New Lights

shu-perman

shu-perman

Member
I just changed my lights over from 70w NO to 192w PC....I cut back my time from 12hrsw/ the NO lights to 8 hrs w/ the PC lights
am,rite,rate 0
ph 8.2
alk 1.7-2.0
cal 460
temp has raised to 82-83 from 78-79 (still working on trying to get it back down...dang these lights run HOT)
I use ONLY RO water from my LFS for top offs and I use ONLY filtered sea water from the same store for water changes
Is the temp of the water and the more powerful lights the reason I am getting a LOT of brown algea....I don't have a phosphate test and I can't imagine the water I use has that much if any.....This problem didn't exist EVER(no way shape or form) before I got these lights....
My LR is starting to look like caca and my sand is looking the same...I have 5x's or more maintaince since I changed to these lights...and if I can only have mu lights on for a couple hours a day....I will prolly go back to my NO lights since w/ the lights off I don't get to enjoy the tank as much....
I have 4 different kinds of shrooms and some GSP and they don't look any better or different under the new lights....
Any suggestions would be appriciated
btw I have a Lunar Wrasse in this tank so snails and most inverts are outta the question...
 
reefnut

reefnut

Active Member
It's best to slowly acclimate the new lighting to the tank... starting with a few hours a day and increasing it over a few weeks. This allows everything to adapt to the new lighting.
Phosphates enter our systems in MANY ways. The food we feed, additives, water, etc. I'd do some good water changes and cut you lights back.
 
coachklm

coachklm

Active Member

Originally Posted by ReefNut
It's best to slowly acclimate the new lighting to the tank... starting with a few hours a day and increasing it over a few weeks. This allows everything to adapt to the new lighting.
Phosphates enter our systems in MANY ways. The food we feed, additives, water, etc. I'd do some good water changes and cut you lights back.

perfectly said.... since you did not acclimate the tank to the lights you may have die-off which can cause amm. and of course your algea blooms... do a wetter skim to reduce these particles and die off.
 
shu-perman

shu-perman

Member
Wish I had known about acclimating my lights too....I had not read that anywhere on this site ir others while I was in researching and deciding if I wanted to go w/ PC's....thanks for the help....
What is wetter skim?
 
coachklm

coachklm

Active Member
depends on your skimmer....with mine i just lower the collection cup....you may have to deal with valves and stuff idont know... but it's collecting more particles and filling up faster because more water is introduced...it hard to explain with different skimmers..
i ussually run mine dry skim...all you see in the collection cup are bubbles and reeaaly nasty water...... when the water is not so nasty looking but your collection cup is full its a wetter skim.
 
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