These PC lights sure are great for growing lots of nice diatom algae

[jesshika]

I've never had this much of a problem with diatoms before in a any of my tanks. My 40 gallon, which just had the huge aiptasia problem, now has a diatom problem. Well even before I took all the rocks out and killed them, I had lots of diatoms and cyno bacteria, even after the tank was almost 4 months old. Now I am getting all the diatoms back and I don't know why. I had all the same rocks and sand in my old 25 gallon with Normal output lights and I didn't have any trouble with diatoms, but I switch to PC and everything gets covered with it. I have a full spectrum light and a actinic light, both are new and are 10,000 k 96 watt each.

 

[renogaw]

they will go away again. it is a common occurance when you change anything in a setup. you'll get it after you change the bulbs as well.
get a fighting conch and some nassarius snails, and 1 mexican turbo and you should be fine.

 

[petjunkie]

Don't run the lights for as long, do 4 hours a day for a week and add an hour every week after that. Helped me when I switched to halides from pcs.

 

[seamandrew]

May I ask a question, what does diatom algae look like exactly? Is it the brown algae that covers the sand bed? Also, what is PC short for? I have Compact Fluorescent lights (Current USA's Orbit) with 4 lighting strips (2 x daylight and 2 x actinic). Could this be a problem for green slime algae, which I have a problem with.

 

[ophiura]

Its important to know that lights don't cause these problems...extra nutrients tend to cause these problems...so that is the direction you need to look to solve it long term if it is a recurring problem. It is common in new tanks because disturbance can result in stirring up detritus, or temporary spikes in nitrate, etc...typically this will balance out with time.

 

[theappe3]

PC stands for Power Compact, which are really compact flourecent lights. How old are your bulbs by the way?

 

[seamandrew]

Mine are about a year old. How often should they be replaced? I just had to replace the one of the ballasts. Power Compact is exactly what I have. I was told it was the next best thing after metal halides.

 

[bessycerka]

they should be replaced now, 1 year is usually maximum. Every 6 months is better, but the budget minded wait a year.