lighting question

[AquaMom]

I have a Red Sea Max 250 65 gal. aquarium with fish & corals. I needed to replace the lights that I had & a guy at a shop said I should change what the tank originally came with for maximum coral growth & color.
He suggested: 2 Coral Plus, 2 Blue Plus, 1 Purple Plus & 1 Actinic. All are T5 Fluorescent 39 Watt bulbs. The brand is ATI

Does this sound right? Thanks for your help! :D

 

[Marinne13]

ATI bulbs are awesome...I am running 2 actinic, 2 coral plus, 1 purple and 1 aquablue special

 

[BL1]

I would call the guys at ReefGeeks and tell them what you have in your tank and the color look that you want and they'll be able to reccomend the combination of bulbs to get you that exact look.

 

[AquaMom]

I have actually been running them for a while & was wondering if I should keep with them or go back to the previous or different all together. Shortly after putting them in I have been having more algea issues than ever. Could it be the new bulbs? It seems to be the only thing I have changed? I feed only every other day, parameters are fine, running chemi-pure elite & since the outbreak a month ago I only run the lights for about 4 hours a day. I just tonight decided to do a blackout for a few days. Any thoughts?

 

[Marinne13]

I run mine for 10 hours a day with no algae...how often are you doing water changes, what are your parameters and how old is the tank

 

[BL1]

New bulb will be more intense especially since you probably went from the stock bulbs that came with the tank to aftermarket bulbs. Your tank will just need time to adjust. If you're doing a blackout, I'd do 2 20% water changes. One 1/2 through and then another right before you turn your lights back on.

 

[AquaMom]

The tank has been up & running fine for a year & 4 months. I try to do water changes every 2 weeks. Thanks BL1, I will be doing the water changes as suggested. For a true black out, I covered it in trash bags last night... I miss it already.
Any idea what kind of algae it might be. The algae is only on the sand not on the rocks coral etc. When you disturb it the sand it looks almost fluffy. The color is any where from black to brown to dark green. Sometimes there are bubbles suspended by little algae strings like balloons. Sometimes it looks like it is creeping onto the glass but it never seems to spread upward.
Thanks again for all your thoughts! :)