light help?

Corwyn

I am in Raynham
so I have a redsea 170

perams
SG 1.28
temp 74
PH 8.2
nitrate nitrite phos zero
KH 8.9


I recently changed the lights from a HD32 that died to a Photon V2 and replaces a icecap 3K with an SCP 90.


Can't seem to dial in the light to a good setting and I keep struggling with brown cyono.

Any suggestions on setting?
 
Cyano or dinoflagellates?

AcroGarden may be able to assist with the light settings.
I think cyono but I might have this backwards

brown comes off pretty easy with a turkey baster not in sheets. has bubbles in a few places/
 
It may not relate to lightIng. It is very likely water quality related. Thee are several things to consider:
Which test kits are you using for nitrate and phosphate?
Is your salinity at 1.028 or 1.28?
Are you feeding frozen food?
Which brand of salt are you using?
What kind of water you use to mix the salt?
Where the dino or cyano located, is there sufficient flow to those areas.

Even with phosphate and nitrate are 0, Dino can happen when there is a big swing in parameters, or there are excess amount of organic matters in the water which test kits can’t detect.

In addition, when dino or cyano pickup, there must be food sources for them. Normally the excess nutrients come from frozen food, die off from live rock and or coral. Check the heater and AC powered pump to see if there is a leak in electricity.

To dial in the light for coral, I have a par meter that you can borrow.
 
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It may not relate to lightIng. It is very likely water quality related. Thee are several things to consider:
Which test kits are you using for nitrate and phosphate?
Is your salinity at 1.028 or 1.28?
Are you feeding frozen food?
Which brand of salt are you using?
What kind of water you use to mix the salt?
Where the dino or cyano located, is there sufficient flow to those areas.

Even with phosphate and nitrate are 0, Dino can happen when there is a big swing in parameters, or there are excess amount of organic matters in the water which test kits can’t detect.

In addition, when dino or cyano pickup, there must be food sources for them. Normally the excess nutrients come from frozen food, die off from live rock and or coral. Check the heater and AC powered pump to see if there is a leak in electricity.

To dial in the light for coral, I have a par meter that you can borrow.
I have a an aquatic system rodi with dual fdi filter.

sorry typo on the salinity 1.028 (pretty standard for my tank
use pro reef tropic salt which is what I used from day one
yes feeding frozen food ( 2 fish I use about a half a cube a day - blood worms, misys or mix omni/carn


My ice cap 3K died and I was without a wave maker fora few days but replaced with jebao SCP-90 rated 1980 gph in a red sea 170 (45g) plus the 600gph main pump

Using red sea for alk and ph api for everything else

Lost one fish but i got it out of hte tank 2 weeks ago not much di eoff since I dont ahve all that much inthere
 

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I will suggest do not use API nitrate and phosphate test kits. Too many false negatives.
For example, a local reefer was dosing nitrate because his API nitrate test kit showed 0 ppm. So he kept dosing till his coral looked sad. Then he brought a water sample to a LFS and his nitrate level was over the roof.

I will stop feeding frozen food if your fish eat pellets. For example, one cub of frozen mysis shrimp from a popular brand contains way more phosphate and nitrate than 100 gallon of tap water.

The cyano or dino bloom is a way the nature to rid of excess waste such as phosphate and nitrate.
 
Another observation is that:
Despite Jebao SCP-90 claims 1980 gph, there is no standard method to measure actural flow rate from various manufacturers. Since I also have SCP-90, it is pretty weak compares to Ice Cap 3K. So basically you may reduced the flow to half. That can potentially lead to cyano bloom as well. The more comparable Jebao gyre is the SCP-120, even that has less flow than a 3K. Hope this help.
 
I will suggest do not use API nitrate and phosphate test kits. Too many false negatives.
For example, a local reefer was dosing nitrate because his API nitrate test kit showed 0 ppm. So he kept dosing till his coral looked sad. Then he brought a water sample to a LFS and his nitrate level was over the roof.

I will stop feeding frozen food if your fish eat pellets. For example, one cub of frozen mysis shrimp from a popular brand contains way more phosphate and nitrate than 100 gallon of tap water.

The cyano or dino bloom is a way the nature to rid of excess waste such as phosphate and nitrate.

Uh oh, I have been feeding frozen and using API kits for years and lots of 0 ppm NO3 and PO4 tests.... but GHA. What kits do you trust? And what pellets do you recommend?

sorry to hijack
 
I use salifert test kits.
For pellets, I feed Newlife Spectrum sinking pellets.
 
I've tried the pellet and no one ate it and it sat on the bottom of the tank. I'll pick up another test for phos and see what that shows.

with regarding the ice cap I never ran it above 60% because it was way too strong. so while I know the Jebao is less powerful. I figured running that at 70-90 would be pretty close to what the gyro was actually doing.
 
so did a 50% water change. Got new Salifert Phos and Nitrite test kit.
also added a bag of ROWAphos
Both showing ZERO - took some of he rocks out and scrubbed with toothbrush. 48 hours later fully covered in brown algae. Im stuck
 

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Run activated carbon, not rowaphos.
There are plenty of organic waste that can’t be detected by nitrate and phosphate test kits.
Also it doesn’t seem to have coraline algae on the rocks, are these man made rocks?
 
ho old is the tank? will h 0 Po4 and 0 Po3 I’m guessing it may be dino’s. Does it go away at night and come back first thing in the morning during the day when the lights are on? does the brown algae look stringy and have air bubbles possibly in it? The only way I was able to beat dino was to raise my phosphates and nitrates levels. At least .03 for phosphate in 5 to 10 ppm for nitrate. Since you just changed your light which is now more powerful it is probably helping Dino’s thrive as it feeds on light. This is just a hypothesis from experience. Hope this helps.
 
ho old is the tank? will h 0 Po4 and 0 Po3 I’m guessing it may be dino’s. Does it go away at night and come back first thing in the morning during the day when the lights are on? does the brown algae look stringy and have air bubbles possibly in it? The only way I was able to beat dino was to raise my phosphates and nitrates levels. At least .03 for phosphate in 5 to 10 ppm for nitrate. Since you just changed your light which is now more powerful it is probably helping Dino’s thrive as it feeds on light. This is just a hypothesis from experience. Hope this helps.
It's more like shag carpet. no bubbles. Not sure what you mean by going away at night?
How do I raise phospate reliably?
 
Run activated carbon, not rowaphos.
There are plenty of organic waste that can’t be detected by nitrate and phosphate test kits.
Also it doesn’t seem to have coraline algae on the rocks, are these man made rocks?
Ok, I can try that, I was going with the rowa with the assumption that the the API test kits were wrong and that I really had a phos problem. Yes there is coraline in the tank it's just that the algae is covering up that rock. the rock is old live rock from a previous tank
 
SO got a canister filter and running teh water polishing filter firs fora few hours then adding carbon.

here is hopefully a better pic of the algae, Can anyone ID? maybe that will clue in what to do
Oh I also redused the light down to about 8 hours with peak of 65% for about 4.
 

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so I'm still back to it being caused by light. I've tested again. did a water change, added a polisher and carbon.

it is growing the most in light, where rocks are not directly hit by light there is no growth.

right now I am running


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