New light cycle??

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jaydm93teg

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When i first put a "real" light on my tank do i have to do any type of cycle for the light or the tank or can i just pop it on set the timers and head to the LFS and pick up my first corals??
 
ok so ups just delivered my sunpod 150Watt MH, This thing is overwhelming haha. I have it set up and plugged in everything works fine but i dont even know where to begin with the 3 seperate switches or timers or anything.

I NEED HELP!!!!!

I have 1 switch for the Big MH in the middle

then i have 1 switch for the 6 blue LED's 3 on each side of the metal halide
then another swithc for the 6 white LED's 3 on each side of the metal halide just like the blues.

I dont have anything on timers right now and im not sure if im supposed to have all lights on or what any help guys???
 
start with the MH one for a couple of hours a day and slowly increase the time its on over the next week or two. also the blue leds and white leds are moon lights which you will want to come on at night.
 
ok should i leave it on for a couple hours at a time for the first week or so or should i do it like one hour on one hour off and so forth???

also do i ever want the LED's and the MH all on at the same time??


also at night do i want all 6 LED's on or just the white or just the blue???

sorry if the questions are dumb i just want to do this right
 
my 150 sunpod on my 24 nano was as follows:

MH on from 2pm -11pm
White LED 11pm -1am
Blue LED 1am - noon
White LED noon - 2pm

Worked for me all I can say...
 
you want to start of with your new brighter light(MH) on for say two hours a day. once your fish/corals get used to that then you'll want to bump it up to 3 hours, then 4 hours, etc. When I had leds i just used the blue ones at night, but that was purely b/c i liked the way they looked better. you don't need them on during the day as they don't add any value due to their lack of PAR.
 
so say starting today tuesday....

day 1 - day 4.........2 hours a day
day5 - day 6........3 hours a day
day 7 - day 8........4 hours a day


and so on and work my way up to 8 hours a day???

all of this doin my white led's and blue leds as stated by the person in this thread above me?

and when should i be able to go ahead and buy some corals??
 
I do not really think it matter doing a light cycle build up on a tank with no corals (or fish for that matter) in it. That is my honest opinion. You do a light build up to prevent coral light shock. With no corals there is no light shock. Just turn on the lights, set your cycle and go... You could argue that you might get algae but IMHO you will get algae anyways once you have enough light in the tank unless you correct the sourse of the algae. You can run your LEDs at the same time as your halide, there is no problem with that. It most likely will not do much, but you can do it. If it were me, I would do:

9am - 9pm Blue LEDs
10am - 10pm White LEDs
11am - 9pm Halides
 
but my tank has been set up and running for a couple months now and i have 4 fish in there that have been in there for at lest 2 or 3 months. I do not have any coral yet i just have fish and live rock and some snails and hermit crabs.

1 blue chromis
1 bar goby
1 angel
1 something goby......this one is blue orange and black and swims along the rock and sand bed

then i have 5 red foot snail and about 5 little snails and 10 hermit crabs


and i have a bad green hair algae problem right now im going to get my water tested right now
 
Well if you are going to have an algae problem, then you are going to have an algae problem... no way around that, you need to cure the source of your algae problem and that is not light. Your fish won't care that you added a new halide, they will be perfectly fine with it. Same for your inverts. They will just think it has been really cloudy the past few months. Corals are the only thing you need to worry about and since you do not have any, no need to worry.

I would wait to make sure your water perams are in line and your algae is uner control before adding any coral but if all that checks out, there is no reason you can not add coral.
 
Xyzpdq0121;121944 wrote: They will just think it has been really cloudy the past few months.
Click to expand...

Is that anything like my wife telling me Ive had my head up...I mean in the clouds?
 
Agreed with most... Light shock really only effects coral, I would also find out what's fueling the algae before I added any corals
 
well, I went to the LFS down here in Tyrone and Scott cut me an awsome deal on two clownfish and a bubble tip anemone that is white and neon green. so i bought it i know everyone said anemones are harder to keep up but he said with my light and my tank params were perfect i had it tested he said i shouldnt have any problem with the anemone so i couldnt pass up the deal he made me
 
Wish you would have passed it up... Nems are pretty sensitive to things that you can't even test for. Most people will tell you to wait about 6 months to a year before putting a nem in your tank. Also a nem should not be "white and green". usually the white is a bad sign of the algae that lives in the tissue has gone AWOL and the nem is not healthy. Rule number one, LFSs always have a "great deal" for you. You have to resist the temptation to buy anything on a whim or trust what someone tells you (including me). Always take the time to do your own research to make sure you know what you are getting into!
 
Yeah! What he said..just kidding

He's right though.. White nems are bleached lacking zoo algae.. With the algae you were talking about its likely that you have high phosphate and the algae is just sucking it up so it won't be present in testing.. As far as I know phos can be deadly to nems..
 
well when i said white its more like clear/see thourgh with neon green tips. Probably still not that great. Yeah i have a bad habit of that impulse buying but hey who hasnt in this hobby. Hopefully i can get it healthy and full of life but either way i learn my lesson. I will probably just stick to little frags from now on.

I am going to pick up some phos. buster tommorow and dose my tank with that hopefully taking care of this algae problem
 
Whoa! Slow down... Don't dose the tank if your not 100% sure that's what it is... If you are going to run phos media, try with a reactor... And lots of water changes with rodi
 
it was just something called phos buster and thats what the guy told me to use. Ok so i shouldnt dose the tank what should i do?
what is phos media and a reactor?
 
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