Some General Advice

[sturner91]

Hey Guys,

I am looking for some general advice. Recently my tank underwent some nasty cyano outbreak that I have recently defeated thanks to my new skimmer.
In the process I also made a change to my lighting schedule. Doing some research showed that mainly softies grow based off blue lights vs white light.

Corals I have are:
Pulsating Xenia
Small Zoa Colony
A sponge hitchhiker
2 Rock Flower Anemone
Plate Coral
Hammer with 2 polyps
Green Clove Polyps
Star Polyps
Green Toadstool Leather

I am running the Galaxyhydro 165w led unit hanging about 5" or 6" from the water surface.https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NNDHVCG/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Here is a link to it for refrence.
The tank is a 29G with a ~10g sump. One of my rock flowers show signs of bleach which I am attempting to recover from.

I will provide pictures of my current lighting setup per the application I use for my lights.

 

[sturner91]

The 4 pngs attached are screenshots of my times and light intensity. I'd really appreciate any and all help.


Thanks!!

 

[Li\/EWiRE]

I don't see any info on your water parameters? Are you testing your water? I always start with water parameters and then start looking at other things that may be causing issues.

 

[sturner91]

I don't see any info on your water parameters? Are you testing your water? I always start with water parameters and then start looking at other things that may be causing issues.

Water parameters were relatively good my last testing. I need to run another test tonight to see where everything is.

But last test was:
Ph 8.3
Alk ~9
Nitrate 0
Calcium ~450ppm
Phosphate ~.01
Salinity 1.023
Not sure on magnesium, need to get a tester for this.

 

[Dogshowgrl]

Nitrate being zero is a serious problem in a LPS and softie tank. Shoot for 5-10 in that kind of tank the corals and anemones need it. How long have your levels been at this? And yes we need magnesium levels. If your nitrates are 0, I would be testing ammonia and nitrite also. Is you alk in dKH? Does is swing from day to day? Are you dosing? I am assuming you are with your SG at 1.023 and your CA at 450. If you are dosing how often? What are you dosing? What are you measuring your SG with? What salt are you using? How old is your tank? What test kits are you using? I don't mean to be overwhelming. I know this is a little extreme, but we can be a lot more helpful with more than a "snapshot" of the tank but more trend and history.

 

[mcgyvr]

Did you actually ask a question?
I didn't see a question mark in any of your sentences..
Are you just asking if your lighting schedule is ok?

Could just be me but I find reading those 4 pictures a bit difficult to follow.. (I am at the beach on vacation so....)
In general 165W is pretty powerful for only a 29G tank with softies..
But you should just run for 9-12 hours at roughly 50-70% max..
I'm not a big fan of "fancy" light schedules.. I just have my blue channels at 50% for 12 hours and white channel at 60% for 11 hours (blue starts and ends 1/2 hour before/after whites).. grows softies/zoas,etc.. just fine.. They don't need much light..

But if everything else is doing/growing just fine then I'm not sure what you are really concerned about..

And yes.. softies seem happier with 10-20ppm of nitrates..

 

[sturner91]

Nitrate being zero is a serious problem in a LPS and softie tank. Shoot for 5-10 in that kind of tank the corals and anemones need it. How long have your levels been at this? And yes we need magnesium levels. If your nitrates are 0, I would be testing ammonia and nitrite also. Is you alk in dKH? Does is swing from day to day? Are you dosing? I am assuming you are with your SG at 1.023 and your CA at 450. If you are dosing how often? What are you dosing? What are you measuring your SG with? What salt are you using? How old is your tank? What test kits are you using? I don't mean to be overwhelming. I know this is a little extreme, but we can be a lot more helpful with more than a "snapshot" of the tank but more trend and history.

Understandable.
I am running my ATO through a kalkwasser reactor. These levels are a new hit for me. As I said previously my tank underwent a cyano outbreak which had my alk drop to about 6dKH. Yes my previous read out was 8dkH. My tank is still very new, it is about 4 months old but has been very stable other than this cyano outbreak. My root cause of the cyano was due to having a horrible nano skimmer that barely did anything + over feeding the tank.

My measurements have been with the API reef kit(API Reef Master Test Kit).
I used RedSea Pro Salt.
My SG is measured with a refractometer.
My pH is measured with a digital probe https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004G8PWAU/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 this to be exact.


I am also about to order two Hanna Instruments Checker one for calcium one for alk just to have a digital tester, easier for me.
Any recommendations on what tester to get for Mg or nitrites?

 

[sturner91]

Did you actually ask a question?
I didn't see a question mark in any of your sentences..
Are you just asking if your lighting schedule is ok?

Could just be me but I find reading those 4 pictures a bit difficult to follow.. (I am at the beach on vacation so....)
In general 165W is pretty powerful for only a 29G tank with softies..
But you should just run for 9-12 hours at roughly 50-70% max..
I'm not a big fan of "fancy" light schedules.. I just have my blue channels at 50% for 12 hours and white channel at 60% for 11 hours (blue starts and ends 1/2 hour before/after whites).. grows softies/zoas,etc.. just fine.. They don't need much light..

But if everything else is doing/growing just fine then I'm not sure what you are really concerned about..

And yes.. softies seem happier with 10-20ppm of nitrates..

There wasn't really a question hence the title of General Advice. That could be taken either way though... but yea I was just curious if I were hitting my tank with too much light, too little or what. Basically I was hoping to stumble across someone else running these lights and compare what they have vs what I have. My searching hasn't turned up much here.

 

[Dogshowgrl]

Perfect. Thank you. When you test tonight fill us in and we can help make a plan. Just for added fun add ammonia and nitrite to your test tonight please! I understand your tank is cycled but sometimes crazy things happen. With API kits most people don't shake the additives long enough for the nitrate test, it makes a HUGE HUGE HUGE difference. Please shake extra long when you test tonight and see if that makes a difference. That dKH might be your culprit. A swing of more than .4 is big so that may be the stressor in question. The lights seem fine but every change you make in your tank should be slow so everything can acclimate to the change. This includes lights so if that was a big change from your previous setting back off and do a 10% change every week until you get where you want to have things. Yes more "blue is better" but understand our natural eye sees blue as dim when in actuality it is very bright to these corals. Things will bounce back. Your tank is VERY young and you seems to be lucky so far. Most nems like tanks over 9 months due to stability. Looking forward to seeing the test results.

 

[sturner91]

Perfect. Thank you. When you test tonight fill us in and we can help make a plan. Just for added fun add ammonia and nitrite to your test tonight please! I understand your tank is cycled but sometimes crazy things happen. With API kits most people don't shake the additives long enough for the nitrate test, it makes a HUGE HUGE HUGE difference. Please shake extra long when you test tonight and see if that makes a difference. That dKH might be your culprit. A swing of more than .4 is big so that may be the stressor in question. The lights seem fine but every change you make in your tank should be slow so everything can acclimate to the change. This includes lights so if that was a big change from your previous setting back off and do a 10% change every week until you get where you want to have things. Yes more "blue is better" but understand our natural eye sees blue as dim when in actuality it is very bright to these corals. Things will bounce back. Your tank is VERY young and you seems to be lucky so far. Most nems like tanks over 9 months due to stability. Looking forward to seeing the test results.

Dogshowgrl,
Got some results for ya. Although I don't have any ammonia tests or nitrite tests on hand, this is what I was able to get.
Nitrate: 5.0ppm
Phosphate: <.25ppm
Calcium: 440ppm
dkH: 10 or 11 it was right in between
SG: 1.023
Ph: 8.3
Mg: 1120

 

[sturner91]

Dogshowgrl,
Let me know your thoughts when you get a chance