Ska's 28 Macro Algae Display

[hillegom]

I would think twice about xenia. I had it for a while, but found it too prolific.
I like blue or black for a back wall.

[skabooya]

Well, my bulbs finally came in and i just installed them. WOW what a difference. You never truly appreciate the change in spectrum until you re install new bulbs after a year.
I thought my lights were still putting out an okay spectrum... minus the cyano that has been slowly spreading through my tank. But now with my new bulbs. Holy Blue Batman! My old bulbs went white/pink on me by comparison.

Im hoping now that this will help with the cyano bacteria fight.

[skabooya]

tank is getting more stable now. I turned the uvs off again. Its been off for almost 2 weeks and everything is going well. I pulled a bunch of green grape and now i have a bunch of white buds (new growth) My dragons breath is suffering but im hoping that it will come back.
Im thinking of getting another light fixture. Either a single or a double fixture to put some 6500k bulbs for my macroalgae. Im looking into an LED fixture too for the plants. I wonder what will work.

[MKLKT]

I remember when I switched from the old Coralife bulbs that the previous owner of my light hood had to KZ coral 1, 2, fiji purple and blue+ and I could barely look at the tank it was so intense, haha.

[Edit] Oh, and I have Botryocladia macro if you're still looking for it, but not sure how to effectively frag it if you were interested in some. Mine is almost big enough to split up.

Originally Posted by skabooya

Well, my bulbs finally came in and i just installed them. WOW what a difference. You never truly appreciate the change in spectrum until you re install new bulbs after a year.
I thought my lights were still putting out an okay spectrum... minus the cyano that has been slowly spreading through my tank. But now with my new bulbs. Holy Blue Batman! My old bulbs went white/pink on me by comparison.

Im hoping now that this will help with the cyano bacteria fight.

[skabooya]

Picture update. Please be gentle. Much has died since the green water. However things are looking up now and I hope to have things nice and lush again in a couple of months
I finally figured out what caused my green water... ammonia spike from dead peppermint shrimp that i could never and still have not found.

[skabooya]

Well I guess when you do enough research you can find the solution to your problem. My problem is i really like gorgs but i couldnt keep them in my tank. A few months ago I found a post on another forum saying they need light that is able to handle sps to thrive. But how much is that? Some need more than others. A few days ago I stumbled upon a few threads as well as a macro algae site that explained gorg lighting care. They need a minimum of 3wpg and do best at 4-5wpg. So, that means I dont have enough light. Im at about 2.2wpg. Ive been tossing the idea around of getting another hagen glo fixture. So, I bought one yesterday. I just need to wait for it to come in. In the meantime im going to research bulb combos.
I know i need a 10,000k bulb and another in the range of 5000-7000K (sunlight), And another that is either actinic or with actinic properties. Then I will need 1 more bulb. I need to do more research to find out what bulb that is.
Once its all set up im going to try gorgs one more time. Not to mention the extra light is good for my macros.

OH PS.
I ripped out about a pound of green grape calpura. Im going to take more out once the dust settles. Quite a learning experience. I really should manually mix the sandbed more often. My corals seem to really like it. Im guessing extra nutrients are released?? In any case the day after it was done they were all happy happy.

[whatcaneyedo]

Photosynthetic gorgonians also like really strong surging back and forth flow and some amount of feeding (rotifers seems to work). With SPS you can use random turbulent flow or surging, it doesn't necessarily matter as much because they grow out in many directions anyways. Some gorgonians on the other hand can begin to look really weird in time if kept in random turbulent flow because they begin to do the same and loose their flat shape.

My Pterogorgia I've had for 2.5 years now and all of those things have worked alright for me (intense light, semi-surging flow, and occasional feeding). However the Gorgonia ventalina only lasted a year. I don't think it was a lighting issue with it. I think instead it didn't have enough flow and the food that I was offering was of too large a particle size. But until the ban on their collection is lifted again we wont find any available anyways...

[skabooya]

I had the gorgs eating reef roids and coral frenzy because thats what the owners i got them from ate. Im hoping the problem was just the lighting for me. We shall see.