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Originally posted by Doggydog911
question about lights. How much lighting should I put in a 55g tank if I want to keep sps (don't worry i think ill add those in when I have more experience) coral and lps and of course soft !
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i would say metal halide. some of these T-5ers may direct you otherwise
youd want to go with 175w, IMO. they will provide good light. if you go with 14k or 20k (the bluer spectrum) you may not need to add any supplementation.
if you wanted actinic, anything would suffice. VHO would be my choice, but thats what i have, and i can only compare it to NO and PC.
on that note i can only compare what i have used, and thats everything except T-5. i plan to go with a halide/VHO combo on my next tank too. i really like the "shimmer" effect of the halide, and wouldnt trade that for any other lighting. florescent just cant provide the same effect, and i think its very natural looking. also, IMO, VHO provides a more natural looking actinic than PC.
Quote:
Originally posted by jnick
how did you get the po4 out? I've never tested much less manage it - just a matter of time I guess
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the gulf is pretty notoriuos for high Phosphates. ever since a couple weeks after i got my second shipment i noticed an abundant increase in algal growth. of course i had abundant nutrients in the water, and had experienced a bit of a new cycle. well a few months went by with my nitrate in respectable levels, but the algae kept spreading. it was spreading even right in the path of the powerheads, heck right on the powerheads. it wasnt really that bad, but definetly "bloom" status, IMO. it was the most algae ive ever had in a tank! (not percentage wise, but total
) it was only on the glass though.
i had been worried about PO4, but i wanted it to leave on its own accord. i started doing 4 or 8 gallon water changes every other day. after a couple weeks, i began to think i was fighting a losong battle. i bought a
2 pack of PO4 filter pads last thursday. i ran the first pad thursday night, the second pad friday and saturday night. i removed them to monitor the algae sunday. there has been no progression, where last week i could scrape it, and it would cover within 2 days. last night i even scraped the green calcareous algae off of the back glass, along with all the easily reachable brown hair i had
after scraping i did another 8 gallon change, and will resort to my weekly 8 gallon changes, if all goes well this week. nothing on the back glass today, all corals seem fine