Actinic tube life

[Pikelet]

I've started to get a fairly major outbreak of cyano in my tank and I was wondering how long Actinic NO tubes should be run before being replaced. White NO and VHO tubes are normally replaced at about 8 months I think as their spectrum tends towards the red but what is the deal with Actinics as they exhibit a fairly narrow spectral distribution?

 

Any opinions?

[Dave ESPI]

NO 6 months tops 4 on average with 10 hr a day useage fer peak performance. When NO drop, they drop bigtime.. Ive heard of them being shot in less than 1 month ( depending on brand)

If yer getting cyano, check disolved organics. also phosphates.. although they might not show up dude to them being consumed by the cyano. try NO-Cya_NO by Fish vet. its NOn toxic reef safe, and biodegrades and is removed by W/c and yer skimmer. Its a Pro secret that has just recently his mainstream markets. YA YA YA i know.. yer gunna ( or some on will) say "I dont like chemicals" , and nor do I, but this works.

[Pikelet]

4-6 months for NO Actinic or NO White?

 

PO4 and nitrates all low but I don't believe those tests tell you much as both are used up so quickly. I'm going to try to find the reason for the outbreak first then treat only if necessary. I'm also trying to avoid using my skimmer at the moment as my pod population is close to zero. Thanks.

[Brianc_4]

Actinic white is nothing more than marketing bullsh*t, they are good bulbs but have nothing to do with blue actinic wavelength. URI makes some good ones. If you have cyano, or red algae the lack of blue spectrum is probably not the cause. I think Dave covered what the most likely reasons are. If you are leary about the chemicals, you may want to try some queen or fighting conchs, they love to munch on cyano.