MH lighting...hoe many hours a day?

[tim000]

I have a 15g high, w/ 175w MH. its been setup for 7 weeks or so now, I have 6 different corals in there and 2 small fish. right now I'm have one heck of a time w/ green alage (I use RO water, and have a bakpacII)

heres my question right now im running the MH for 14hrs a day could this contribute to the ton of green alage?

thanks!

 

[suckair]

yes and no..

the algae is there cuz it has nutrients needed. 10-12hr MH is the most popular lighting schedule. However I feel you are looking at a symptom not a cause.

Your water just has too many nutrients in it for the algae to grow. The light is the exciter not the cause. However if you removed or reduced the light the algae would not be as thich. If it is taking over your tank you may have no choice but to reduce the light cycle until you can get things under control.

You probably have a nutrient export problem "need a bigger skimmer or your current skimmer needs tuned" or you are over feeding for the size of tank.

PS if your tank is a new stup.. these things happen until the tank's biological process balances out.

 

[tim000]

yup my tank is fairly new and i feed a half a cube of reef one a day for a perc and damsel...is that to much?