Lighting

[gareth.hubbarde]

Hi again, another question for you all.

How long do you leave the lights on your reef tank? It is recommended for 10-12 hours. Is this right? I'm down to 8 hours due to significant algae at the moment, this will clear once the tank matures, it's only 7 weeks old. I use compact t5 lights, one 33w reef white one 33w 50/50 Daylight white and Actinic blue. I also have an led strip that tank manufacturer kent says to use also.
At night I have a blue led strip that I use to view the tank inhabitants (clean up crew only at the moment).
Would 8 hours a day be enough for the soft corals in my tank?
Oh I forgot to say that it does get natural sunlight, especially in the evening as it's on east facing wall and window is south facing. It'd not by the window.
Advice would be appreciated.
Thank you.

94l kent marine bio reef
11kg live rock
4kg sand, 2kg as live.
100g carbon
100g purigen
Filter floss
1000 l/pH return pump
100w heater

1 Mexican turbo snail
2 turbo snails
2 red legged hermit crabs
1 blue legged hermit
2 nassarius snails

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[cincyjim]

Mine are on for 9 hours. They start to come on at 10:00am with peak (all lights) on from 12:00 noon to 5:00pm and off at 7:15pm.

I'm not sure what your Nitrates and Phosphates are but you are probably getting algae issues with the amount of white lights and natural sunlight. I'm also not sure if you have the ability to lower the intensity of the LED strip so it's not at a full 100% at night. For the LED strip you really only need about 20% at best for night time. Since you only have fish in the tank (no corals) you could shorten the lights from 8 hours to 5 or so... to help mitigate the algae growth. You could get more input if you provide your water parameters and what type of algae you have (a picture would be great).

 

[gareth.hubbarde]

I don't have any fish at the moment only snails and crabs, also got a few soft corals in there that seem to be doing OK. Toadstool leather, pulsing xenia, paly.
The tank is an all in one with hood so all the lights are either on or off.
Normally turn on led strip first then the t5 lights later.
Nitrate level was 20
Phosphate was 5
That was the other day did a 25% wc Tuesday, not tested since.

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[sde1500]

Phosphate of 5??? Retest to confirm that, idk if you can even measure that high. Nitrate is too high as well. Those excess nutrients plus you have too much white light, makes the algae.

 

[cincyjim]

I agree with sed1500 as 5 is way too high. You need to strive to get to .03 or so. Are you feeding the tank anything for the corals? If you are then you need to stop doing that. You might also want to look into running some GFO which will help knock down the phosphates.

 

[gareth.hubbarde]

0.5 was phosphate lvl. Sorry my mistake.

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[cincyjim]

It doesn't appear to be unmanageable at this point so that's in your favor. You might also get a Lawnmower Blenny as it'll knock down the algae too. Plus, they are a cool fish to watch... great personality.

 

[gareth.hubbarde]

I drop a bit of food in once or twice a week for super nassarius snails, as I have no other livestock and they live on the waste.

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[gareth.hubbarde]

Levels today are

Nitrate 10ppm
Phosphate 0.25

Not a lot can do about the lights other than leave leds off?

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[sde1500]

You should be able to do different bulbs. Get rid of one of the whites for a blue one. Also I'd swap out purigen for some GFO media probably, you need to get phosphates down more still. Probably will need to change it weekly. With rock and sand, I see no need for Purigen.

 

[gareth.hubbarde]

What is gfo media? Is that rowaphos?

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[DSMpunk]

If your tank is only 7 weeks old, it is going to go through algae blooms until everything is stable(think months). The key at this point is patience and to understand that this is normal.

Are you using 0 tds water? How much flow do you have?

10 hours is probably about the average photoperiod around here from what I have gathered. 8 hours would most likely suffice however.

 

[gareth.hubbarde]

Use ro from the Lfs for water. Flow is 1000l/ph

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[sde1500]

What is gfo media? Is that rowaphos?

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Rowaphos or any other brand like that yes. Granular Ferric Oxide, absorbs phosphates.

 

[gareth.hubbarde]

So shall I run the tank without the led lights on? The compact t5 lights have 4 tubes, 2 each bulb. 3 are white and 1 is blue. I cannot choose which ones to run though, it's either all or none. If I was an electrician there are mods for the hood but it's over my head.

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[sde1500]

Led lights are white too? Swap out some of the white bulbs for blue, 10-12 hr photoperiod is fine. Mine run 14 sun up to sunset, but a couple hours are blues only on either side.

 

[gareth.hubbarde]

I have a blue led strip but that is for night viewing. According to instructions that came with the tank.

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[gareth.hubbarde]

The exact spec of the tank lights

Lighting

"“ 1 x 36 watt Power Compact Daylight Lamp "“ 10,000k Marine white lamp

"“ 1 x 36watt Power compact Daylight Blue "“ 50% 10,000k Marine white "“ 50%

Actinic Blue

"“ 6 x 1watt Marine White LED's 4 x 0.5 watt Marine Blue LED's

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