is not entirely all over the sand bed, just towards one end-corner of tank. I was thinking of leaving lights of for a few days, but am concerned for the soft corals.
 
sfe

sfe

Member
oh that solves it then. You have a dead spot in your tank where all the nutrients sink. You need more flow in that area.
Solves that.
 
dexter

dexter

Member
Is the red stuff "on" or "in" the sand bed. I had something like that in my 30 gallon and am also very curious what it was. I am seeing a little of it in my 100 gallon, but am scraping it off.
You can see some of it under my BTA that was healing at the time in this pic...is this what you are refrencing?

Dxtr
 
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