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15 Watts Per Gallon

R

ReeferNets

Ok guys i have been talking to phyl for awhile about this and my new 10 gallon tank has a 150 MH on top of it. I have no heat problems but i am getting cyano algea on the sand and alot of bubbles coming from it.

Is the 15 watts per gallon too much and the reason for my cyano outbreak. There is a crazy amount of bubbles coming from the sand. When i switched over the tanks i rinsed the sand out in fresh saltwater and put it in the new tank. I have no ammonia, no nitrite, no nitrates, no phospates. I have done a 50 percent water change along with some 10 percent water changes.

Can anyone give me some helpful info on what to do. This morning the lights came on and the cyano started to darken and then the bubbles started to come out.

Anyone?
 
I

IrradiatedReef

I have always been under the instruction, notion, rule of thumb that you want between 5-11 watts per gallon. I would try to reduce your photo period by a few hours and if that doesn't work or is effecting your corals too much, then i would go down to a 70 watt which I think will help prevent this from happening again, but will not get rid of the cyano.
 
R

ReeferNets

brand New 14,000k bulb,

There is sooo many bubbles on the sand its crazy. When the hermits crabs walk over it, it looks like they are burping or farting uncontrollably. I have a aquaclear filter with cheato and chemi pure on the tank and a 175 gph power head in the tank.

I have a bubble tip that is doing fine under the lights its just the sand that looks terrible.
 
B

Brian

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I would just give it some time... It's probably just the shock of the new lighting causing the algae outbreak, it's a relatively new setup correct?
 
R

ReeferNets

Well i just took the stuff out of my 6 gallon and moved it to a ten gallon. I had some plating coraline that has started to die off since the move. I am going to pull the cyano out today and do a water change.

Sorry to hear about your loss man..
 
JohnS_323

JohnS_323

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
When I set up my nano I took everything from our established system and had a pretty bad cyano bloom too. It lasted from about a month. I siphoned it out every week and then all of sudden it just never came back.
 
JohnS_323

JohnS_323

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Airline tubing may be a little too thin. I was using 3/8" PE tubing and it seemed to work well.
 
C

Carlo

You do have phosphate and nitrate levels but they are getting used up by the cyano so you measure 0. I'd throw some type of phosphate absorber on your system to eliminate this.

Also something you can do for the short term is to break up your photo period. For example if you normally have the lights on for 12 hours then change it to 6 hours and then have them go off for 1/2 to an hour followed by another 6 hours of on time. This will help a lot with the cyano outbreak.

Another thing you can/should do when ever you switch bulbs or change lighting (brighter) is to raise your lights up higher and gradually lower them. Alternately put a couple of layers of screen mesh or something to filter out some of the light if you can't raise the lights. Then you can remove a layer a week. This also helps to not shock the system.

Just a couple of ideas for you,
Carlo
 
S

SRIEGER

i had this problem with my 55 when i first set it up. cyano took over and i couldnt figure out why. and i was using a 260watt satilite CF lighting system. all i did was add a few pouches of phosX in the ehime filter i was using to fiter it, and did water changes almost every day. no to change the water, primarily to syphen out the cyano growing on the rocks and sand. after adding the phosX and doing my cyano removal everyday it finally cleared up and than i had to deal with hair algea, but my LMB and Eibli angel had that under wraps. just hang in there and put in some extra work and it will all work out.
 
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