isseym328
Premium Member
Howdy,
Just to provide some context on why I started doing this. Earlier in the year I replaced my T5s with new bulbs, and replaced a couple actinics with blue+ for growth. After a week or so I noticed some of my sps not doing well and realized that the lights were probably too strong and I have to raise it a bit. However it did not truly help and I started testing my ALK and nitrates a bit more, and found out that while my ALK is at ~8.5 my nitrates were at 0 consistently. My protein skimmer on the current 150 was brought for a 270 I had a while back that was rated for 400+ gallons. My assumption at this time is that while I wanted to get stronger lights for growth my ALK level was slightly high and nitrates were way too low. My skimmer was skimming out all the nutrients required for my sps to grow with the high light output and ALK level. I lost some sps due to the strong lighting, ALK level, and 0 nitrate as sometimes you don't see the negative results until a month or two after. I've had the skimmer off for a week now and have not see anything too detrimental most SPS are doing fine but a couple bleached a bit. Still pondering if this is the way to go or if I should just put the skimmer on for a couple times a week. Oxygenation levels are also a concern although I've been compensating by pointing flow towards the water surface for more exchange.
Anyone tried this before? Thoughts?
Just to provide some context on why I started doing this. Earlier in the year I replaced my T5s with new bulbs, and replaced a couple actinics with blue+ for growth. After a week or so I noticed some of my sps not doing well and realized that the lights were probably too strong and I have to raise it a bit. However it did not truly help and I started testing my ALK and nitrates a bit more, and found out that while my ALK is at ~8.5 my nitrates were at 0 consistently. My protein skimmer on the current 150 was brought for a 270 I had a while back that was rated for 400+ gallons. My assumption at this time is that while I wanted to get stronger lights for growth my ALK level was slightly high and nitrates were way too low. My skimmer was skimming out all the nutrients required for my sps to grow with the high light output and ALK level. I lost some sps due to the strong lighting, ALK level, and 0 nitrate as sometimes you don't see the negative results until a month or two after. I've had the skimmer off for a week now and have not see anything too detrimental most SPS are doing fine but a couple bleached a bit. Still pondering if this is the way to go or if I should just put the skimmer on for a couple times a week. Oxygenation levels are also a concern although I've been compensating by pointing flow towards the water surface for more exchange.
Anyone tried this before? Thoughts?
