Ok so whats the deal with my LR....

[fishman]

Long story short...I switched from a 125 gallon to a 100 3 months ago. All of my 85 lbs of LR had great coraline growth after going from 80 watts of regular FO to 660 watts of VHO. Once I switched tanks, all of my rock starting losing its color. Now I have 175 lbs of LR/base rock. Also I added another 220 watts of light and still nothing to speak of with regards to coraline. My leves are good....PH 8-8.2, 0 trates,trites, ammonia, AK 2.5-3, CA 380...in the prev tank I NEVER dosed with anything. Now Im adding CA and buffer.
Whats weird is the underside of all of my rocks that are not exposed to the lighting directly is still pink/purple. When I turn them then they lose their color.
Lastly I did notice my RO filters were badly in need of changing. I changed them and did one water change and have noticed some red spots on the back wall of the tank...could this be it? Why would the undersides of the rock not be effected though?
Thanks

[XXFirefighter]

sounds to me like the light burned off yoru growth...
shorten your light cycles add some calicum and do you water changes...

Good luck

[indy]

So you're running around 1000w of lighting in a 100g tank? Sounds like a bit much.

[fishman]

No Im running 2 icecap ballasts and a total of 6 bulbs..so 660 watts of light total...they are 5 ft bulbs....the tanks is long. If there is a possibility of to much light, then why would running the same amt of light (660) on a 120 vs a 100?? I just recently added the other 220 watts of light the other day.
Also how do people run metal halides on smaller tanks??

[ReefRaff]

I run lower wattage NO bulbs that are 40 watts a peice X3/ 2 -03's and one 10,000 k. I have tons of coraline. It has been brought to my attention and thru experiance that coraline grows best in lower light levels.

[fishman]

I just have been told so many different things reg light. Some say higher watts, some lower, etc. SO, if I run lower, then how am I to keep corals? Please dont tell me that now Im going to have to start tearing out light and revamping? I really hope its not the lights that are doing this...

[sumphead]

I highly doubt your lights are to blame other than there are different types of coralines that prefer different intensities of light. There is no way you have too much light. However the intensity of the light is different. I am also sure that switching takes has caused some change i.e. re-cycle, sudden cahnges in parameters even if temporary. I am sure it will all work itself out.

R-

[klam]

Sumphead got some good points.
I got a mini bow with 24W 10,000k bulb and the major color of the coraline growing is green colored. it's not nuisance algae because it's growing on the walls and resembles coraline algae.

I've heard that scarping the coraline off your walls will help it spread more.

[dralarms]

I've heard that scarping the coraline off your walls will help it spread more.

_________________

This is true, turn off your hob & powerheads, Scrape what coraline you want to , wait 5 or 10 min before starting up you equipment again (give it time to settle). I have 1 rock that was a hirocks.com boulder and now it's so covered with coraline I have to remind myself where it came from.

[XXFirefighter]

what kind of corals do you want to keep?
anything 2-4 watts is fine for leathers and zoos... PC or whatever light
Need @ least 5-6 watts per gallon and halide for stoneys...

[fishman]

Well I want to keep shrooms, polyps, zoos, an anenome, frogspawn, softies, etc...I just dont want to have to tear the lights out of the canopy. ALSO as I stated before my coraline was fading AFTER i swiched from the 125 to the 100.. Before on the 125 I was running the same light setup (440 watts). In the 125 it was a showcase tank so the lights were off of the water about 1-2 ft. On the new tank, the lights are less than 6 inches off of the water and the bulbs were brand new. Like I said there are spots of red growing on the back wall..I have tried dosing with buffer, CA, etc to get it to grow. Just frustrating to go from a ton of growth to losing all of it. Plus like I said I dont see why to much light would be an issue. Right now I have 6.6 watts of light on a 100 gallon and if I were to go back to the prev light setup (440 instead of 660) thats only 4 watts per gallon....as you suggested. Im a a loss

[captivereefs]

If the RO membrane was old and the phosphates were high in the tank that can cause corralline to die back. Also the coralline originally grew under 80 watts of NO lighting than was put under VHO, that in itself would be enough to cause i die back in my opinion. Coralline grows way better in dimmer lights than under brighter lights like VHO or halides. I would say just keep the CA and ALK in check and you should be fine in a few months when the new corraline that is used to higher light starts to grow. And keep thee MG levels high as well!

[fishman]

Thanks Darrin. I still think Im not making this clear. I went from 80 watts to 440 and the coraline blew up! It was growing like crazy in the previous tank. Then when I moved all of the rock and such over to the 100 gallon, this is what the die off occured. So the coraline was growing like crazy already under the 440 watts. BUT now in the new tank, the lights (440 watts still until last week) are closer to the water now and thus closer to the rock. I do think some of this has to do with the RO filters. I had not changed them in 12+ months.
Also on the new base rock that is white, I see (after 2-3 months now) there are dark spots all over the rock...they dont really have any particular color though....I assume this is a form of coraline maybe? Its not algea as its on the rock itself. I will try and post some pics.

[swissfish]

how deep was your old tank? how deep is your new tank?
If the 125G was deep and the 100G is shallow then the light intensity changes at the bottom of the tank.

[fishman]

Has anyone used this in their aquariums? I was told by a couple of LFS people they used it in their tanks and saw the coraline growth explode within 2-3weeks. I just started using it. Im hoping this will facilitate coraline.

[klam]

[fishman]

Sorry....I forgot to post the product!!!
What I meant to ask has anyone used Reactor Liquid by kent?