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temp 80
salinity 1.24
ammonia, nitrites, nitrates 0
ph 8.2
calcium 480
alk 179 or 10 dkh

I can't get a really good pic right now since I just stirred it all up in there (not the sand bed mind you) but I got looking at it closely and realized that it seemed to have started and spread quickly over more of the lower flow areas of the tank. I took the closest powerhead and used it to "blow" all the old materials off of the rock that was now dead as well as anything else that was trapped on the surface of the rock (the blue clove polyps grow thick and could definitely have trapped alot of matter under them) then I readjusted the flow a little bit in the tank to try and make it a little more turbid. I also did a little pruning while I already had my hand in the tank removing my old dead acro and pulling out a little hair algae and discovered that that darned caulerpa has returned so I get to have this battle once again. As we all know too much can be a bad thing so thats where I will stop for now and allow things to settle down, I don't want to stress out any possibly dying corals any more than I have to.

any picture would help and water parms

Wow! Great customer service!

Tank looks good too.

thx hat still a little too purple for me so the blue specials should be here Monday and I can get a better mix of colors but it is a HUGE difference in person, the pictures do them no justice.

@chuck please do I was blown away with the service, there was a little snafu but everyone makes mistakes and they were more than willing to make up for it, even after I told them "I had installed them before I noticed the mix up" George said "It doesn't matter, we screwed up let me try to make it right"

Being that A. my other combination wasn't giving my corals full light
B. I did a massive light fixture cleaning while changing them out
and C. I was running my lights a little long anyway
I have as of this morning cut the Lighting time down to 8 hours total including an hour dawn and an hour dusk which depending on how my corals react to the new combination will gradually get cranked back up to 9-10 hours daily including dusk/dawn

one question though are there and adverse affects to running so many purple plus? considering most people may run one depending on their set up. stress on corals? increased algae growth? wrong spectrum? I will only be running this many till the next order comes in so it shouldn't do any irreversible damage in that time but just curious.

The color change in ya tank looks great Cyano. Big difference!

glad to hear it all worked out good for you I will keep them in mind for my future needs

Well I just got off the phone with George from ReefGeek.com and they offered to send me new ones if I returned the incorrect ones. Unfortunately my old lights that I removed are far from good so I told George that I have no problem just ordering three more Blue Plus and keeping the Purple Plus since I would be ordering them eventually anyway. He apologized for the inconvenience on numerous occasions and was nothing but polite. I placed my order for 3 more Blue Plus from ATI and they are paying the shipping cost, subtracting 5% off of the bulbs in the cost, and is sending me a T-Shirt. So all in all I will definitely be using REEFGEEK.com again for my lighting needs and would recommend them to anyone. The customer service alone is beyond anything I have experienced with any other company!

Kewl. Take some before and after pics if possible.

well it is done, I just made my order, though instead of 4 blue plus I ordered 3 blue plus and a special blue to tone down the blue a little bit

it wasn't too cheap cost enough lol but anyway yeah the combination I had posted in the last post was the combination given in the link for a nova fixture with 6 bulbs, but I agree with you I felt it would be too blue myself, but right now it has no blue tint to it it's just bright, lol

That, supposedly, is a good 'cheap' fixture and should serve you very well with new lamps.

I assume you mean blue + by the blue.

IMO, color preference is very subjective. To me, I think it would be too blue, and I'd replace one of the blue + with an aquablue. But again, that's my own preference.

Poke around that other link I posted and you'll see many combos. It might take lots of time though.

48" Current USA 6x54w Nova Extreme Pro T5HO 3-10k is what I am currently using, when I said i was using 3x 6,500 I meant I am using 3x daylight bulbs at 6,500 (I believe) and 3x actinics but I am going to have to change what I said I just realized I am using 3x 10,000 k daylights and 3x actinic so I know I need to change my combination and right now I am looking at

1. Blue
2. ATI Purple Plus or Fiji Purple
3. Blue
4. GE 6500K
5. Blue
6. Blue

if you don't think that would be too blue, I would like a hint of blue over the yellowish hue I currently have but I don't want it to look like I am running actinics all day, I would also like to know for sure that I would be able to keep some sps with this combination (towards the top of the tank of course) I would love to be able to add a birdsnest or millapora and know that I have it's lighting needs under control

I've never used them, but my previous supplier closed up. I've heard nothing but good about them and I will order from them when I need replacements.
I would say your corals were being under lit if anything. 6500K, in theory, should result in the most growth but poor coloration. The biggest problem you face, IMO, is the poor quality fixture. Better lamps will help but getting a better fixture(read; one with individual reflectors and active cooling) will be the real fix. What fixture are you using, BTW?

wait so have I been hurting my tank/corals by running 3 6,500 daylights? in other words are my corals actually used to too much light now? could that be the reason for slow growth in my montipora?

ok, thanks i will check them out I had never even heard of them before. do you have any experience with them?

I'd recommend reefgeek for ordering lamps.

@Strangchris Yeah thats why I am going to stick with what I have as far as the T5's and was wanting to get the best combination in order for my setup. My biggest concern is finding T5 bulbs around here that are being recommended. All I can find locally here is the coralife and I had attempted to order some different bulbs before settling on them last time but they kept coming in broken so I am a bit leery of ordering something that fragile again. But regardless I am going to be getting some better bulbs this time and will order them before i NEED them so I have plenty of time to send them back for replacements

@chuck Money would be the simple reason and the first reason since I can not afford them even as a DIY project, secondly I have LED moonlights that I have had for about a year and they would go out one at a time starting about 4 months ago, not that they have a short lifespan but based on my experience they seem to not like saltwater too much so they NEED to have a splash shield even to keep evaporation off of them and every little bit needs to be water tight. My moonlight setup was 8 blue LEDs that looked great and I think I am down to 5 LEDs left after only a year of hanging over a reef tank. They are very new to reefing and no one really knows what they are and are not capable of especially in the long term.

I am curious why not go the LED route? from what I have read it seems like a great option

ok grim suggest 4x ati blue plus and a purple plus and a GE 6500k, thats exactly what i run and with great success. the fixture your looking isnt all its cracked up to be (odysea) the ballast "suck" to put it nice. you can always run a ati 12k or true actnic instead of one of the blue plus to cut the blue a lil.

lol, no your fine thanks a ton for the link, I will check it out as soon as I get bit to actually sit down and read as there is a lot of info on that link, I wish I had figured this out before I bought new bulbs the last time but going from a nano taking 2 power compacts to a 48" 6 lamp t5 ho fixture is a big jump but aside from the appearance right now I have been happy with the way they have worked out for me thus far, the high cost of the metal halide is the only thing keeping me from going that route but everyone I have talked to otherwise say they prefer t5's to mh and I know with the right knowledge I could even grow sps under them