yet another lighting question

[AlienAnchovies]

well if any of you guys remember a while back i was gonna buy a mh set up for the good ol 29 gallon well, i i changed my mind and bought a 4 x 65 watt power compact retro fit which = 260 watts of pc lighting

now my actuall question is with 260 watts of lighting will i finally get my xenia to start growing like weeds, the thing is prior to the new lights i had 110 watts of pc lighting and the growth was horrible for everything exept the encrusting gorgonian which ive had to frag and flush many a time and my pom pom xena which spread but very very very slowly
pluss when i had the 110 on a 20 gallon before i went with the 29 i had awsome coraline growth, well since i upgraded the tank the only spot that seems to grow coraline is indide the overflow, hopefully the new lights might have it spread onto my rock work because looking at green and brown rocks
makes the tank look pretty boring imo

i might gut the the 110 watt system and figure out a way to wire that into the canopy granted i can make room for it

also how often should i change the pc bulbs, i been doing it every 8 months give or take a month

[AlienAnchovies]

anyone?

[GaryP]

The other factor concerning caraline growth is your calcium and alkalinity. What are you doing to maintain those and what levels are they at? Remember that is you are putting in other corals they are competing for calcium and carbonate with the coraline algae.

Changing bulbs every 6-8 months should be fine.

[AlienAnchovies]

well i have yet to test either
what ive been doing is mixing up some kalk water, kent strontium & molybdenun, and just topping off my tank that way via the gravity fed auto top off

how much do test kits run?
and
what are should the levels be at be at?

[alton]

Xenia loves pollution, phosphates, nitrates, over feeding your aquarium whatever else you can come up with. I have 4-96W of Compact fluor. on my 200 and it's doing great along with the coraline. Sounds like like you have new tank syndrome algae. Wait a while and it will take care of its self. Normally compacts last a year

[leaffish75]

I have heard of brighter lights causing coraline to stop growning or even bleaching.

[Tim Marvin]

I have plenty of coralline under halides. I have found, temp changes, new tanks, moving tanks, and other factors cause coralline to temporarely crash. Doseing Kalk will get coralline to grow like crazy, but you have to do it routinely.