Minimum lighting.

[Feivel]

This couls also be general discussions. But seeing as it relates directly to the coral itself,i decided here. I,have an assortment of 30 sps and lps. Im noticing cyano growth and lots of algae on the glass. I have a 4 bulb t5 on 2 timers. Light on at 12 of at midnight. They alternate but are on respectively 8hrs each now to help with cyano and cut on algae growth whats the minimun I can cut the lights back without affecting the corals? I was thinking o. Cutting from midnight to 1030 wich is my bedtime anyways and extend it a couple hrs on the weekend.actually come to think of it,They might come on at 2 I cant remeber.

I know 8hrs is recomended.     

Oh and im buying a reefbright blue. How should I time this into my set up? On all the time?(timed that is) or just at "night" or half day? Can this replace the 2 actinics in my tek light? I can add 2 white bulbs insyead and use the reefbright as actinics to pop the colors can I not?

Thanks again for the advice guys :-)

[JetJumper]

if you really wanted to you could try a dark period for 2-3 days to see if that helps with the algae.  I have done that before on my system.

I have mine on for 12 hours currently.

Blues 12-24
White 14-22

[Feivel]

Pretty much the same. Every 2h the light switches. Blue. All. White.all.blue.  How long for the reef brights? And I can use those to replace the actinics? In other word change my superblue and actinics to another white or pink or something.

[Dakotamay]

Ok to answer your questions.

The algae problem will only be temporarily solved by turning off your lights for 2 or 3 days. Especially the cyano. You need to find the underlying cause. My guess is too many nutrients in the water. This is usually caused by over feeding. What, how much  and how often are you feeding?  Are you straining your frozen or adding directly from freezer to tank?

Or

How long has your tank been up? what size tank? do you run a sump? Skimmer? Carbon reactor? what is your stock list? I would guess you have high phosphates. Take some water to your LFS and ask them to test your phosphates. They should be below .03 ish. If they read higher than that you're going to need GFO or some other phosphate removal media. I use GFO when needed. It has to be run in a reactor.

As for the reef brite. Yes you can use them to replace your actinics and put white's in place of your actinics.  As for the time. It's really a matter of preference on your part.   

Our tank is a 6ft 180 gallon. I've got my lighting on the Reef Keeper and it's set up that my blue LED's come on at 11 am and stay on until 9 pm. At 12 noon my all white and bianco which is a mix of white and blue LED's kick on and they stay on until 8 pm. My tank and corals do well with this schedule.  You've got SPS so you likely want to do a longer period as they like a lot of light. The addition of the 2 extra white bulbs will likely be beneficial to them. I don't have any SPS. Well 2 pieces that I'm experimenting with lol. So far they're ok.

Hope this helps you figure out what's happening to cause the algae outbreak. I'd for sure get your water tested for phosphates as I bet that will be your culprit in this case.

[Hookup]

How new is your tank?  Sounds like its going thru new tank syndrome...  Which is normal. 

4T5's and a reefbrite is not enought light IMO for most SPS...  You may see issues like STN... The corals may starve and be very susceptible to damage in the event of minor parameter swings or other shifts in stability. 

[Feivel]

Im not going to do a black out. I want to know how long the lights have to be on minimum for the corals to be happy. Set up is 1.5 years. Upgraded to a 75 from 3o. 2 month ago.When I did this I had fowlr rock I picked up and 80lbs of established sand. Well whatever was in the sand died and is creatong the outbreak and no I unfortunately did not rince the sand. Im just gonna wait it out. I have a gfo reactor a 30g sump I use rodi water. I notice a lot of algae on the glass. I have 1 bulb to replace and im getting a reefbright sunday. so I will be replacing the actinic with a different white.there is some light coming In from thw window but its "present" minimally untill about 2pm.

Thanks again guys

[JetJumper]

I was having an issue with Cyano and algae for a bit.  Between adding an algae scrubber and cleaning my sand bed by using a turkey baster.. Cyano has gone.

[Hookup]

Ok then,
   Minimum I've seen is 6.5 hours.  There was a long thread on this on RC where ppl were chiming in with how long they run their lights for.  Average was 8-10 hrs range was 5 to 14 hours if I recall correctly.


  Why are you associating photo period with cyano and algae? 

[Dakotamay]

"Why are you associating photo period with cyano and algae? "

Exactly Hookup. In this case they aren't associated with photo period. I tried to explain that above. It's a nutrient and or phosphate issue.  Knowing now that you didn't wash the substrate. There is your problem. Yes whatever die off there has been in that is going to cause the problems. As well as the die off of the rock and if you filled with new water etc.... The list goes on.

You are just going to have to wait this out. Do small water changes weekly usually 5-10% of your tank volume and things will right themselves over time. 

This has nothing to do with your lighting.

[bt]

Knowing now that you didn't wash the substrate. There is your problem.

Not necessarily.  You can transfer an established sand bed from one tank to another if you take care and do it properly.  If being done that way, you do not want to rinse it.  That would defeat the purpose of going to all of that effort.

But if it was just scooped out of the tank it was in (and all stirred up in the process), it absolutely should have been rinsed thoroughly before going back in.

[JetJumper]

There is your COULD BE your problem.

Sorry, just want to correct a statement

Its all speculation from everyone on here.. but there is something producing the phosphates feeding the algae.  You can either use mechanical filtration to help in that with GFO or go straight to the cause.

Do you use RO/DI water?  Or tap water?  Do you add anything to your tank?  

If you were to up the water changes to say 5-10% / day it will help you out a lot fast, then toss on some GFO and your problems will most likely go in your favour.

[Hookup]

Agreed...  But the question still stands to the OP, what's the connection here that your seeing and we are not.

[Feivel]

I just figured closing the light pwriod would help rid the cyano. Some beginner came over to get some frag I was giving away and he commented my cyano was darker than his. It is black. It ki.da seems to have "stopped" growing. But still present. I do 10% weekly wc and obviously my post was not read cause I did mention I use a gfo reactor. Been running for just over a month and at the same time I got cheatos (2 volleyball size chunks) to help with nitrates. Phosphate still seems to be in a reasonable amount. I had asked someone what is a small feeding he said no bigger than a loonie. I guess I underfeed them maybee 30 40 peice of sinking cichlid pellets and a smal 1/4 x 1/4 mysis every other day.  The connection for the light times is more the algae on the glass and not cyano. Maybee more mexicans? Lol.

[NjOyRiD]

my guest hes needs to chnage is DI and filters. hes due

[Feivel]

I just changed my di 3 months ago....... Filters maybee .... But not di.

[JetJumper]

Are you on a well? or City water?

My DI lasts usually a month on our city's well water due to the high CO2 content in the water.  I setup a degasser for my water system and now my DI lasts forever.. I used to make 100-150Gallons of water on my DI, now I make 400+ (I haven't bought new DI yet since I made the degasser)

[bt]

My DI lasts usually a month on our city's well water

Yeah, but the water quality out of the tap in Almonte is always crap.

[NjOyRiD]

Yeah, but the water quality out of the tap in Almonte is always crap.

same with me and feivel lives same area

[Dakotamay]

Sorry, just want to correct a statement

Its all speculation from everyone on here.. but there is something producing the phosphates feeding the algae.  You can either use mechanical filtration to help in that with GFO or go straight to the cause.

Do you use RO/DI water?  Or tap water?  Do you add anything to your tank?  

If you were to up the water changes to say 5-10% / day it will help you out a lot fast, then toss on some GFO and your problems will most likely go in your favour.

Yes my bad. It could be the problem. I was assuming though when I made the is comment that he did in fact just scoop from one tank to the other. Not properly move the substrate. So yes, my bad.
Hopefully with everyone's input you can get your tank back on track.

[Hookup]

Algae and cyano are not caused by light, but are affected by it.  A black out for 3days would help.  I suggest siphoning out as much cyano as you can in two days, doing water changes as fast as your RO/DI can make water and the. Cover the tank with blankets for three days, no feeding.. Just black.

All will be better when you reveal on the fourth day.   If you think your fish won't make it, feed on the 2nd day...

[Feivel]

Lol never mind the fish .... Im worried about the 600$ in corals.... I dont want to loose any. And doesent back to back water changes like that create an un evenness in the trace elements?  Thos stuff is to heavy it just sits at the bottom of syphone tube. I cary it to a pile and scoop it out. it seems to have started thinning out. The sandbed has about an inch of red algae (beneath the sand,line on the glass) also where the cyano was seems to be turning red too

[Dakotamay]

Lol never mind the fish .... Im worried about the 600$ in corals.... I dont want to loose any. And doesent back to back water changes like that create an un evenness in the trace elements?  Thos stuff is to heavy it just sits at the bottom of syphone tube. I cary it to a pile and scoop it out. it seems to have started thinning out. The sandbed has about an inch of red algae (beneath the sand,line on the glass) also where the cyano was seems to be turning red too

Just ride it out. I wouldn't do daily water changes. I'd just do 5-10% weekly. I'd make that your regular maintenance habit. We've been in salt for just over 2 years now and always done 10% weekly water changes.  Right now with our 180gal we have roughly 200 gals of water volume so I do a 25 gal weekly.  I've never had to dose calcium or any other elements as the weekly water changes replenish what my tank uses so far. As I get more corals I might need to dose.

[Hookup]

Corals are fine for a few days. Unless they are on the edge of dying anyhow.

Water changes are almost never a bad thing.  Trace elements should not be your focus at this point.  Nutrient control and stability of temp, salinity, pH, ALk, Ca and Mg is number one priority.  A very very distant second is trace elements.

Water changes are going to allow you to suck up the cyano and "fix" any water column issues prior to your blackout period. 

I cannot stress this enough.  Water changes are your best friends.   

About the only time I'd not do massive changes is when switching salt brands and/or when parameters are significanly different than the out of bucket mix.  But at 10-15% volume changes it would have to be very far off to make an impact in one change.   

[Feivel]

Mi nm imum lights on is 6.5 hours. And i now know how to do a black out. Now thinking on why the cyano is there I dont think the black out would be my best idea because it is caused by the stirred up established sand bed i got from somebody else. All the living creatures that died is the cause of the nutrients so slightly heavy AC is best solution but not too many AC in a row from piggy backing nutrients from the salt. In example putting 3scoops of biocal everyday in a 20gal tank. Just picture those numbers compiling.

I got me 2 of them fancy blue reef brights. Crazy to the eye. I replaced my actinic bulb with another white. Ill turn the lights down one from 10hrs to 8 but leaving the reef brights on a bit longer