H380 too much for my tank?

[Reef of Fillory]

Ive been having problems with my chaeto under the h380 in my sump. Before the h380 I was running a taotronics grow light, and chaeto grew great (also running Triton core7). I changed out the taotronics (24/7) for the h380 (12 hours) and my chaeto is consistently falling apart.

The chaeto breaks apart and thins out (doesn't look to be Browning or whiting out) under the h380. I've dosed iron and manganese to the system and I feed very heavily (pellets/flakes twice a day and frozen once a day)

I have a 32g biocube with 20g sump. Two clownfish, coral beauty, lawnmower npenny and small green Mandarin. I have tons of pods in the display tank, but am worried that the dying chaeto will take it's toll with the Mandarin (he's around 1", very small BIOTA bred).

I'm also running an aquamaxx co1 skimmer. The chaeto falling apart is clogging up my skimmer pump, and probably interfering with my return pump as well.

Here are some pictures of the chaeto and the setup.

I'm not sure why it grows so we'll with the taotronics but starts to fade away under the h380.

With ATI test kits nitrates are under 5 (don't register) and phosphates are under .25 (lowest the test will display - I ordered a low phosphorous checker fr BRS but haven't received it yet)

Any ideas?

Since the chaeto doesn't seem to be burning (white), is it likely that it's too much light making it fall apart?

 

[Reef of Fillory]

The chaeto went from the first four pictures under the taotronics, to the last three pictures with the h380

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Got my Hannah checker and might have found my problem. My phosphate is .021 (phosphorous reading of 7).

Anyone have any suggestions for increasing my nutrient load? I feel like I probably shouldn't add anymore fish to my biocube (5 already). Would really prefer to avoid dosing nitrate and phosphate. I've been running Triton, haven't done a water change in over 4 months.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Put the TaoTronics back onto my tank running 24hrs/day and the chaeto has exploded with growth again. I'm not sure why my tank doesn't like the H380, but i'll be switching back to the TaoTronics [maybe two of them].

Just as an FYI - This is the difference after 4 days of having the TaoTronics back onto the chaeto. I switched them Wednesday night before leaving for Thanksgiving. Picture was taken Sunday afternoon of the same week.

 

[Whipples]

The h380 is a 90 watt light and is extremely powerful. With that small of a bioload and unless you had the light 15-18'" off the water it was cooking the chaeto without any nutrients to back up the lighting period, which it looks like you proved by switching back to the Taotronics. I use the H380 on my tank, and have it as high as the Kessil gooseneck will allow it to go (also doing Triton, with 6 fish in the tank), and the photo period begins about half an hour after lights out and goes off an hour before lights come back on. Any longer and I would have what you are dealing with. I encourage you to go back to the H380, but cut down the time it is operating in half and adjust from there.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

The h380 is a 90 watt light and is extremely powerful. With that small of a bioload and unless you had the light 15-18'" off the water it was cooking the chaeto without any nutrients to back up the lighting period, which it looks like you proved by switching back to the Taotronics. I use the H380 on my tank, and have it as high as the Kessil gooseneck will allow it to go (also doing Triton, with 6 fish in the tank), and the photo period begins about half an hour after lights out and goes off an hour before lights come back on. Any longer and I would have what you are dealing with. I encourage you to go back to the H380, but cut down the time it is operating in half and adjust from there.

Thanks for the response! I have it as high as the gooseneck will allow me to in my sump as well [which coincidentally also is as tall as the inside of my stand was built].

I'm toying with the idea of using two TaoTronics instead of the H380, or going back to the H380 with a shorter photoperiod like you said.

What's keeping me from going back to the H380 is my caution that it's just far too much, even with lower photoperiod. Lowering the photoperiod [was @ 12hrs - opposite of display tank] is the decreased ph bump.
I also am thinking that once the mat grows back in thick, the TaoTronics bulb might not have the power to penetrate the mat of chaeto. But on the other side, if I can get the H380 to grow a mat, it might just burn the top layers of the chaeto while leaving the middle/bottom healthy.

I've had to clean my skimmer pump from packed in chaeto twice while using the H380 because it's just chaeto everywhere =(

 

[Whipples]

Yes, it is definitely a beast of a light . I would be curious if the pH bump would be drastic/noticeable simply because the H380 would be helping the chaeto consume the same nutrients and CO2 but in a shorter period of time, so the end result is the same oxygen reaching the tank but in a shorter window. As long as you maintain a pH between 8.1-8.3 you are in the safe zone. My tank fluctuates between 8.14 and 8.21 in a 24 hour period and did not notice a significant change in pH when I cut my photoperiod in the refugium down, but did notice healthier chaeto. It is now so thick between Triton and that light that the bottom of the refugium gets hardly any light!

You can also consider dosing aminos and iron once the display lights go out to help the chaeto grow. Aminos are good for corals as well, but just be very careful to not throw the system out of whack or make too many changes too fast.

 

[iwishihadgills]

I’m looking to buy one of these too. Mine will be on a fowlr that will be heavily fed. Hopefully my chaeto doesn’t do the same thing.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Posted this in the pH poll thread earlier:

I took the H380 off and put on the TaoTronics for 24hrs lighting period when I left on Nov 22 around 3:00pm. I returned Early Nov 26 around 2:00am.


Most of this is due to the CO2 reduction of nobody being home because it dropped drastically when we got back home.

I've been fighting with myself regarding keeping the H380 and selling it. I have the TaoTronics on it now, and have the H380 listed in the classifieds. If it doesn't sell i'll likely try to tone it down to 6 hours/day with the H380 on the sump.

I'll also be buying a CO2 scrubber from BRS as well as some soda lime from shopmedvet [$2.30/lb vs $5.50/lb @ BRS]

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Yes, it is definitely a beast of a light . I would be curious if the pH bump would be drastic/noticeable simply because the H380 would be helping the chaeto consume the same nutrients and CO2 but in a shorter period of time, so the end result is the same oxygen reaching the tank but in a shorter window. As long as you maintain a pH between 8.1-8.3 you are in the safe zone. My tank fluctuates between 8.14 and 8.21 in a 24 hour period and did not notice a significant change in pH when I cut my photoperiod in the refugium down, but did notice healthier chaeto. It is now so thick between Triton and that light that the bottom of the refugium gets hardly any light!

You can also consider dosing aminos and iron once the display lights go out to help the chaeto grow. Aminos are good for corals as well, but just be very careful to not throw the system out of whack or make too many changes too fast.

I'm currently dosing [weekly] Two Little Fishies Iron and Manganese as well as the normal Triton elements.

I also drastically overfeed my tank every day

 

[iwishihadgills]

I have read a few posts on the lighting cycle for refugiums should be between 6-12 hours. I wonder if you will have ph problems when you turn it down to 6 hour periods. Why would you need a co2 scrubber if your co2 was low?

 

[iwishihadgills]

That light is pretty overkill for your bioload too.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

I have read a few posts on the lighting cycle for refugiums should be between 6-12 hours. I wonder if you will have ph problems when you turn it down to 6 hour periods. Why would you need a co2 scrubber if your co2 was low?

What I meant by that was that the CO2 was low when nobody was home [on vacation for Thanksgiving] so the pH increased, then we came home and added tons of CO2 to the house, dropping the pH.

I need a solution for higher pH while we're home, can't drill through apartment walls so my only option [since i'm running Triton and not kalk] is to run a CO2 scrubber

 

[Reef of Fillory]

That light is pretty overkill for your bioload too.

Yeah I just wanted to give myself the best equipment. I run the 36watt TaoTronics for 24hrs/day and the chaeto grows like a weed. That's when I got the H380, ran it for 12hours/day and my chaeto melted and ended up everywhere [skimmer, return pump, tank, powerheads etc]

Nitrates are 0 [or <5] and phosphates were .021 when I changed the light over. I'm going to check it again tonight when I get home from work and see if the TaoTronics was able to keep it just as low over the last few days.

 

[iwishihadgills]

Turn over rate for a homes air is a lot. I wanna say most homes internal air volume turns over two to three times an hour. I don’t think having people home will really affect the amount of co2 in your home.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Turn over rate for a homes air is a lot. I wanna say most homes internal air volume turns over two to three times an hour. I don’t think having people home will really affect the amount of co2 in your home.

Based on my controllers pH monitoring I don't believe that lol. I live in a 1100 sqft apartment with 2 dogs, my wife and I. Shortly after we left the pH jumped up to a high of 8.25 which I've never had on my tank. During a normal week [not gone for the holidays] I never see 7.9 pH on my tank. =(

 

[Sea MunnKey]

Why is H380 that expensive?

 

[iwishihadgills]

Or it’s because the chaeto died from too much light thus taking away the source that was keeping your ph in the 8s and dropping it into the 7s. Chaeto uptakes co2 as it grows which will cause your ph to rise. Without that there your ph drops. I’m by far not an expert but that seems to be the culprit to me.

 

[iwishihadgills]

Why is H380 that expensive?

It’s very powerful

 

[Reef of Fillory]

According to BRS testing, it's by and far the best refugium light. It apparently provides an ideal spectrum for plant/macroalgae growth, and provides a ton of it [something like 1500par]. It's also a 90watt light.