Winged's Tanks

I've been keeping fish for about 2 and a half years. For pretty much the entire time, I've kept something that needs good lights. In the beginning, it was freshwater plants (and also reptiles that need UVB bulbs). Now, I also have corals.

I know, from all the times it's been told to me, that the spectrum of light that a light bulb emits changes as it gets older. I've been pretty good about replacing the UVB bulbs for my reptiles. I've not been as good about replacing my aquarium bulbs. It always seems wasteful to me to replace bulbs that are still lighting up, and the freshwater plants look just as good with a bulb that is two years old as they do with a bulb that is brand new.

However, given recent experiences, the same is NOT true for corals. Our 55 gallon reef tank has been having issues for the past month or so, with various corals not looking too good. We aren't real diligent about changing water on this tank, and so, initially, I thought it was the water. I tested the water, and the parameters were fine, but I upped the frequency of water changes anyway. Still, corals, specifically the flowerpot, frogspawn, and a finger leather corals, were doing bad. I know flowerpots are not very well suited to an aquarium anyway, and they seem to be fine for several months and then just rapidly die. Our frogspawn has given us issues before. We had no idea why the leather would be unhappy.

Fortunately, when this was happening, I was also setting up my 5 gallon pico. By the time it was cycled, the flowerpot was completely gone, and the frogspawn was on its way out. I decided to take a chance and move the frogspawn to my 5 gallon. It started improving within days, and continues to improve still. This reinforced the fact that something was wrong with the tank and not the corals, but I was still convinced it was the water. I checked the params again, all fine. I upped the water changes more, yet still, no improvement. Our test kit isn't very new, and I thought it had gone bad and was giving us false readings.

So, the day before yesterday, we took a sample of our water to a LFS. Almost everything tested out fine, though the alkalinity was a little low. I had been telling Mom we needed to replace the bulbs for a while, but she hadn't done it. But, since the water is perfectly fine, she went ahead and bought one new bulb, planning on getting the other in a couple weeks. We also bought a new leather for our silly clowns (they had been hosting the finger leather, and the female was now trying to host a rock).

When we got home, I installed the new bulb (a 50/50 PC bulb). The difference between the side of the tank with the new bulb and the other side was incredible. The new bulb was much more blue than the other bulb. Today, two days later, everything is looking better (with the exception of the finger leather which I moved to the 10 gallon and is actually looking worse). The trumpet coral heads are bigger; I hadn't even realised how much they had shrunk back. All of the button polyps are open, not just some. The new leather looks very happy, as do the other two leathers that are in there.

The moral of the story is this: remember to replace your bulbs before they are a year and 3 months old. Also, if your corals look bad, your water tests out fine, and your bulbs are over 8-12 months old, replace the bulbs. Your corals will thank you.