Firstly let me give you some history. Before I settle a long running issue I�ve had.
Picture the scene. You have a well established and very successful tank that�s been running on tube lighting for some time, even to the degree you can grow and maintain clams and a few hardier SPS. But time marches on and you decide its time to move to Halides so off you trot and get yourself some spanking new 250w 10000k units and plonk then on top, allowing for increased exposure, and gradual acclimatisation. Everything seems fine so during this time you also do a few more changes, i.e. addition of deeper sand layer, automated Kalk addition etc etc. Then bang, about two months down the line you start noticing that things aren�t doing as well as you�d expect, and within a few more weeks your starting to see signs of stress, i.e. bleaching tips and tissue recession in corals, mushrooms shrivelling, clams not doing so well. Tied to this is the general lack of life on the live rock and an increase in cyano outbreaks due to the gradual die off of smaller organisms. Within a month you�ve lost or given away/saved just about every coral, clam, in the system and are looking at a nearly sterile tank just housing some fish and rock. Reasons. Well in this case you could easily attribute the gradual decline and increasing difficulty in maintaining water conditions with old tank syndrome or possible breakdown of the sand bed especially considering the final milky session that sees you strip down the entire system��.Now skip a few months on and your looking at your newly fan dangled set-up, including deep sand beds, closed loops, massive circulation, skimming, etc etc, you think you�ve covered all the bases. So you introduce some new stock, and what survived your old tank crash (not forgetting to thank the baby sitters) and hey presto, your rocking and rolling.
The corals you have introduced start colouring up nicely to the degree you **** off the person that gave you them as his lights are more than twice as powerful than yours��yippee��success�����..
Now it starts again, very insidiously at first, i.e. the SPS slowly grind to a halt, and the tips start going pale, then die back�..Mmmmmmm, then you notice that its been 4 or so months and your coralline algae is still taking its time to take off, but it is getting there�.sloooooowly. the odd thing is that your LPS corals are still fine, your fish, and any fluorescent green corals you have�but they are all still growing a bit slowly��Maybe its time to look at the bulbs and the chemistry, results, chemistry is fine apart from a low alkalinity, ah, ok I need to stat dosing a bit more to keep up with it all�..so, addition of Ca reactor, and Kalkstirrer��then things get worse, and before you know it you�ve lost all the tips on your SPS, Ok so I�m doing something wrong�maybe dosing too much Kalk, maybe pH shock over night, causing just a little too much stress��.Ok so maybe they lied about 250w BLV bulbs not needing lenses, so you pop out and get some 6mm thick toughened glass and pop some lenses up��ah, things seem marginally better, but still not quite right. Your LPS are fine, your clams are colouring up wonderfully, and even your coralline has taken off to a better degree at last. Maybe I need some new bulbs, as these ones might be faulty. So a quick call to BLV UK tech department and you arrange the return of your allegedly faulty bulbs�No faults found�new ones arrive and your away�..you cut back all of the lost tips on your Acro�s and they start healing over�..your on a winner.
Two months on����
Tanks looking marginally better but you still cant get the acro�s to grow without the tips going after a week or so. Note none of the symptoms are sudden, just a gradual decline after an initial growth spurt, with the main trunks staying healthy��yet more pruning. several other reefers are bemused as to the causes as well......some saying chemistry, some saying ciculation, some saying preditors (small startfish), others saying its lighting.
Well to cut a long story short I finally got so pissed off I rang a few light manufacturers, and suppliers to get to the bottom of it including another call to BLV and only one person spotted the mistake after Id quoted all the combined part numbers down the phone��.
You cant use high pressure mercury ballasts with BLV bulbs but you can with other makes��..result ��..same light spectrum�� but increased par output and increased UV output to the degree it will cut strait through 6mm glass. BLV�s will only run properly on dedicated sodium or MH ballasts.
Well after a quick call to the massively helpful Rob at www.fastlight.co.uk where I got my original Lowbay units, I have three new SO/HQI ballasts on the way.
Now the reason I�m posting this�������
Its taken a year of me blaming my own methodology, hunting for foreign objects/contamination in sand beds i.e. stray screws etc, insane bouts of water testing, differing methods of kalk addition, playing with lenses, plumbing, circulation methods and the like. To finally find the cause was hidden in the recesses of three MH units housing just the wrong type of ballast unit, which was only found by me quoting the part numbers of the components down the phone.
The symptoms are insidious to say the least as they are so subtle in appearance at first, the long term issues are that they can be the downfall and final collapse of what may already be a wonderful system, or hold back what should after one year be a thriving coralline encrusted new reef set-up. Remember my first tank and the gradual die off of the micro fauna as well leading to eventual system collapse.
So for all you DIY lighters out there, and users of older Lowbay units��.If your having probs, then check your ballast is a SO/HQI unit and not a Mercury unit��visibly to the eye there is no difference in the spectrum although the bulbs do seem bright. The bulbs start up the same and may well last just as long as those used with the correct ballasts, but the hidden dangers are there and the effects slow and painful for the animals under them.
I hope this may help some keepers who have struggled keeping SPS etc for an unknown reason��.
Regards
Si.
PS��Please note that I do �NOT� hold Fastlight responsible for this in any way, as the units I bought were never specifically designed for aquarium use at that time (i.e. before Fastlight opened its subsidiary www.marine-lighting.co.uk (same site/company) I have spoken to Rob extensively over the last few days and he assures me that this subject was studied by them prior to undertaking marine lighting, hence �All� subsequent marine dedicated Lowbay units house proper SO/HQI ballasts so present purchasers are in no danger. Those of you that have purchased Lowbay units from alternative sources should check your units for compatibility when using them in combination with BLV bulbs.
