fishmanmike01 Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 Just curious what settings and schedules those using these lights are using? I run 4 over my 210, 16" above the water. 90-100% blues/ 25-30% whites. Having a hard time getting great colors out of my sps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefnjunkie Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 I run blues an hour before and an hour after whites for 12 hours total (whites are on 10 hours) blues are about 65-70 percent whites 55-60 percent. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CuttleFishandCoral Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 100 percent on everything. Maybe 12" off the top and the tank is only 16" deep. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishmanmike01 Posted September 8, 2015 Author Share Posted September 8, 2015 Hmmmm. Keep em coming. Perhaps it's my water. Last Check this morning Alk was 8.2 Cal 520 Po4. .08 Nitrate 0 api Mag 1200. This stuff is so frustrating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishmanmike01 Posted September 8, 2015 Author Share Posted September 8, 2015 I run blues an hour before and an hour after whites for 12 hours total (whites are on 10 hours) blues are about 65-70 percent whites 55-60 percent. I run blues two hours prior/ post. Whites 8 hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackice Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 I will to bet it's the nitrates be 0 rather then your lights. Mine are about 70-80 blues and 40-50 White. All on for 12 hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 Good thread I updated my schedule based on this. Probably been running too many hours just because it is nice to see the reef all day, but probably not so good for algae... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackice Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 Not true it's great for algae my refugium goes nut when lit 24/7 ! Lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexinverts Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 Hmmmm. Keep em coming. Perhaps it's my water. Last Check this morning Alk was 8.2 Cal 520 Po4. .08 Nitrate 0 api Mag 1200. This stuff is so frustrating. Yup, you want to have some nitrate in your water. What are you using to control nutrients? Whatever it is, you want to back it off until you have at least 2 ppm of nitrate, but I like to keep mine higher.....around 8-10 ppm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishmanmike01 Posted September 9, 2015 Author Share Posted September 9, 2015 Yup, you want to have some nitrate in your water. What are you using to control nutrients? Whatever it is, you want to back it off until you have at least 2 ppm of nitrate, but I like to keep mine higher.....around 8-10 ppm. With nitrates in that range, what does your po4 look like? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexinverts Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 (edited) With nitrates in that range, what does your po4 look like? It's between .1 and .05. Right now it is .05 in my office tank and .1 in my home tank. Your phosphate is fine at .08, in my opinion. When your phosphate is higher than your nitrate, you have a recipe for cyanobacteria blooming, since cyanobacteria can fix their own nitrogen from the atmosphere (unlike algae and corals, which are limited by nitrate). Many people have cyano problems at the params that you mentioned, and then see improvement when they raise their nitrate a bit. Edited September 9, 2015 by Lexinverts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badxgillen Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 I have one over an accounts tank and it is raised rather high and on 100% both channels, I am not there to measure it but I know it is at least a foot but probably more like 16" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishmanmike01 Posted September 9, 2015 Author Share Posted September 9, 2015 It's between .1 and .05. Right now it is .05 in my office tank and .1 in my home tank. Your phosphate is fine at .08, in my opinion. When your phosphate is higher than your nitrate, you have a recipe for cyanobacteria blooming, since cyanobacteria can fix their own nitrogen from the atmosphere (unlike algae and corals, which are limited by nitrate). Many people have cyano problems at the params that you mentioned, and then see improvement when they raise their nitrate a bit. Spoken like an expert! I've just recently started to see bright green algae take hold in a few places. Explaines a lot. To answer your questions. I run nothing to control nitrates however I run a small amount of gfo to keep phos in check. Just ran tests again and no detectable nitrates. So... How does one increase nitrates without increasing phos? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexinverts Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 (edited) Spoken like an expert! I've just recently started to see bright green algae take hold in a few places. Explaines a lot. To answer your questions. I run nothing to control nitrates however I run a small amount of gfo to keep phos in check. Just ran tests again and no detectable nitrates. So... How does one increase nitrates without increasing phos? Weird that you don't have any detectable nitrate, but you do have phosphate. What nitrate test kit do you use? You have a few options to raise nitrate that I can think of. 1) Only run your skimmer at night. This will also increase your phosphate, but you could also add a little more GFO to control for this. (Try not to let your phosphate get much lower than .03.) 2) Add more fish and/or feed them more. You'll also need to up your GFO in order to prevent a concomitant increase in phosphate. 3) Dose Acropower, which produces some nitrate. It also has aminos, which your corals will appreciate. You'll also need to up your GFO because it contains phosphate too. 4) Dose potassium nitrate or calcium nitrate (http://www.planetnatural.com/product/cal-mag-plus/ or http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/301084914962?ul_noapp=true&chn=ps&lpid=82) like they do as fertilizer in freshwater planted tanks (no phosphate in these additives). I would only try this if you don't have success trying the other options. Good luck! Edited September 9, 2015 by Lexinverts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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