Question regarding water

[aic007]

Hi,

I have a reef tank with some fish and love the flourescence of the corals. at when the lights are out I like to place a blacklight over the tank and take pics of everything glowing. My question is that under the blacklight the water seems cloudy. The tank during the day looks to be fine and all levels are where they should be. Could this be the way the light defuses in the water?

Thanks,

aic007

[Jason McKenzie]

Is this a real Black light or a 03 Actinic bulb.

You may want to run some carbon for a couple of days just to rule out anything.

J

[aic007]

a real blacklight, I just changed my carbon cartidges. I work nights so I won't know until tomorrow when I get home if it is helping. Water doesn't look yellowish though. I also add reef solution once every 3-4 days. LFS guy said I could even cut that to once a week. My protien skimmer is not filling up with thick nasty stuff that quickly so I don't think there is too much junk in the water. Most of what is in there is still liquidy. trying to get the cup set at just the right height.

[Craig Manoukian]

aic007,

If you put your tank description in your signature it would be most helpful. I'm assuming you have a Bak Pak II skimmer. How long have you had your tank and what do you have in it?

[Phil5613]

I haven't played with a Black light in years but if I remember it will fluorescence everything and the cloudiness is probably to to the tank being saltwater and having particles that reflect the black light. Keep in mind that I say this going by your statement that the water is clear under normal lighting conditions. You could experiment yourself make a clear jar of fresh water and a clear jar of salt, then use the light over both and see if it gives you the same result as your tank

[mojoreef]

If its a true Black light that would mean that it is putting out light in the waves of below 350mn. If so your into uva and uvb, be very careful when you are doing this as you can burn your corals real bad if the light is intence enough. UV burn is the main cuase of coral death in the wild.


Mike

[Craig Manoukian]

Thanks Mike , very good information! I wasn't aware of those properties of black light.

[aic007]

Thanks fpr that info on the lights, didn't think it would be putting out that harmful of a spectrum. Will look into it more before I use it again on the tank.

[Boomer]

This will help what Mike is saying, graphically but he is a little off on his range Turing on a Black light to view something for a few minutes won't hurt anything.

[Craig Manoukian]

So Boomer, anything below 300nm is not good? Did I read the graph correctly?