[bigblue]

Tank been up and running for over a year now. Just upgraded lighting two weeks ago to MH and it doubled my wattage to 500. Now for last two weeks I have thin green film over all glass and my pretty white sand, too. Sand also seems to be clumping. What's up???

[bigblue]

An update. Just sifting through the sand to break up the clumps and there seems to be a release of a lot of bubbles. Is something brewing down there????

[emccullough1]

I'm just guessing here but the new light might have bulbs that are in the wrong kelvin ( light spectrum ) certain light wave lengths causes alga to grow better. As for the bubbles that is going to happen if you disturb the sand. In my opinion the sand should never be disturbed. Do you have a good mix of cleanup crew?

[bigblue]

The bulbs are 10,000K halides, the same I had with the former light. I don't have as mant cleaners as I'd like but more now then ever and never had a problem before.

[bigblue]

An update...seems this green slimy algae also produces bubbles. Found some on my overflow box in the water and on the glass. Is this just too much light or something you experts have seen before?

[NATIVEVAMAN]

There are two ways algea can have bubbles in it.In some cases small bubbles of oxygen will be produced by the algea and when it gets to a cetain size they will release.The other way is bubble algea which grows bubbles sometimes as large as a dime.If it is the first kind you can scrape the glass and let a cuc take care of the rest.Lowering nitrates by more efficient skimming and reducing the amount you feed the fish will help,along with a couple of healthy water change,s.you can test for nitrates to determine this course of action.The large bubble algea is a bit more of a problem in that if you pop the bubbles it will spread like wild fire.Follow the same course of action as above and suck the big bubbles out with a turkey baster.

[bigblue]

Thanks Native....is it too much light causing the problem? The lights have only been installed two weeks ago and trouble ever since. Try to solve one problem and create another! It is the thin green slime with small bubbles. Yes, they seem to arrive after about three or four days of green growth. My nitrates are actually just under 20. About the best they've been in a year. I can cut the food but I've been feeding the same for a year. Seems really to be the lights. Cleaning is a ***** but it does solve the glass problem. The sand issue is yet another. Just changed 15 gals this morning (110 gal tank) and 8 hrs later more green all over sand. FRUSTRATING! Lights ( whites) were on for 8 1/2 hrs and I cut them back yesterday to 8. Am I going to have cut them back even more?

[NATIVEVAMAN]

Algea gets food from two sources,light and nitrtes oh and phosphates too.Your nitrates are high enough to cause a very nice bloom add the new lights to the equation and and you get lots of green.With nitrates constantly in the 20's I am betting on over feeding.
Also there is a way to acclimate your tank to new lights and its a good one if you have corals.Use 4 layers of aluminum screen wire over the entire tank supported by wooden dowels and remove one layer a week.In your case I think its a bit late for that.So my plan would be to cut the time back to 6 hours on the lights and try feeding every other day for a while.The bubbles are hydrogen sulfide.There bark is far worse than there bite and they wont kill anything.I would leave the sand bed alone until the algea is gone,in other words dont plow it under the sand or you will never get rid of it.When the algea is gone just comb the top 1/4 inch if you really feel you must but no deeper than that.

[bigblue]

Well then, cutting back food and lights it is. Honestly I don't think I feed much at all, but I'll cut that back, too. Thanks Native!

[bigblue]

By the way...once this thing has passed, what kind of light cycle am I going to be able to sustain?

[NATIVEVAMAN]

Between 6 and 8 hours of metal halide is plenty,experiment.Watch your coral growth.

[DEWAYNE]

I have had alot of positive results in setting up a refugium tank, its not hard to do and is rather inexspensive, I actually turned my wet & dry into a refugium, the results were amazing, from fish color to coral growth and the type of algae that you want