why are all my sps getting lighter?

[Twitterbait]

2-3 hrs of MH light and then use a nice vho or pc for the rest of the day.

[Jimbo]

I had my MH on for 4 hours yesterday and I think that is too much, Noticed less polyp expansion on the new frags. I moved the frags out from under the ledge yesterday. So today I cut the MH down to 2 hours. I did discontinue the use of carbon and ozone.

[Spanky]

Originally Posted by Leonardo's Reef

I have absolutely no algae, but after 2 days my glass is covered by a grey film, I think it's a bacteria film. Certainly no algae. Is this a good or a bad sign?

Thanx, Leonardo

That's odd. Usually new tanks do it that fast. At least it wipes off easy enough.

[trueblackpercula]

OK i got it now I really do not want a DSB or any sand for that matter. I will try your adivice and rase the light fixture first and see how that goes.
I will keep you posted on what happens and thanks for the fast reply.
Michael

[Spanky]

Originally Posted by Leonardo's Reef

Ok, thanx. I was thinking about this: besides the feeding of the corals by bioload (fish), to feed them by adding amino-acids (Salifert) Can this be beneficial?
Thanx, Leonardo

amino = ammonia

You pay a biological filter to remove ammonia immediately.

[Spanky]

Originally Posted by trueblackpercula

OK i got it now
Michael

Use everything you've got like it can be changed, modified, to work better or different.

I know when things are not working out right, we all tend to go in with guns blazing and change too many things at one time. Most of the time, it's only one or at the most two things that need to be tweeked.

[trueblackpercula]

Hey spanky whats the best Kelvin over all to use on a BB tank like mine?
6500 10,000k 13,000k 15,000k 20,000k I have a 250 icecap electronic ballast. also whats a good starting point as far as time goes for them to be on?
Michael

[Spanky]

****ed if I know LOL

I like the 10K Ushio because they are bright white.

How many hours are you running them now?

[trueblackpercula]

hahahahahaa that was funny But if i get a 10k the par is up there should I go with higher k and more burn in time or lower k and less burn in time?
Michael

[Spanky]

Either way "should" work, but usually doesn't. I don't remember which bulbs I've heard about but I know some people have had severe problems with some of the more exotic K bulbs.

If you're running the usual 8-10 hours on MH now, cut it back to 4-6 hours and wait and see.
If that helps a little but not a lot, cut it back some more.

If you see your corals closing up, they have had enough.

[Geoff]

JIMBO!!!

where have you been? i have not seen you around in forever!!!

glad to see you back haunting here again.

G~

[Geoff]

Spanky- how often do you need to clean the glass? for me it is about once every 2-3 weeks. i am only able to feed twice a day for now. hoping to get my lights figured out so that i can hit them 3 times a day. not sure why i feel i need to feed them with the lights on.

Casey- you run your MH's full time, don't you. what is your feeding schedule? what wattage lights are you using, and what is the depth of your tank? i downgraded from 400 to 250's when i went BB. can not tell if i can go down to 175's or not. i prefer the look of the MH's over flourescents.

G~

[Jimbo]

Geoff I had a fish only tank for awhile, so I did not visit here much. I had trouble keeping corals alive after I used phosban, so I just gave up on them for awhile. But I'm going to give it a try again. Glad to be back

Percula, I was reading the other day that higher kelvin bulbs have more UV, see link below and pertinent quote

http://www.reefland.com/forum/lighti...ens-print.html

Another asside from this is that the lower Kelvin bulbs produce more UV light. (from the GE web site)

In general, this is not true of metal halide lamps. I wonder what lights GE was talking about? As you can see by a comparison of UV photon units in this article, the 400w GE 6000K lamp measured 9.62 vs. 13.56 for the 400w Iwasaki 6500K lamp and a whopping 23.22 for the 400w AB 10,000K:

A LFS near me uses coralvue 20kk bulbs they are a nice white light with some blue. Coralvue had a production problem several years ago where the quarts glass on the bulb was too thin and they produced to much UV, burning corals. The coralvue bulbs now run on standard ballast. They used to require a pulse start or HQI ballast to fire them.

I purchased a 14kk reefoptic bulb off of ebay after reading some peoples feedback and it is not a bad bulb but not very bright, at least compared to a xm10kk maybe a little less bright than a coralvue 20kk. But I have 400 watts so I don't need all that light anyway. It started off way blue but after a couple of weeks burn it looks white with some blue. But I think I would go with a coralvue 20kk next time.

[Leonardo's Reef]

Originally Posted by Spanky

amino = ammonia

You pay a biological filter to remove ammonia immediately.

I don't understand it (my fault), but is it not good to add Amino-acids?

Ow btw, that bacteriafilm on my glass is maybe caused by feeding my soop of grind-up cyclops and lobster eggs every night

Leonardo

[Spanky]

Originally Posted by Geoff

Spanky- how often do you need to clean the glass?
G~

I could go a few weeks with the coral tank. Now with all these fish, I run over it about once a week. Because of what I'm feeding and the amount, I tend to get a slight brown diatom haze in a week.