Is the 96W PC lighitng too much for a 10 gallon?

[jasno999]

Is the 96W PC lighitng too much for a 10 gallon?

I have this on my 10 gallon tank right now and when I first was setting up my tank over a year ago I read up on it and found out that this would be a good light fixture to have to do a good range of corals from low to medium lighting.

Now I have a guy on thge poard tellign me that 96W for a 10 gallon is a lot and will be too much for many corals?

What the heck???? Can somebody help me find the truth here?

 

[jasno999]

Oh and it is a set up so that there are 4 tubes btu they are all connected to the one ballast point. IT is a 50/50 lighting format.

 

[Brenden]

That "guy" would be a girl and Fluff is correct. 96w on a 10 gal is a bit much for mushrooms. 5 WPG is a good general rule. Just get corals that do not require lower light levels.

 

[Fluff]

Yep, that would be me, a she. I did say it was alot of light and more light than mushrooms would tolerate as well as most "easy" corals which is what you were asking about.

 

[jasno999]

Now I have read other posts on this board that say whne it comes to a floresent type of lighthing that 7+ W per gallon is desired. So I get different information from different people.

DO you guys think that is the reason I am havign such issues with alge overgrowth. I am doing 20% water changes each week to two weeks. I am using an RO system so the water is clean. Yet I still have alge all over my rocks and can't get it to die down. Even added some Cheato alge to try and suck up any left over nitriates/nitirites.

My leavels all look good but the alge continues to grow.

Well as for the mushroom I am goign to try to grow it. I have it at the lowest part of the tank so it is gettign the smalles amount of light possiable. I still think that the lighting is good but not overkill. I remember realyl going over this before makign the purchase and from what people said the 96W was the way to go.

I will let you guys and girls know what happens. But I will keep an eye out. How can I tell if a mushroom is gettign too much light?? What are the signes of burning?

The bubble coral I have in the tank seems to be doing very well. He is fully inflated the entire time the light is on.

IF my lighting gets overpowering I will simply add a glass 3/4 cover to the top of the tank. That will cut the light getting to the tank by a small amount but it will help.

 

[Fluff]

Your gonna find lots of differing opinions in this hobby. I don't see that as a bad thing but it can be confusing. All you can do is decide which opinion you want to accept. Alot can be learned through trial and error. Adding the glass will limit gas exchange so if you go that route, I would only add half the canopy if that's possible. Only under the lights. If your mushroom shrinks up and/or starts to turn white, that's some signs it's not happy with the lighting. I have a mushroom at the top of my tank and it's bleached out along the edge that is closest to the light. Unfortunately for it, it's on a nice size rock and can't be moved unless I scrape it off.
The lights could contribute to the algae issues. Try shortening your light cycle and see if that helps.

 

[fishfreek]

Alage growth is tied to two things. First its tied to light levels. Since most algeas are photosynthetic of course the more light you have the more algae growth potental. Second algae growth is dependant upon water quality. If you can test your water for phosphates this will give you a good indicator on aglage growth due to water quality. If you have high phosphates then the task is to decide where they are comming from.

I personally have a 250W MH over a 20 gal tank so thats 12.5WPG if you want to use the WPG calculation. While your lighting the 10 with a quad 96W bulb is alot of light for low light corals its not alot of light for the higher light corals like SPS and alot of the LPS. If you want to keep the lower light corals you can place them in areas that get indirect light by aquascaping so you have areas of slight shade or you can have them under a higher light coral so the higher light coral somewhat shades the lower light corals.

 

[tecwzrd]

I am using an RO system so the water is clean.

RO water can still have po4 (which can contribute to algae) so I’d test it before adding to the tank to make sure. Every aquarist has to deal with algae breakouts every once in a while and it probably is partly due to your lighting schedule which might help if you reduce as Fluff mentioned. Also you might want to change out your bulbs if they are older then 6 months to see if that helps.

 

[swjunkie]

One thing I have learned so far in this hobby is... this is not a one size fits all hobby. everyone has their own opinions and what may work for some may not for others. It can get very confusing, I think that is one of the reasons this makes a great hobby you are constantly learning. take in everyones advise and make a plan that fits you. you will learn alot. I will say this though the people here are great they are sincere and just want to help us. I have seen several post where they have given advise and people just did not want to hear it and they did the complete opposite. needless to say they were back on the site asking for help.( with alot of I told you so) I listen to everyone and if everyone is saying no than there is a reason but if you have a difference in opinion then there is room for your own judgement. That is just me.

 

[jasno999]

Thanks everybody I do appreciate your input and I learn from all that you say.


Right now I have my lighting only running for about 8-9 hours a day. I think that is what I have it set for. I will double check.

I use RO water and I thought that was supposed to remove all po4??

tecwzrd - If you say the RO system does nto do that then how the heck can you every truly get rid of po4?

I am doign water changes and will continue to go a little above and beyond to make sure levels are good.

As of right now the bubble coral and the bushroom coral that I have are both placed at the bottom of the tank. When I have my flow right and my salinity right both corals are fully open or extended. So I guess right now all is good. I will watch for bleaching for for the coral closing up.

As for the light I am not goign to replace it so I have to deal with it. Biggest issue is the amount of alge I have. I am hoping the chaeto I added will help reduce the alge but so far nothing. I can try to reduce the light one time some but as is I don't have it on for that long a period each day- so I don't want to reduce it too much.

Guess it is trial and error. I will keep the skimmer going, change the filter cartrige, do my water changes and keep an eye on things. I wil ltest for the basic stuff but might have to look into a po4 kit- thought I am not sure what to do if I find out my po4 levels are high. Heck that is the reason I purchased the RO system.

 

[tecwzrd]

I use RO water and I thought that was supposed to remove all po4??
tecwzrd - If you say the RO system does not do that then how the heck can you every truly get rid of po4?

po4 comes mostly from tap/well water which goes through your ro membrane and usually right into your tank as well. ro typically removes very little if any po4 from the water. Only ro\di will remove it completely.

The food you feed also contains po4 sometimes and quite often even with a po4 test you will get a 0 result on the main tank because the algae is absorbing it all. That’s why I recommended testing the water out of your ro unit (and tap) as a potential for po4 source. Then drop a small amount of food in 1 gal of your water and let sit overnight and then test that water as well for po4 to see if your food contains any po4.

As far as removal of high levels of po4 doing pwc with po4 free water is the easiest way. I also have used PhosGuard to lower it.

 

[fishfreek]

I recommend changing PC bulbs out after 9 months. The color specitrum on them will really shift toward the red range and thats a strong algae growing side of the spectirum.

 

[jasno999]

Fishfreek - I have 50/50 lights and I am goign to keep them running until they die cause they are 45 bucks to change.

tecwzrd - I am not sure but I have a question. THe RO system that I purchased has a 3 canister setup with the TFC membrane at the top. One canister is 1 micron filtration, next is carbon, then it goes to the TFC membrane and then to a deionixation canister before exiting the system.

They still call it a RO water system and not an RO/DI system. So I am nto sure what it is? IT is a coralife product.

I was goign to get he phosphate kits but would like to save my cash if you think I am good with the RO system that I have.

 

[fishfreek]

I appricate your frugalness on the bulbs but I am telling you that your going to only increase your algae problems by continueing to run a PC bulb that is older than 9 months. As the bulbs age their specitrum output shifts from mostly blue output to mostly red spectirum output. now that does not mean the light looks red. It will most than likly look more yellow than blue but it wont look red. The algae in your tank will favor the red light specitrum that the older bulbs produce. In addition to the specitrum shift the lux output of the bulbs will drop with age. Our eyes are not as sensitive to this drop over time because its not a sudden drop its a gradual one that we really never pickup on until we change the bulb and light up the new bulb and you will be amazed at the output difference. The corals you have may be doing ok under the curret bulb with its age but as the bulb continues to age your corals will find they are not getting enough light and will suffer aswell.

If your serous about getting rid of this algae you must know if there is a phosphate issue in your tank and the only way of knowing this is to test for it. Now your lfs may do phosphate tests for you but its not very convient since you really need to test your tap water for phosphates, your clean RO water right as it exists the filter, your clean ro water thats sit in what ever storage vessle your using, your ro water after you have put some of the food you feed in it for a period of time.

This will help you narrow down where the phosphates if they exist are comming from. While its possible your ro water is clean of phosphates if your food introduces phosphates than any left over food in the tank will add phosphates to the water and they will build over time.

 

[dankent]

If you find its too much couldnt you just raise it ?

 

[cmor1701d]

Listen to fishfreek on the PC bulb replacement. I started changing them every 6-7 months due to otherwise unexplained algae outbreaks. Changed the bulbs, goodby algae.

 

[ellisz]

I went with 28/32 watt PC bulbs when I did the 10 gal setup. A lot cheaper than the 96 watt bulbs but you do have to have more of them

You can get a 2x32 watt ballast at HD for $8. I think you need to decide what you want to keep. Might be a cheaper light source for the corals you want if you don't want to buy replacement bulbs. I know when I replaced my 75 gal ligh setup it cost almost $200. These were not the expensive bulbs either

I agree on the RO/DI. When my DI resin was exhausted, I noticed an increase in alqae.

Good Luck.

 

[jasno999]

My RO system with DI canister is brand new so the resin is fine.

I am thinking about tryign to get my extra 1 bulb 10gallon balast and floursent lamp up and running on the 10 gallon tank. I can then have that run for 8 hours or so and then run the 96W for like 2-4 hours a day.

I am not sure how I would get it all set up and working but I will think abotu it.