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New Photo Period


dapettit

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Over the last several months I have been changing my photo period from 8 hrs a day up to 12 hrs. I am currently at 10 hrs per day. I have notice that my corals have colored up considerable and growth is great!

I know have an outbreak cyanobacteria. Other than syphoning out the bacteria and doing water changes, is there another way to help get rid of this stuff?

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Adding more flow helped us when we had an outbreak.

This and controlling excess nutrients in the tank.

I have my lights up to about 12hrs (10a-10p) and only have one small patch of cyno on my back wall. I think that is a spot of the least flow.

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shoot Mama a pm and ask her what she sold me yesterday cause the stuff is the bombdiggity! I thought I had diatoms, it's what they looked like but whatever Mama told me to use started breaking up the stuff already and the tank looks great.

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Thanks DR!! The product is Blue Vet Red Slime Control...I had done everything by the book...increase flow,cut down on lighting, feeding, etc...to no avail. I was scared to death to use any chemicals because of all my bling-bling corals....take it from me and DR...it works like a charm...just please follow the directions on the box to have it work properly ;-)

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Over the last several months I have been changing my photo period from 8 hrs a day up to 12 hrs. I am currently at 10 hrs per day. I have notice that my corals have colored up considerable and growth is great!

I know have an outbreak cyanobacteria. Other than syphoning out the bacteria and doing water changes, is there another way to help get rid of this stuff?

3 days of darkness..exactly what you didn't want to hear! Knocked mine out and now I'm more careful about feedings.

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I was getting that red slimey stuff pretty bad a few month back. Especially twards the end of the photoperiod. I have tons of flow, use ro/di, did water changes ect bla bla bla. What finally stopped it was when I redid my rockwork, there was a TON of detritus trapped under my rocks feeding the stuff. I also stuck a few powerheads behind the rockwork to keep the stuff from collecting. I put the powerheads on a timer so once a day at 6pm a big cloud of fish poo erupts from behind my rocks, falls to the sump where it settles and can be easily removed during water changes. Its like flushing the toilet once a day wether you need it or not. O ya, everything in my tank looks much healthier since and I no longer have a nitrate problem. sulpher denitrator for sale soon!!!

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Might want to ask GKarshens if that is the same stuff that wiped out his tank a few years back.

I know it had "blue" something in its name.

reefman is using some zeofit treatment stuff that he swears by.

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Thanks for the advice. I think I will go with the 3 day blackout. Should I also turn the light off in the fuge? I have it on an opposite time schedule.

Leave the fuge as is. It will suck up the dying algae from your main tank.

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Conch snails work well too.. that coupled with increased flow to the problem areas is usually enough to knock it out without chemical supplementation.

I would ask about your phosphates, but I tested them when I was over there :) and they (and the nitrates) were at zero, so I know you're good as far as water quality go... What's the age on your bulbs?

Edited by MissT
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Bulbs are less than 3 mopnths old.

Then I'd bet there's some flow issues going on... try redirecting one of your koralias towards the biggest trouble spots, and consider the conchs...

Were you still thinking about adding more powerheads?

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12 Hours Photo period?! After everything I've read, that's far too much. Corals can get "tired" after a few hours of intense light.

There is a GREAT thread on RC about it. You'll get better colors, and faster growth with a shorter photo period.

But you are saying that you have had faster growth with a longer photo period? Ahh! So many conflicting ideals. :)

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I hsve three conch and I changed the flow several weeks ago. I will put the powerheads back to where I had them along with the 3 day black out. I'll keep every one posted.

What is your lighting? Metal halides for 12 hours is definitely a bad idea.

I have my metal halides on for 7 hours, my actinics are on for 12.

Daniel

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End of the 3 day blackout. Just a little cyano on a rock. Looks like the combination of lights out, re-adjusting the flow and taking 4 gallons out of the sump for better flow toook care of the problem.

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