H380 too much for my tank?

[Reef of Fillory]

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.

with the chaeto growing [before and during the H380 time] I never hit 7.9 pH in my tank. It's possible that the pH got a bump due to the chaeto re-growing under the TaoTronics, however as soon as I got home [within 2 hours] the pH plummeted again. I only got above 7.9 pH when there was nobody in my house [lower CO2, higher pH]

 

[iwishihadgills]

I actually said that backwards lol I feel like it still has to do with the chaeto dying though.

 

[Sea MunnKey]

It’s very powerful

Yeah do realize it's one heck of strong LED but do you use this specific H380 for your display tank at all? Or strictly for chaeto super growth?

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Yeah do realize it's one heck of strong LED but do you use this specific H380 for your display tank at all? Or strictly for chaeto super growth?

The H380 is specifically for growing plants/macro [specifically Chaeto]

It's not intended for display tank [unless you're doing a display refugium I suppose]

The A350 or something similar is Kessil's puck style display light

 

[Sea MunnKey]

The H380 is specifically for growing plants/macro [specifically Chaeto]

It's not intended for display tank [unless you're doing a display refugium I suppose]

The A350 or something similar is Kessil's puck style display light

Reef of Fillory ... thanks for the quick reply. As you can obviously tell I'm no LED guy ...

And it's priced more or less than Cdn$400 ... for a single LED bulb ... ooouuch!!!

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Reef of Fillory ... thanks for the quick reply. As you can obviously tell I'm no LED guy ...

And it's priced more or less than Cdn$400 ... for a single LED bulb ... ooouuch!!!

Yeah it's pricy, the popularity has increased quite a bit due to BRS's refugium lighting tests as well as the increasing popularity of the Triton and ATI methods which require a large/strong refugium for primary nutrient reduction. These are the same reasons that I bought the light for my tank!

 

[Whipples]

It's not cheap but it is VERY effective for Triton method. @Reef of Fillory you can also run an airstone in the sump to boost pH, but best bet is to try to leave a window cracked. Seeing as it says you are in Grand Rapids, that is likely not an option for this part of the year

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Haha I might be up for some cool air, but the wife would kill me if she had to put up with a 35 degree apartment and a $500/mo gas bill for the furnace ;Blackeye

 

[Sea MunnKey]

That $400 would land me a very, very nice acro colony in Toronto ... guaranteed!!

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Just bit the bullet on 5 gallons [~36lbs] of CO2 scrubber media from the interwebs. Hopefully a higher pH, shorter photoperiod and CO2 scrubber can get my chaeto and tank growing a little better.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

I bought a Salifert Nitrate test kit today and tested - I get 0 on it. I had ATI before but the lowest resolution for that test was 5ppm. I'm going to start dosing Nitrates and hopefully my chaeto will start growing again. Unfortunately I may have blamed the H380 prematurely, and sold it! Luckily the TaoTronics light did well for keeping my nutrients down before the Nitrate bottomed out. I've tried overfeeding [massively] and adding extra fish to my display with no positive results to Nitrate.

I'm going to start with 1-2ppm dosing and see where that takes me.