Water clarity DOES make a difference! I think...

[dippin61]

Well, about a week ago, on joels advice, i added purigen to my system. cant say enough about this product. did exactly as it states, clears your water up. so anyways, in the last few days, the purigen is really starting to work good, my water has never been clearer!

 

downside is, the light purple corraline, ive always had trouble to get it to grow, and the clearer water didnt help. Just about all my light, good looking purple corraline has bleached in the last few days. nothing has changed except the purigen. I'm assuming its from the added clarity of the water. All params are where they have always been, so thats the only thing i can think of. Anyone have any other ideas?

[oldbrownies]

sounds logical... cleaner water could make them mad from more light exposure

[fly guy]

What are your maintained alk and calcium levels??

 

Those are the key to good coralline growth

[dippin61]

ca is kept at just around 400

alk is 4

 

for some reason, ive never been able to grow the nice light purple stuff. but that dark red shelving stuff grows like mad

[drock59]

From experience running a BB tank, clearer water can cause problems. Many people running a barebottom system have much shorter photoperiods due to this water clarity issue. I believe the coralline has gone away from the increased light penetration.

[dippin61]

From experience running a BB tank' date=' clearer water can cause problems. Many people running a barebottom system have much shorter photoperiods due to this water clarity issue. I believe the coralline has gone away from the increased light penetration.[/quote']

 

yeh.. thats what i was kinda thinking... now that you mention it, i do run quite a bit longer MH photoperiod then most other BB tank's ive read about. i generally hear 4-6 hours. maybe its time to cut down on the MH.

 

i run a full 14 hour photoperiod, with the MH on for 8-9 hours.

 

10am - VHO 110w actinic comes on

11am - VHO 110w 50/50 comes on

12pm - MH 250w 14k hammy comes on

8pm - 50/50 goes off

9pm - 50/50 comes back on, MH goes off

11pm - 50/50 turns off

12am - actinic turns off

[fly guy]

Its not the water clarity that causes people to run shorter photoperiods although that is a common misconception. People think they are burning the corals becasue the water is clearer. They arent. They are bleaching the carals becasue their tanks are cleaner and the corals are getting less food thus less light is required or they bleach.

 

If you fed the crap out of your corals and could deal with exporting the waste so you didnt have PO3 and po4 issues, you could run your lights just as long as a dsb tank IMO.

 

I run my MH 10 hours in my dsb tank and 6 in my BB tank. Both are working great.

 

I also found that i cant run my alk at 10-12 in my BB tank or it causes bleaching as well. Why im not exactly sure....but i have played with it back and forth and i have now found the happy place. I run it at 10-12 in my dsb tank and 7-8 in my bb tank.

[Ronjunior]

From what I read up on coralline today, the stuff that grows well in bright light is much more sensitive than coralline types that grow in the shady areas and are thicker.

[dippin61]

From what I read up on coralline today' date=' the stuff that grows well in bright light is much more sensitive than coralline types that grow in the shady areas and are thicker.[/quote']

 

hmm, thats odd, because the light purple stuff seems to be the less light corraline. It grows incredibly well in my wifes FOWLR lighted by regular FW PC's. I think she has like 30w over that tank lol. But in my tank, the dark dark red "shelving" algae is seems to be the more intense lighting corraline. It is the main kind in my tank. Grows all over my rocks, got some nice shelves of it, and grows all over the starboard. In fact, i have no light purple on my starboard at all. And some of my rock was from my wifes tank, so thats why i make my deductions.

 

every sections where the light purple is exposed to direct light, it has all bleached, or on its way out. The other stuff on the other hand, is growing happily.

 

but i might totally be misunderstanding your post lol.

[Ronjunior]

every sections where the light purple is exposed to direct light, it has all bleached, or on its way out. The other stuff on the other hand, is growing happily.

 

but i might totally be misunderstanding your post lol.

Here is one of the articles I read today.

http://garf.org/news19p2.html#coralline

Personally, I've got about 5 or more types growing that I call tell the difference between. The red is slow for me, some light pinkish/purple not bad so far.

[impur]

Its not the water clarity that causes people to run shorter photoperiods although that is a common misconception. People think they are burning the corals becasue the water is clearer. They arent. They are bleaching the carals becasue their tanks are cleaner and the corals are getting less food thus less light is required or they bleach.

 

If you fed the crap out of your corals and could deal with exporting the waste so you didnt have PO3 and po4 issues, you could run your lights just as long as a dsb tank IMO.

 

I run my MH 10 hours in my dsb tank and 6 in my BB tank. Both are working great.

 

I also found that i cant run my alk at 10-12 in my BB tank or it causes bleaching as well. Why im not exactly sure....but i have played with it back and forth and i have now found the happy place. I run it at 10-12 in my dsb tank and 7-8 in my bb tank.

 

Hmm i just had to cut my photoperiod again on my ssb tank, its now running 6 hrs and i'm still burning corals. :(

[dippin61]

Hmm i just had to cut my photoperiod again on my ssb tank' date=' its now running 6 hrs and i'm still burning corals. :([/quote']

 

any pics of the corals burned?

 

i have a blue mille where on one of hte branches the polyps are not extending. not sure why.

[impur]

I'll get some in a few hrs.

[dippin61]

I'll get some in a few hrs.

 

thanks! *filler to make the 10 character limit* :p

[impur]

Eh, my harddrive crashed last night LOL After a few hours of being off and trying different power plugs i got mad and smashed it with the screw driver. Then it started right up! So i finished the evening by backing up my C: drive.

 

The coral with burnt tips was RTN'd down to the base when i got home. I fragged off all that i could and covered the cut with superglue. This morning it was still holding on. Hope it regrows. :(

[fly guy]

Eh' date=' my harddrive crashed last night LOL After a few hours of being off and trying different power plugs i got mad and smashed it with the screw driver. [/quote']

 

 

ROTFLMAO

 

I could see myself doing that

 

Sorry about your coral : (

[impur]

Thanks, but i think its gonna be ok. Just has no branches anymore

 

Heh, It was funny, right after i hit it and put a big dent in the top of the HD, it beeped and started right up!

[dippin61]

lol.. sounds kinda like how i got my new monitor.. id been having problems for a while with it, it would turn on, then off at start up. Id have to hit the power button like 10 times before it would stay on. well one morning, it wouldnt stay on, so in frustrastion i hit the moniter right in the middle... well.. not a good idea on a LCD monitor haha.. it cracked, but it popped on and stayed on! :p