No sea hare yet. I have been trying to control the algae by every other means possible but no luck. I will see if I can get myself a sea hare in the new year.

Let me know if their are any sea hares in the Vernon LFS, I will be up there in the first week of January.

Hey Grant, where's the lastest FTS before you get all these frags in there from Fragalot? It will be good to see a before and after shot.

To answer your earlier question, UV will indeed kill both the good and the bad. Don't run it (if you're going to run it at all) for the first 4 weeks or until your cycle is done. It really isn't needed.


And I'm assuming that you intend to run a heater anyways, even though your tank warms up during the day when the lights are on? What about at night, won't the tank cool overnight? Things should stay as close to 79 - 80 degrees both day and night, I would keep this in mind, or you might find the extreme temperature swings will just kill things... Also, marine tropical fish might not do well when the night temp drops.

Your little tank looks really sweet, I should look into an AIO. :lol:

Yes I do need to get a FTS before the frags arrive next week.

There is a 75W heater in the final chamber. Temps range from 78 to ~82 in the heat of the summer.

My change to a Phoenix DE HQI hallide looks like it has solved my algae problem. It is much bluer thatn the original light. The original light was to far into the yellow spectrum. Now that I think the algae is solved I will remove the UV light.

So you like the Phoenix bulb? I've been wondering what bulb to use on my tank... do you find it very blue in general, or just compared to the other bulb (which could well have been a lower quality 10K or even a 6.5K bulb)?

It is very blue. The original CadLights was a 14,500K as well. In addition I have 2 very blue Geisman actinics that really exagerate the blueness. But if it is helping me deal with the algae then I will put up with it for a few more months.

Now that I know you went to a Phoenix, i really want to see the FTS. You should take one with the Giesmanns off and one with them on.

Depending on which frags you ordered, you might like how they "POP" under the blue.

Now I am feeling peer pressure again! Actually I did take some photos of before and after Geismans. I will post those tonight. Yes the small number of frags I have at the moment definitely pop more with the Phoenix + Geismann.

It is kind of a relief to get the algae problem figured out. It is not completely solved but I think I am seeing some meaninful results after a 7 month battle.

Frags are arriving next week, so that will give me some additional time this weekend for more pruning etc.

Hahaha...no pressure at all. I find that I don't take enough pics and now I wish I had taken more so that I could measure my progress.