Halide Compact

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February 29th, 2008 admin Leave a comment Go to comments

Halide Compact
will my tank go throughanother cycle?

i recently upgraded my lighting in hopes to add coral once i can get my Water parameters in order. I've had the tank for about 6 months and just added 2 10000°K HQI double-ended metal halide and 2 actinic blue compact Fluorescent lights totaling 492 watts. before i just had two standard florecent lights. Will the tank have to cycle again?

The only reason your tank would go through another cycle would be if you didn't have fish or other organisms in the tank and didn't provide a source of ammonia for the existing bacteria following the end of the first cycle. Without an ammonia source, any bacteria would have died.

If you did a fishless cycle, you should add new organisms slowly so that the bacterial population can adjust to the new bioload. As Magicman said, there will probably be a spike in ammonia with each new organisms you add. If you cycled with fish, or currently have some fish in the tank, you may see a smaller spike, because you'll have had a continuous ammonia source from the fish.

Craig also gave good advice on allowing new corals to adjust to your lighting. Depending on where you purchase your corals, they may not have had as intense of lighting previously, and may actually shrink from too intense of light. With the metal halides, also be conscious of the heat they produce, so they don't overheat the tank. Photosynthetic organisms will start to expel their zooxanthellae when the temperature is above 84o for a prolonged period.