C Lo Slice

Be sure to reduce your light schedule when you change the new bulbs. I generally half my schedule, then slowy bump it back up on a weekly basis (from .5 - 1 hour per week).

Most people generally replace bulbs every 6 months, as the light output and color shift as the bulbs get older. Brand new bulbs will be a shock to the tank, and I don't want to see you burn on corals (like I have done numerous times in the past).

Thanks, James. That was a question I meant to ask in my original post. I had read that with T5s, it was recommended to change bulbs every 9-12 months (don't remember where I saw that). But I'll go with your advice in the future

If you end up with a color you dont like all you have to do is replace one of the bulbs not all 4 again . I only ran 2 t5's with my MH and they were both the gus <humm forgot how its spelled but the german bulbs> super antic+ and really like the color. I left them on when I went to my LED build and still use them.

Ha, yeah I guess so. I guess I was overthinking things a bit. Are you talking about the Geisemann bulbs?

The light fixture I have on my 60 gallon is a 4-bulb T5 Coralife with 4 lunar LEDs. I've had this on the tank since April 28th, but I'm growing to dislike the bulbs. Currently, it is just the two 10,000K daylights and two actinics that came with the fixture. This is a 54-watt light. What I don't like is that the daylights give off too much of a yellow hue and the actinics' shade of blue is too light for my taste. I'm wanting to eliminate the yellow tint and get an overall deeper blue when all 4 bulbs are on.

I read up on the T5 knowledge that The Grim Reefer (Steve Larsen) had to offer on his site ( http://home.comcast.net/~stevelarsen00/site/?/home/ ) yesterday and started doing some research. For a 4-bulb fixture such as mine, he suggested on his website the following combo, in order of front-to-back:

1) Any blue lamp (I'm thinking ATI's Blue Plus)

2) Fiji Purple or ATI Purple Plus

3) Aquablue Special

4) Any blue lamp (Again, ATI Blue Plus)

He says this should put the tank around 15,000K, giving the tank a bluer look, and I'm assuming better PAR than what I currently have. I have heard nothing but good things about ATI bulbs, so I would like to give them a shot. Being that the bulbs I have are coming up on nine months in operation, I figure now would be a good time to go ahead and begin shopping around. Larsen also suggested using a UVL Actinic White instead of the Fiji Purple/Purple Plus if you want a warmer color with a purple tint. My problem is that I'm too inexperienced in the hobby and with lighting in general to really know what any of this will actually look like.

I found a website yesterday in which I can get the 4 bulbs above for $85.80 plus 10% off and free shipping, bringing my total to $77.22, which is considerably cheaper than any other site that I came across. I have a little extra money right now, but $80 for bulbs that I may end up not liking is a steep price to pay for me. I'm just looking for any advice that you guys may be able to provide for me before I pull the trigger on this. The only SPS I have is a large Superman Monti about a foot below the lights, and I currently don't intend on adding anymore SPS (at least for the foreseeable future). I would like to add an anemone soon, though, because my clowns are hosting in different corals, causing them to die off. When they kill one, they move on to a new one. I get about 3.6 watts of light per gallon and I know that's a little on the low side for a nem, but I don't know what else to do with these clowns.

Any and all help/advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks, guys.

Ton's of good info so far but how about a slightly different look at the situation. You mentioned added a skimmer but what brand/type of skimmer did you add, not all skimmers are equal, some are more efficient than others and some are not good at all. Your LR...130lbs of liverock is a lot in a 60G tank and once again, not all live rock is created equal, having heavy boulders is not equal to light porous pieces of liverock. The more porous, the greater the surface area for nitrifying bacteria to colonize and efficiently do it's job. Also.... depending on the source of the LR, it could have came from a system that was very high in phosphates for a prolonged period and now the phosphates could be slowly leaching from the LR, helping to fuel the GHA. How's your clean-up crew, a couple of the large mexican turbo's will help keep algae, including hair algae, cyanobacteria and diatoms at bay if it is a maturing issue, hermit's help also as well as Ceriths, nerites and astrae's but I would suggest going light on a cleanup crew so they don't stave once the algea level's decrease. I would make sure your skimmer is skimming efficiently, along with running gfo as suggested. Keep in mind that GHA needs light along with nitrates and phosphates in order to grow and flourish, break the food chain and the GHA goes away.

Cheers,

The skimmer is an AquaC Remora HOB with Maxi-Jet pump. I know 130 pounds of LR is quite a bit, and I didn't intend on adding that much when setting up the tank. Some of the corals I have bought from other members here were on medium-large rocks so that kinda added to what I already had. The majority of the rock is dense and heavy, with only one piece being fairly porous. Regardless, they are all very large pieces.

My initial CUC consisted of the following: 30 Dwarf Ceriths, 17 Florida Ceriths, 9 large Nerites, 7 small-medium Nerites, and 15 assorted Hermits. Those were all added on May 5th, which was 25 days after the tank's initial setup. My tank also has 3 Peppermint Shrimp and a Fire Shrimp. There has been considerable die-off on my CUC over the months and I was actually planning on boosting it back up in the next couple of weeks. Diatoms have been non-existent for a few months now, and the cyano has receded considerably as of late. GHA is my chief concern right now.

I assume my skimmer is skimming efficiently, but it's my first one so I don't know how to tell if it is skimming inefficiently. Also, nitrates have never been above 5 and nitrites have never registered on any tests. I don't have a phosphate test, but may see about taking some tank water with me to my LFS on Saturday.

Thank you for the help, bimmerzs

That's a cool idea... Never thought of doing that. Are the rocks stabilized with rods or anything, or do they just fit together nicely? It looks to be leaning a bit. That would make me nervous, but then again, I'm still new to this

Is that a Tonga branch supporting the left side? Definitely a sweet layout, I agree with James

I'd like to get a tally of who all is interested and the amount they plan on getting. Remember there is a 10% discount, and I believe free shipping is $250. John has some new items, for those of you who haven't seen his latest post on the forum. It looks like I'll have enough extra money on my next paycheck to purchase some things. Let's get this thing rolling ahead of time.

Try Aquadome. I bought a Sea Hare from them a few months ago for $20 that got rid of my GHA in about 2 weeks

I may be interested in this for a Sea Hare and a couple other things. Keep me updated. Where abouts in Kyle are you?

I battled mine for about 6 months, then it went away. I did lots of manual removal, GFO/GAC, new lamps, new RODI filters, stopped feeding flake food and it just stopped happening.

That's good to know. I have been researching new bulbs lately, as I want a little more of a blue tint to the tank anyways. I think with my next paycheck, I should be able to afford it. I also do probably need new RODI filters. I don't feed flake; only frozen, which is rinsed well in RODI water and defrosted before actually putting into the tank. I'll look into GFO. Thanks for the advice, buddy

If you were fighting GHA before the trip, the outbreak makes sense.

Your initial post made it sound like it was fine before the trip.

My apologies. I have posted a ton of problems with my GHA and I assumed the majority of people here knew about it. But, I guess you know what they say about when you assume...

How long have you been doing this 5g x 2 times a week water change routine? In a 60g tank with sufficient live rock (which you seem to have), a skimmer, and RODI water, that seems excessive unless the tank is super heavily stocked (which it doesn't seem to be). Have you tried running GFO? How old are your bulbs?

I have been doing this since about mid-late August. My 60g has ~120-130 lbs of LR. I just added a skimmer a month ago, and I have a RODI unit installed that I use for my top-off and WCs. You are correct in that my tank is not super heavily stocked. But since August, I have had GHA issues. I bought a Sea Hare a couple months ago, he did his job, and I passed him on to one of our sponsors. I'm looking to grab another one and possibly trying to keep it longer, with substitute feedings of nori after the GHA is gone once again. The first time I got rid of the GHA, I did not have my skimmer so I'm hoping for different results this next time around.

I have not tried GFO. I had a canister filter on there since the tank's birth in mid-April until about two months ago when it sprung a leak. Since then, no filtration whatsoever other than two powerheads and the month-old skimmer. RCA suggested I had enough LR in my size of tank to be successful without a sump or canister filter. When the canister was running, I did have carbon bags in there. My 4-bulb T5 has not had the bulbs changed since I purchased it, which was probably around mid-to-late May.

+1 to ^

That said, I think that the GHA/cyano outbreak most tanks seem to have is a part of the normal tank algae cycle and will pass eventually.

I wish that were the case, Robb. As stated above, I have had this issue for about four, going on five, months now. It sure gets tiring and tedious picking all that excess algae off by hand

Wow!

Are your inverts still alive? A massive outbreak would have to be caused by a die off of some type.

I can't imagine how 9 days of no maintenance caused this. Temp drop? Too much sunlight?

Just for future reference, I like to do a nice WC and skimmer cleaning a day or two before I leave town.

It looks like the only thing that died while I was away was a Red Footed Moon Snail. I had GHA issues before I left, but it has never been THIS bad. Temp was fine; I had a heater installed. No sunlight, just my 4-bulb T5 fixture which is on a timer. I did a 10 gallon WC (60 gallon tank) and cleaned the skimmer about an hour before leaving on the 23rd. I'm assuming the outbreak was due to lack of control while I was away. I typically do two 5 gallon WCs a week in order to keep GHA under control. I pick off as much as I can while I siphon with a 1/4" airline tubing.

Ill be ordering about 30-40 worth... Ill wait on your group order to see if it comes through, otherwise in 2 weeks ill be ordering and splitting shipping with anyone interested.

Sounds good, man

Alright let me wait for my next paycheck around the 11th of the month to see if I can still afford an order. I'll post something around then when I know more, since it looks like this has started gaining more interest

My wife HAD to spend 9 days in Dallas visiting family over the holidays. I didn't have the option of staying home. She also doesn't trust anyone in our home that we don't know, so hiring someone for tank maintenance was out of the question. I had everything on auto-pilot while we were gone, except ATO. This is what I came home to last night.

Second pic is my $90 Sunny D frag. I'm hoping after suctioning the GHA and cyano off, I can find a living polyp. At least all the fish are alive. Time for some MAJOR tank cleaning! Lesson learned...

Still have the urchin? What kind of algae are you seeing?

Looking good! Any updates?

I purchased an AquaC Remora Skimmer (that a lot of you guys helped me on) maybe three weeks ago. I took it off the tank last weekend to do my normal water change and skimmer cleaning. Well, Monday evening, I set up a siphon from my Homer Bucket of fresh saltwater going into the tank after taking out 5 gallons of old water. My mother called me over to her house to help with something right after I set up the siphon. So I left, went to her house for about two hours, then came home to about 15 gallons of water going from the tank in the living room into the kitchen. I forgot to take out the circulation pump (Koralia 3) from the bucket. So what I believe happened was the pump knocked the airline tubing out of the bucket, it landed on the floor, then probably reversed the suction due to gravity, causing water from the tank to be pumped out onto the floor. I got everything cleaned up and the water level in the tank back to normal, but my skimmer has been off for a week now. Is there going to be a new break-in period for it now? It really isn't a big deal if so, but I was just wondering if it only applied to brand new skimmers, or if it also applied to any skimmer that hasn't been run for awhile.

Thanks, Andrew! And congrats, Mike

Sorry, Kim, but this just hasn't garnered enough interest. I ended up just getting a couple things from RCA. Definitely in another month or so I'll look into getting this going again.

Wow, thanks for all the info Tony. I really appreciate it.

A few (slightly) better shots

I WISH I could have that leather in my tank! That thing is gorgeous.

But, yeah, sometimes I think my mom is more addicted to the tank than I am. For some reason, though, she refuses to put one up in her own house.

Now that the lights are on and the corals have come out, it's obvious what they are: a colony of beautiful mushrooms and a LARGE colony of zoas.

The shrooms are a reddish-orange with green specks and thick white stripes on the outer rims. The zoa colony has a few different types of polyps on it, but are predominantly all green. The details on them, however, are really pretty. The pic doesn't do it justice. But she also picked up 4 snails that have an orange rim. These guys are huge, and she said the guy at RCA told her they'll mow down my GHA problem. Can anyone ID these?

Hey Jake -

I sent my mom by on her way home from work today to get me a sand sifting Goby. She came back with that and 3 other things that she had no clue what they were. Hoping you could identify them for me? I'll shoot you some pics in the morning when the lights come on.

This probably wont work for me unfortunently because I live in Waco and Austin is already a hike for me.

Sorry, man. The cost of gas has just been killing me lately.