Usa Dual Satellite PC users?

[babyblues71]

Just curious if anyone out there has the Dual Satellite PC lights (Dual Actinic and Dual Daylight bulbs) and have experienced a wavelength shift with the bulbs included within the first two months of using them. (I'm using the smallest Dual PC unit they make, which is why I thought it'd be a good idea to ask those on the Nano board) I'm getting a heck of a Cyano problem, and no changes have been made within the last year "except for" the lights, which are two months old, and even then the problem didn't start till' recently. It's a coral only tank, so no fish deaths or anything else of the sort have occured to increase the organics, and I use the same RO/DI water, which tests out at the same 0-1 TDS. This cyano problem just recently started occuring, and all parameters are at normal levels. Since I don't have anything overly expensive such as a quantum meter in order to test the wavelengths, I was curious if anyone else who has these lights have experienced the same sort of problem within the first couple of months. I run the dual actinics 12 hours, and the dual daylights 8 hours.

Brent

[pimp2daizzo]

Well i know ppl that have them and all they say are they are rly rly nice lights...the cyano can be coming from old lights or the water u are using...how old are the lights????

[babyblues71]

Only 2 1/2 months old. I'm really thinking it's the 6,700 part of the 10,000K dual that's causing it, and I have this feeling that part of the light has shifted early. I do understand that one has to have excess organics, phosphates, or "something" for Cyano to feed on in order for cyano to even occur, but if I remember correctly years back when I used a 6,700K I seemed to have more of a problem with things acting up when compared to using 10K's and actinics only. So I don't know what I should do. Possibly just exchange the bulb for another one and hope the second one's 6,700 portion doesn't shift so quickly "or" change out both of the bulbs for two of the 10K/Actinic combos that the single USA Satellite's come with. However, if I did that I'd lose a lot of par since I'd be without the much brighter 6,700. Since all of my readings are registering at 0, I'm really thinking the Cyano is feeding off of organic byproducts from my corals even though I already have tons of macros to help soak things like that up. I think the overall bio load "and" the shifting light must be too much for this system to handle. After my experiences, first years ago and now just recently, I'm starting to believe that Cyano is much easier to obtain when one has a 6,700 in their system.

[gussy]

It can't be your bulb. I have the 20" Duals and pretty happy with them.

[babyblues71]

Okay, since my last post I have decided to try a test, and lo and behold it'a actually working with no detrimental effects thus far. If I notice any problems with my Zoos (It's a Zoo only tank) I'll immediately stop the test and revert back to my original lighting schedule, but so far it seems to be panning out. I decided to do something a little "out there" by leaving my 420/460NM actinic side on 24 hours for the last 4 days, and have the dual daylights run 12 hours a day. So, no matter what the actinics are always on. I figured that, since the actinic spectrum is on the other end of the light field when compared to the red wavelength, which red cyano loves, I wanted to see if this cyano would adapt like a lot of web pages said it might, or if it would die because it was so far out of its normal wavelength range. Well, here's what I've noticed. At first, the Cyano seemed to be what I called in "sleeper" mode when the actinics ONLY were on during the 12 hours that the daylights were off, and it turned to a clearish white color. When the daylights went on and both them and the actinics were on, I started seeing bubbles on the cyano, but it was different than normal. Not like mat bubbles, but just bubbles. As time went on the bubbles decreased, so did the red mat, and now it's just about all gone. As for my Zoanthids, so far none are retracting, shrinking, turning white, or anything of the sort by having the actinics be on the extra 12 hours. In fact, my bright pink ones, which took 6 months just to grow one extra polyp, are fully expanded "and" some of the skin is starting to spread and I think I see another polyp forming---already within less than 1 week!!! So, at least in the setup for my tank, leaving the actinics on 24/7 seems to be a cyano killer "and" to top it off I'm seeing added benefits in my Zoos "and" even see some purple coralline spots forming that weren't on the rocks before. I'm sure this wouldn't work for everyone's tank, but so far in my all-zoanthid tank the results are looking good.

Brent