PC lighting killing off coraline algae??

kcmo lawman

kcmo lawman

Just a SimpleMan
Dec 10, 2004
241
0
0
54
Kansas City, Mo
I have noticed something happening in my tank. I have a 55g tank with a 4x65watt pc light for it that has been on the tank for about 3 months now. I love the way the light looks, but ever since I put the pc light on my tank the coraline algae has been fading away or turning white as if it is getting bleached by the light.
Out of curiosity I placed my 50/50 NO flouresent lighting back on the tank and took the pc off and now my coraline seems to be making a comeback. Don't get me wrong, I love the way the pc light makes the tank look, but without the coraline growing I am not too crazy about the way the tank looks. It seems like I either have the higher pc lighting and no coraline, or use the NO lighting and have coraline.
Does anyone know of a way to keep my coraline growing and use my pc lighting? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Bradd
 
I'm very new to the hobby, so I may be incorrect here, but I've read that different types of corraline prefer different light levels, and calcium (and possibly strontium) levels play a significant role in their growth. My LR is still pretty new, and had very little corraline when I purchased it. It's starting to grow in a rainbow of different colours (green, turquoise, pink, red, purple & maroon), under PC light (80W over 14g tank).
It may be that with time, higher-light types of corraline will populate your tank, taking the place of the lower-light species that grew under the NO fluorescents.
Here's a thread I found that pertains to this subject when I did a Google search...
HTH
 
when you change from flourecent to MH then the coraline bleaches, but it comes back after a while, put them back on. it is normal
 
You jumped from probably like 30-40 watts of lighting to 260 watts of light. Coraline algae often will bleach until it adjusts to the new lights. As long as none of it is dying then you will be fine. If you are really worried about it then just use the PCs for a little bit each day building up to when you can use the PCs all day, but I really dont think that is needed.

Rick
 
do you have corals in your tank yet if you dont you probly dont need that much light yet when you get your corals sorted out then use your larger lighting then you wont be to worried about the corline algae as your intrust will be on the corals anyways ..
 
There are only a few corals on the live rock that I have...they appear to be a hard, volcanic looking coral. Not too sure what kind these are, but I haven't went out and bought any due to the fact that I have a porcupine puffer and a filefish. This is pretty much a FOWLR tank for the time. I am planning on picking up another tank, probably a 75 or 100g tank and will probably go with corals in that tank. Just out of curiousity, how many watts per gallon on a 55g tank would my 4x65 PC put out?
Thanks for all of the help,

Bradd
 
BE glad taht u have coraline algae!!!!..... i had none and i checked the other day... and i noticed a FAT patch of it on one of my rocks,,, then i look around and i see traces of purple and green forming and getting darker and darker!!! woOOooPPppeeeEEEe...... Oh yeah what do NASO TANG EAT?
 
Well firstly let me just throw out there that "watts per gallon" doesn't really MEAN anything and should only be used as a very general guide to use when planning your lighting. Watts per gallon is a nice start, but the type of light, type of coral, dimensions of tank, dept of water, etc... all play a part in what type and how much light your tank needs.

As an example lets say you have a 250W MH light in a 10 gallon tank, that would be 25 watts per gallon of light in the tank. If you have the same light over a 1000 gallon tank you will have only 0.25 watts per gallon. By most accounts, this amount of "watts per gallon" light is far to low for corals to survive, yet if you place the coral under the light and near the surface and you will see similar growth and health to the 10 gallon tank (all other things being equal.) The only way the amount of water really impacts your lighting is when you take into account how deep the coral is in your tank. The deeper the light needs to shine the more INTENSE the light needs to be. I will be more than happy to explain further, I just dont want to ramble on too much :-P If you have any questions just ask. Also if you have a good idea of what you want to set-up I will be more than willing to help you pick out what will work for you. Take care and good luck

Rick
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom