Algae question

[somthinfishy20]

I just bought a 125 watt metal halide pendant for my 24 gallon tank, is this over kill. Will this cause an insane amount of algea. Could the lights have any negative effects on the tank.How long should i run them for each day.
Thanks

 

[leaffish75]

i would start off with a short lighting period. then slowly extend the lighting period.

 

[Anonymous]

125????? odd most of the major manufacturers of do not offer that size, that I know of anyway. If the bulb is not at least 6500 K you may have trouble just because of the spectrum. Some of those "odd or cheap" bulbs out there are like 4000K and meant to be in a greenhouse. Just curious????????

 

[incysor]

Thats what I was gonna comment on. I've never heard of a 125w metal halide.
70w, 100w in 5500k, 150w mostly in double ended bulbs, 175w, but not 125w.

Maybe it's a typo, or it's one of these.

If you already have corals in the tank, upgrading to any higher lighting will need a transition period so that the corals don't get burned. Some folks use several layers of screen material over the top of the tank, and just take a layer off each week. Some start with a very short photoperiod, and add an hour each week.
Some do both.

The higher light can cause algae blooms, heat issues, and as mentioned above burn your corals. However if you go slowly it should be fine. I only run my MH about 5hrs a day, but it's in conjunction with my VHOs. Most folks seem to run their MH 8hrs or so with their actinic supplements running 10hrs, with an hour on before the MH, and an hour after it goes off to simulate dawn/dusk.

B

 

[somthinfishy20]

the company is osram, i can still back out. Please tell me what i should do because this is 120 dollars.

 

[leaffish75]

didnt quiet read the watts. i havent ever heard of that either

 

[Evil Genius]

algae cleaners?

algae seems to be growing like wildfire in my tank...but all my water parameters are at zero..what seems to be causing this in my tank...

i have a 20L with a 30 inch coral life lighting......

 

[Anonymous]

algae blooms in general are caused by a couple of things; 1) nitrates - slowly build up in all tanks, kept under control with water changes or deep sand nitrate reducing plenums. 2) Phosphates - generally introduced with top off water or through excess feeding, there are phosphates sponges that will remove them. 3) Inadequete growth of coraline algae, coraline algae seems to be able to resist green algae overgrowth if everything else in your tank is good. Ca sup might be needed to help the coraline along. Colaline algae will grow on all surfaces in a healthy tank. 4) wrong spectrum - cheap or old bulbs shift to the red yellow and grow algae. 5) the most common problem although everyones least favorite answer - system overload. quite simply we try to put 10 lbs of stuff in a 5 lb bag. keeping your bioload low and stable is the key to a healthy, easily maintained, algae free system. less is more and let it grow

 

[Anonymous]

As for the "125" IMO I wouldn't buy it. If your not a do it yourselfer and you really want MH you can get a really nice MH pendent in 150 W DE bulb for about 225.00 from a very reputable dealer and company. As for needing that kind of lighting - you could keep anything but you may have to shade some of the lower light animals for a while and definitly acclimate everything very slowly. Sure its more money but............you get what you pay for and lighting is an area where you really don't want to skimp.

 

[incysor]

I'd second that. Skip the 125w.

Hellolights has MH retrokits.

150w DE electronic ballast kit. $125 + a bit more for bulb and extra wire.
http://www.hellolights.com/17methalbalk.html

175w Single Ended magnetic ballast probe start $79 + bulb and extra wire.
http://www.hellolights.com/17methalretk.html

175w Single Ended magnetic ballast pulse start $99.95 + bulb and extra wire.
http://www.hellolights.com/17methalretk1.html

Champion Lighting is another company I've bought from.

175w Horizontal pendant system with 10k bulb $227.90
http://www.championlighting.com/product ... 559&page=1
All you have to do is hang it and plug it in.

175w retrokit, with bulb $189.90
http://www.championlighting.com/product ... 560&page=1

Good luck.

B

 

[incysor]

Re: algae cleaners?

algae seems to be growing like wildfire in my tank...but all my water parameters are at zero..what seems to be causing this in my tank...

i have a 20L with a 30 inch coral life lighting......

How old is your tank?

Phosphates are another cause for algae blooms. Are you using RO water? Or RO/DI water?

Overfeeding will cause high phosphates. How often/how much/what do you feed?

B