Hi, all. Glad to be here. I have a 220 gallon FOWLR at home and a 40 gallon reef at work. Unfortunately the 40 gallon tank is a reef in theory since hurricane Sandy hit. They did provide standby power to the circuit the tank was on, but the GFCI tripped so the tank never energized. I lost one fish (a 3 year old borbonius anthias), all of my zoas and most of my snails/hermits. Worst of all, I think I lost my aptasia-eating shrimp, so aptasia is beginning to bloom again. Lots of algae growing now - probably due to high nutrient in the water from all the dead critters. I started an L2 scrubber last weekend, so I'll see if that helps with the nutrient problem while I try to get the rest of the tank restored.
You will be amazed with the results from the scrubber. Be sure to be patient and be ready to make little adjustments like the time the light is on. There is a ton of knowledge here to steer you head on into success!!! I am about to post some pics of my first 7 days as well for my 150G mix reef.
it doesn't take much time to maintain the tanks, at least when compared to the time I spend just looking at the tanks.
I normally start at about 12, Floyd would better answer this as he uses a couple more LED's then I do so 12 might burn the algae. Stick with what you got until you start to grow a good bit of algae and then post some pics as this will let us know where you need to be. I am sure Floyd will chime as well, he has a lot of testing info under his belt for his product.
