Lighting arrangement

[Exodus]

ok so I have a 125 Gallon and for lighting I use 120-150 watts of PC Blues and 2 400 Watt 20K XM (3 months old) I generally have been transitioning it so the PC's come on @ 7:30 am around 11:00am the MH's come on (PC's shut off) for 8 hours and then the PC's come back on and go off @ 10:30. I beginning to think this is a bit to excessive lighting (scratch)

 

I'm getting Red Slim Now DOH! and I'm really not sure what the source is so I'm going to narrow it down by different solutions, I have tried the Red slime remover (I know this is just a temp) and that really didn't do much, So I'm now working on the next step:

 

I only have 2 Korilina 3's right now I will be adding a 3rd soon but for the meantime I put them on the back center wall facing opposite directions towards the glass, the red slime only seems to be appearing on the sides of the Tank not in the center, so I figure if I have the powerheads placed where they are they will force the current to the sides. If the red slime disappears and begins in the center where there is now less flow, problem solved add another powerhead; if not I will need to keep Troubleshooting.

 

I have done allot of research on cyno and got a pretty good idea on how to narrow it down from there but I cant seem to find anything on the lighting arrangement I have.

 

P.S I also have a Skimmer (off during that treatment Trial) as well I only feed the fish every other day once and only put enough in that will last all of them for about 5 minutes and have plenty of cleanup crew so i know I'm not overfeeding.

 

current Livestock, 2 True Perks, LTA, Decorated Rabbit, 2 Sailfin Tangs - They all seem to be happy. so any help with how long I should set the timers on both sets of lighting would be great

Thanx

Nick

[Benny503]

My cyno never came back.... (knock on wood) after I used the remover that I got from Seahorse, I didn't do any things change to my setup. Maybe I am just lucky.

[cgrant]

I would highly suggest you cut back to a total of 12 hours lighting at the most. You may want to cut back to ten or even 8 until you get the algea problem solved. My t-5 actinics come on at 9am and shut off at 9pm. My MH's come on at 10am and go off at 8pm. So my actinics are on for one hour before my halides come and stay on for one hour after my halides go out with a total of 12 hours of lighting.

If you are using frozen foods it is best to thaw them and dump off the excess moisture as it adds nutrients that will not be consumed by your fish but will help the algea to flourish.

Doing these things to my tank has helped me. I hope this help you.

[snowpunk]

I have a 75g and I run mine so my VHO's run 12 hours and my MH(400w) come on 2 hours after the VHO's and turn back off 2 hours before the VHO's turn off. I did have a breakout once long ago when I still had 175 MH in the tank. I did like benny said and I got the treatment from seahorse (reefsafe btw) and it has never shown up again. It was the red slime treatment from Blue Vet. I'm sure a store local to you has it also. Just get as much out as you can with syphoning and then put the treatment in. Should go away in one shot but if it doesn't do as the bottle says and do a water change and re-dose again. It should be gone forever after that, or at least it was for me. I think your lighting should be changed a little nut it isn't always a lighting issue. I just try to emulate the suns heat, rays, and timeframe. Start off small for a little bit(vho) then get hotter as the day goes on(MH &VHO). Then go back down the same way. I try to keep the light to about the amount the ocean would normally see.