Metal Halides are the bomb

[Cory]

Little growth picture...April 1st vs Today

Just metal halides? What bulbs?

 

[zalick]

Little growth picture...April 1st vs Today

Wow.... the growth of the two on left side is insane too. 6 weeks?!

 

[phillybean]

Just metal halides? What bulbs?

Cebu Sun fixtures, I bought used & the bulbs don’t have any markings on them, but based on color I think something in the 14k range. Fixtures have 3 Blue Plus & one coral plus bulb as well. Calcium at 430 & Alk at 8.0. Not sure on how old the bulbs are so I’m replacing them soon

 

[phillybean]

Wow.... the growth of the two on left side is insane too. 6 weeks?!

Birdsnest is going crazy, need to trim it soon, overall it’s fantastic though. Tank was set up mid February, took about a month or so for things to settle in & have been going well well for the last 6-8 weeks

 

[oreo54]

Cebu Sun fixtures, I bought used & the bulbs don’t have any markings on them, but based on color I think something in the 14k range. Fixtures have 3 Blue Plus & one coral plus bulb as well. Calcium at 430 & Alk at 8.0. Not sure on how old the bulbs are so I’m replacing them soon

This lighting right?
700W of suns plus "6 tube" t5ho
So 350W of t5's and 500W of Halides.. correct?

 

[phillybean]

This lighting right?
700W of suns plus "6 tube" t5ho
So 350W of t5's and 500W of Halides.. correct?

Yes, the red cap in the picture is pretty much directly under one of the Cebu Suns

 

[oreo54]

Yes, the red cap in the picture is pretty much directly under one of the Cebu Suns

Thanks

 

[infinite0180]

Ok guys, my tank is really struggling here with the switch to MH. Algae is going nuts. I literally removed a bunch of rock and scrubbed it clean this week because it was getting out of hand. When i got my fixture the guy said as far as he knew the bulb was only about 5-6 months old. Its a Phoenix 14k. I wanted to run it through the summer. I did order two new bulbs to keep on deck though. Should i start fresh with a new bulb? Is there anyway to tell if its getting old? Ive got Cyano going crazy here and my corals look terrible.

 

[C. Eymann]

While I like the color my t5/ radion XR30G4pros combo is getting me, Im not very satisfied with growth.


Below is a 1 year 3 month time lapse in one of my previous tanks lit with 2x250w 10,000k Aqualine Buschke bulbs.
Color with LEDs is nice, but growth rate is no where near close to what Im used to with halides.

 

[Bpb]

Ok guys, my tank is really struggling here with the switch to MH. Algae is going nuts. I literally removed a bunch of rock and scrubbed it clean this week because it was getting out of hand. When i got my fixture the guy said as far as he knew the bulb was only about 5-6 months old. Its a Phoenix 14k. I wanted to run it through the summer. I did order two new bulbs to keep on deck though. Should i start fresh with a new bulb? Is there anyway to tell if its getting old? Ive got Cyano going crazy here and my corals look terrible.

How old is the tank? How thick is the coral stock? New bulbs are never a bad idea. But are you running any sort of carbon dosing or aggressive nutrient export?

 

[A. grandis]

Ok guys, my tank is really struggling here with the switch to MH. Algae is going nuts. I literally removed a bunch of rock and scrubbed it clean this week because it was getting out of hand. When i got my fixture the guy said as far as he knew the bulb was only about 5-6 months old. Its a Phoenix 14k. I wanted to run it through the summer. I did order two new bulbs to keep on deck though. Should i start fresh with a new bulb? Is there anyway to tell if its getting old? Ive got Cyano going crazy here and my corals look terrible.

Don't scrub the rocks! Remove algae siphoning while doing your water changes at normal rates. It's going to be fine! If you want to reduce the photoperiod for a while to help, do so. Algae isn't necesarilly bad at all! It's normal! That's why adaptation is everything when changing any type of lighting!

 

[infinite0180]

How old is the tank? How thick is the coral stock? New bulbs are never a bad idea. But are you running any sort of carbon dosing or aggressive nutrient export?

Rounding a year but my rock is over 2 years old. This tanks had a rough first year though. I dont have much coral left from when i brought everything over. Basically i think i killed all my coralline in the switch and man did that really free up room for algae. New coralline is starting to blanket everything though. I have a filter roller and a skimmer. No carbon dosing or anything. I usually do awc but my dos is at Neptune getting repaired. NO3 and PO4 are pretty stable finally. I can go a few weeks in between testing and they are usually the same.

Don't scrub the rocks! Remove algae siphoning while doing your water changes at normal rates. It's going to be fine! If you want to reduce the photoperiod for a while to help, do so. Algae isn't necesarilly bad at all! It's normal! That's why adaptation is everything when changing any type of lighting!

Too late, i couldnt look at it anymore, it was really bad! I left my biggest rock alone and its still covered. I have a Foxface on order so i can get some help with that but in the meantime i wanted to give my rocks a chance at regrowing coralline. I did it over the course of a week so no harm done. I just have this cyano issue now. I lost a lot of frags and im basically starting over besides a few sps that were more established. I think i ramped the photoperiod up too quickly. Everthing was doing well at 4 hours of MH and i pushed it rather quickly to 5 and thats when it went downhill. I left it at 5 though because its been a few weeks now and i figure i need to let it stabilize for awhile. T5 are running 11 hours. The light is 13” from the water surface but the tank is a shallow 16” deep.

 

[Bpb]

Rounding a year but my rock is over 2 years old. This tanks had a rough first year though. I dont have much coral left from when i brought everything over. Basically i think i killed all my coralline in the switch and man did that really free up room for algae. New coralline is starting to blanket everything though. I have a filter roller and a skimmer. No carbon dosing or anything. I usually do awc but my dos is at Neptune getting repaired. NO3 and PO4 are pretty stable finally. I can go a few weeks in between testing and they are usually the same.

Too late, i couldnt look at it anymore, it was really bad! I left my biggest rock alone and its still covered. I have a Foxface on order so i can get some help with that but in the meantime i wanted to give my rocks a chance at regrowing coralline. I did it over the course of a week so no harm done. I just have this cyano issue now. I lost a lot of frags and im basically starting over besides a few sps that were more established. I think i ramped the photoperiod up too quickly. Everthing was doing well at 4 hours of MH and i pushed it rather quickly to 5 and thats when it went downhill. I left it at 5 though because its been a few weeks now and i figure i need to let it stabilize for awhile. T5 are running 11 hours. The light is 13” from the water surface but the tank is a shallow 16” deep.

Rabbitfish are studs at algae eating. It’ll help a lot. Mine is the mvp of the tank. Florida pincushion urchins are the absolute best as well. One urchin will do the work of 3-4 dozen snails and crabs

 

[infinite0180]

Rabbitfish are studs at algae eating. It’ll help a lot. Mine is the mvp of the tank. Florida pincushion urchins are the absolute best as well. One urchin will do the work of 3-4 dozen snails and crabs

I think ill leave the bulb in a few more months and see how it goes. My alk consumption is trending up so i take that as a good sign.

 

[A. grandis]

Rounding a year but my rock is over 2 years old. This tanks had a rough first year though. I dont have much coral left from when i brought everything over. Basically i think i killed all my coralline in the switch and man did that really free up room for algae. New coralline is starting to blanket everything though. I have a filter roller and a skimmer. No carbon dosing or anything. I usually do awc but my dos is at Neptune getting repaired. NO3 and PO4 are pretty stable finally. I can go a few weeks in between testing and they are usually the same.

Too late, i couldnt look at it anymore, it was really bad! I left my biggest rock alone and its still covered. I have a Foxface on order so i can get some help with that but in the meantime i wanted to give my rocks a chance at regrowing coralline. I did it over the course of a week so no harm done. I just have this cyano issue now. I lost a lot of frags and im basically starting over besides a few sps that were more established. I think i ramped the photoperiod up too quickly. Everthing was doing well at 4 hours of MH and i pushed it rather quickly to 5 and thats when it went downhill. I left it at 5 though because its been a few weeks now and i figure i need to let it stabilize for awhile. T5 are running 11 hours. The light is 13” from the water surface but the tank is a shallow 16” deep.

Bring it down to 3 hours for the halides and 9 hours for T5s for now. Let it adjust and still wait to change! Change only the halides through the course of a feel weeks when you can change again. Go very slow... I've been publishing that all the time here... slow... slow...
Everything is going to be ok. The coralline will get back to normal, but that will take some time. When coralline starts to take over again your system will look amazing! It's just a matter of time. Make sure to get a small tang or the Foxface in there. Cyano will go away. Matter of time! All normal. Yes, you made the mistake. It's good to have this published here, so people would be careful when changing. Everything good in this life costs a price. The most expensive price in this hobby is patience.
Get some snails too!

 

[rtparty]

I switched months ago and haven't even gotten up to 3 hours a day on my halides. I almost crashed my tank with the switch. The first few days everything looked great and then the PAR shock set in. It got really ugly, really quick. Had to back off the halides for a few days. Only ran blue T5s. Then started at one hour with the halides. I add 15 minutes when I think about. Usually once every week or two. Now my LPS are all loving the halides and my SPS are going crazy. 6 months from now my tank will be completely different

 

[A. grandis]

I switched months ago and haven't even gotten up to 3 hours a day on my halides. I almost crashed my tank with the switch. The first few days everything looked great and then the PAR shock set in. It got really ugly, really quick. Had to back off the halides for a few days. Only ran blue T5s. Then started at one hour with the halides. I add 15 minutes when I think about. Usually once every week or two. Now my LPS are all loving the halides and my SPS are going crazy. 6 months from now my tank will be completely different

That's it! The adaptation period happens through months... After a year of the initial changes the system becomes a bomb (following the very subject of this thread!) of life all over, just like in nature! Specially when changing from LEDs. Gotta go slow. Everything gets in it's place and the growth and colors are truly spectacular!
Same adaptation needs to be followed when changing halide bulbs for new ones after a year or so, and more careful when changing from say 20K to 14K or 10K. Slow process and observation is the key! Every tank will react differently due to nutrients and different organisms.
Cheers!

 

[Bpb]

Interesting. When I switched from t5ho to mh, my par went roughly 3x as high instantly. I started at 4 hours and increased by an hour a week for 4 weeks. Zero negative effects to any coral and no increase in algae growth.

 

[A. grandis]

Interesting. When I switched from t5ho to mh, my par went roughly 3x as high instantly. I started at 4 hours and increased by an hour a week for 4 weeks. Zero negative effects to any coral and no increase in algae growth.

Every system is different.
The balance of nutrients/ presence of herbivores is the key in most cases.
Also changes in spectrum/PAR from one light to the other.

 

[Bpb]

Every system is different.
The balance of nutrients/ presence of herbivores is the key in most cases.
Also changes in spectrum/PAR from one light to the other.

Very true. I had a very dense coral load with urchin, tangs, and rabbit fish