discordja

Steve, I had a chance to talk to Johnny at the social a few weeks ago about the URI T5 actinics. If I recall, he advised me that they are marketing it as a overdriven very blue bulb and it's not like a true VHO actinic or even the Geismann T5 actinics. I believe it's more like a 20k t5. That being the case, I'd say either a) use VHOs as I still don't think the T5 actinics can match or b) go with the Geismann as it's still a true actinic. If I'm wrong on that description of the URI feel free to correct me.

I've a Royal Gramma in my 75 along with a peppermint, coral banded and cleaner and I've never seen him go after them. ymmv, of course.

Chris, moving from where to where?

Susceptibility is mostly fish dependent as well. My Blue Tang went through 3 cycles of ich till I kicked it from my tank. The other fish during this time showed no signs of infection. In fact, surgeons are the pretty much garaunteed to get completely infected at least once of their lives. May as well just prepare for it happening every so often.

Ah I can finally respond to this. I finally got a test done for phosphates and i came back with a giant 0 ppm. So I'm at a real loss here. This algae is unstoppable and it's taking over lots of rock surface area and I have no idea how to stem the tide.

Be careful not to get caught trying to count watts. Watts consumed is a ballpark figure, sure, but it's secondary to the PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation) of your lights. You can have 1000 watts consumed but if most of the power is thrown away due to resistence, what's the point? Power Compacts, or compact fluorescents, are basically fluorescents that are bent and plug on one side. Due to their shaping, they often don't throw an optimal light pattern. They are low cost and somewhat inefficient where it comes to actually generating PAR / Watt. They are, in the end, a good low cost alternative and work well for softies and less light intensive LPS/SPS. Clams can survive but they may not thrive like they would under something else. VHOs and now their successor the T5 are true fluorescents. VHOs (or T12s) are just modified versions of the same kind of bulbs that are in your office to be high output. T5s improve on the basic VHO by making the bulb much smaller diameter bulb and the wattage is reduced. They also run exclusively on electronic balasts. These Ebalasts mean much less of the power is lost to resistence and the bulbs run much cooler as a result. All this means you can use several more T5s than VHOs in the same space to generate more PAR. There is also a much more consistent PAR over the whole of the tank because they are not a point source like Metal Halides. T5s are still in their infancy for this hobby. As a result, while they have proved to be very good so far for crisp white PAR numbers, they have yet to catch up with VHO actinics (so they don't create that same incredible blue pop). Metal Halides are derivations of standard mercury vapor lamps. As a result of the mercury, the light they throw is incredibly crisp white light with the kelvin going more toward the blue spectrum. They can be driven by Eballasts which do a whole lot for temperature. They are also the only point lighting available so the only option if you really want the shimmer effect. I'd say for very large tanks reefers will continue to use Metal Halides for some time, especially for deep tanks. T5s have certainly already started making inroads however because they are just much more cost effective. All that said, I echo the others here. You get get a good T5 hood and lamps for not a ton of money and they will whip anything PC you can throw at it. They should let you keep a clam and some SPS if you want. Hope this helps

American Psycho

Steve, Yes on 1. I change about 10 gallons of RODI every week and top off with RODI a couple of times a week No on 2. Probably as far away from a windows as it can possibly get. I'm gonna spend the week with the lights off and a about 40 gallons of water changes .. and see what that does for me. Do any snails or hermits eat this stuff? Maybe larger turbo snails? Everything is healthy and corals are really growing well so there are certainly worse things to have than a little bit of nuisance algae.

Not a great pic but hopefully enough to tell. It looks a little red here but that is short brown algae like it's a layer of carpet over the rock. So it's neither the ugly diatom or cyano. and it's growing like mad. A bit easier to tell how it's growing in the little cracks and crevices and such Took a test of the topoff water as well to be sure it's not adding extra nutrients to the tank as well. It's registering 0 nitrates and 1 on the total disolved solvents count. Also tested to make sure that I was right on the nitrates for the tank and it's around .2-.5 ppm atm Any chance this can be managed with just some more algae grazers? I've not a ton of detrivores in the tank because of the barebottom and I tend to remove the waste before it has a chance to break down.

I've a 75 now up for 3 months. I stabilized the water parameters and things are mostly trouble free. I change 10 gallons a week. Params: Nitrate .5 Nitrite 0 Amo 0 Calc 380 Alk 9 dkh SG 1.026 I changed old bulbs and licked my fits of Cyano and a green carpet/hair algae but now I've got a surge of brown carpet like algae growin all over the rocks, spreading rapidly, and making a real mess of things. Anyone have any ideas?

The answer to your question is ... maybe. Depends on the types of fish you have really. Surgeons and such seem to catch ich at the drop of a hat. Some other species seem to be completely resistent to it. If the Midas had ich comin it, you'll likely see a surge of ich in a few days from now, after it falls off and gestates in the sand bed and live rock. I just came off of my blue tang being completely covered in ich and it looks like I've finally got it out of control.

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in case some of you all are unsure what a sea bunny looks like you can see one here

Or inside your cat