Very Worried

[ctkecth]

After hanging my Halides and having them running for three days or so, I have noticed my skimmer working overtime- skimming more junk than it ever has before. I have also had an algae explosion. My nitrates I figure to be high- does this have to do with MH's or is it just coincidental?
Needless to say I am worried- quite. :scared:

 

[shiby1510]

how old are the bulbs... that may have something to do with it.

 

[ctkecth]

Brand new bulbs- a week out of the box and hanging for only three days.

 

[coachklm]

did you acclimate the lights ???? if not you burned alot of stuff up and it is now skimming it out....

 

[ctkecth]

Nope. I just turned 'em on. I did think about how things would react to the increased watts- I have the Halides on about twelve hrs., lunar lights at night- what kind of schedulae should I be on? Is the damage done? Stupid, I thought but didn't get my answers first.

 

[bang guy]

If there are excess nutrients in the water column then more light = more algae.
In my opinion MH do not need to be run 12 hours. I agree with Coach that your photosynthetic animals need to be acclimated to the new lighting.

 

[ctkecth]

What schedule do you run your lights on- assuming of course you have them? And as far as the algae- do you think I should up my water changes?

 

[bang guy]

I have VHO as well as MH on my system. I only run the MH about 4 hours and the VHO 10 hours.
12 hours is fine if that's what you want but less will save electricity.
Extra water changes won't hurt.

 

[ctkecth]

The nice thing is that I do not pay for electricity- boarding school perk. Should I cut back a bit for a time before I get on a twelve and twelve schedule? I was thinking eight for a week ten for a week and then twelve. There is really no rhyme nor reason to this, just a guess. If my mushroom corals are looking a bit saggy and limp- is it a product of too much light without acclimation or is it a symptom of nitrate overload?

 

[bang guy]

Mushrooms are not harmed by Nitrate. My guess would be the lights. I'd decrease to 6 hours and increase 1/2 hour a week until you get to where you want.
Even though you don't pay for electricity it's still good to conserve where you can

 

[ctkecth]

Thanks. Of course I do not want to seem like a SUV driving lights on in every room frig open air conditioners running with windows open kind of guy. Thanks for the advice.