Lighting Help

[Anthony Malagisi]

So I have a 6 bulb t5 light fixture that is about 3.5 inches off the above the water maybe a bit more and the light schedule is 10am to 12pm a white and blue bulb then from 12pm to 6pm I have all 6 bulbs going so that's 2 blues and 4 whites then from 6pm to 8pm it goes back down to 2 bulbs the white and blue my question is, is my light to close to the water or is my lighting schedule wrong because I have a serious diatom bloom I vacuum my tank and within a day or so the glass is cover and so is the sand I can't figure out what's going on

 

[Bpb]

It depends on what light fixture you’re using. If it’s an ati fixture then yes it’s too close. If it’s one with flatter reflectors then it may be fine.

Diatoms are not a product of too much light though. They’re found in newer tanks with fresh glass and silicone or tanks with recently added newly mined rock or sand. They feed on high levels of silicates. An old mature tank which uses Rodi water (no silicates) will not have diatoms. Even if it is lit by the sun.

 

[Anthony Malagisi]

It depends on what light fixture you’re using. If it’s an ati fixture then yes it’s too close. If it’s one with flatter reflectors then it may be fine.

Diatoms are not a product of too much light though. They’re found in newer tanks with fresh glass and silicone or tanks with recently added newly mined rock or sand. They feed on high levels of silicates. An old mature tank which uses Rodi water (no silicates) will not have diatoms. Even if it is lit by the sun.

This is the light fixture

https://www.marinedepot.com/48_inch...urrent_USA-CU01083-FILTFIT58U-CU01081-vi.html

I just don't have those legs I lost them but that's about the height I'm at with my light and also the tank is pretty new maybe 2 or 3 months old with new freshly seeded rock and sand the tank was setup up di water not rodi water I was told di water is fine and that rodi has to much waste water I do have a rodi unit just don't use the ro part of it, should I start?

 

[Bpb]

Yes you should start. DI doesn’t remove everything from the water. It actually only removes a fairly small percentage of ionic compounds and its horribly inefficient. I’d be amazed if a DI cartridge isn’t fully exhausted after a day or two by processing what amounts to basically dechlorinated tap water. I’d use plain RO water before plain DI water. The RO stage is What removes 98-99% of what is in tap water. The DI resin should only be relied on to take care of that last 1-2% of dissolved ions.

 

[Anthony Malagisi]

Yes you should start. DI doesn’t remove everything from the water. It actually only removes a fairly small percentage of ionic compounds and its horribly inefficient. I’d be amazed if a DI cartridge isn’t fully exhausted after a day or two by processing what amounts to basically dechlorinated tap water. I’d use plain RO water before plain DI water. The RO stage is What removes 98-99% of what is in tap water. The DI resin should only be relied on to take care of that last 1-2% of dissolved ions.

Oh wow good to no ill definitely start using it and what about the height of the light should I raise it or run less bulbs

 

[skiergd011013]

Oh wow good to no ill definitely start using it and what about the height of the light should I raise it or run less bulbs

I, too have a t5 fixture that mounts right onto the tank like yours. I dont know how you would raise it other than making some kind of hanging system for it. Its probably fine, but if i were you i would cut back the amount of time the lights are on. after a lot of research on the forums, I run mine 7.5 hours total. I would also throw some blue or actinic bulbs into that mix. 6 white bulbs is a lot of white.

 

[Anthony Malagisi]

I, too have a t5 fixture that mounts right onto the tank like yours. I dont know how you would raise it other than making some kind of hanging system for it. Its probably fine, but if i were you i would cut back the amount of time the lights are on. after a lot of research on the forums, I run mine 7.5 hours total. I would also throw some blue or actinic bulbs into that mix. 6 white bulbs is a lot of white.

Yeah I'll probably cut back some,, I have 2 blue bulbs now I'm thinking about adding a 3rd so I'll have 3 blue and 3 white

 

[Bpb]

6 bulbs of white will Work fine. You can use all 6 bulbs as 6500k if you feel so inclined. It’s just not conventional currently. That fixture doesn’t have tight reflectors so you’re fine keeping it that low to the water. I run my fixture 9 hours total

 

[Anthony Malagisi]

I just want to slow down or eliminate this brown alage bloom it's crazy

 

[Bpb]

New saltwater tanks just tend to have a lot of algae. Just the way it is. Do a very large water change, or several, over the course of a weeek with RODI water verified to have zero tds and that will help some but even a young tank (less than 1 year old) with perfect water, light, flow, and nutrients is still going to deal with algae blooms. It’s just part of the process of bacterial and microscopic invert colonies getting established and stabilized. It’s important to let hypoxic zones develop and sponge life begin growing. That will greatly reduce algae growth but that takes many months and discipline not to rearrange rocks

 

[skiergd011013]

I dont know if you have this problem, but i sure did. With my tank mounted t5 fixture, it strained/hurt my eyes to look at the tank, due to so much light spilling over the tank. I dont have a canopy on my tank. What i did was cut a piece of vinyl black window screen the length of my light, and attach it to the front of the light, hanging down to the rim of the tank. It made a huge difference. I can now look at my tank without feeling like im going blind. its not in the way either, it just flips up easy if i need access. Mr.saltwater tank actually mentioned on one of his videos how much he hates trying to look at peoples tanks and getting blinded this way. Just a suggestion for those that may have this issue.

 

[Bpb]

A canopy for me is a must. Light spill is offensive and inconvenient. Makes the entire room look blindingly Blue and the glare is annoying.

 

[Anthony Malagisi]

Yeah I definitely need a canopy of some kind the light spill over is crazy