Does a UV sterilizer help with algae?
- Thread starter Boca Kris
- Start date
your observations are a little misleading.
if you have excess nutrients and dim lighting it will be harder for the algae to grow because the algae is missing part of what it needs to grow(light). so you add this brighter light and the algae grows, it must be the light! right?. its not the light, remove the excess nutrients and the algae will die off
I am not in any way doubting it is nutrients that are a contributing factor. The only part Im curious to, is how come I never had algae before? All my levels were the same as they are now. The only thing that has changed is the lighting? Are you saying that I always had high nutrients, but the algae couldnt grow because of insufficient light? Its tough to put a finger on cause I have ricordea (even though I know they require relatively low light!), a coupla brain coral looking things, some zoos, etc. They all were able to grow under my previous lighting, so I would think algae would have enough light to grow cause I thought they even required less lighting than some of those!
Is there anyway to test the nutrients that you are talking about? I do religious 20% water changes every 3-4 wks, and all parameters that I measure for are really good.
Not trying to be confrontational, just trying to learn as much as I can!
And thanks again for all the replies!
Is there anyway to test the nutrients that you are talking about? I do religious 20% water changes every 3-4 wks, and all parameters that I measure for are really good.
Not trying to be confrontational, just trying to learn as much as I can!
And thanks again for all the replies!
As noted earlier a sterilizer will effect only what passes thorugh it. It helps reduce phytoplankton (for better or worse) among other things. This will help keep the water clean and cut down on glass cleaning.. It is in my opinion a useful tool,not at all gimmicky just a bulb in a bottle. it can't affect algae that is growing on the rock or sustrate and will have no effect on them. It probably will effect some of the spores that float in the water column. they are generally easy to use but are pricey.
no worries, i understand your frustration. i get algae in my tanks and ive never gotten a color change from my Salifert test kit, why? because these hobby test kits just can test to the extremely low levels that some elements can be in, and they are are used as quickly as they are formed. PO4 in natural sea water is at a level of about .01ppm. that one part per billion. so if you were to take a water sample and count every element in that sample by the time you got to 1 billion you would have found 1 element of PO4. these $20 test kits cant do that no matter what the manufacturer says.
phosphate and nitrate are the nutrients to worry about. every tank has them, if they didn't nothing would grow. but phosphate is the one to really worry about.
lets look at it like this. photosynthetic plant need 3 things to grow(yes i know corals are animals not plants but we are really trying to grow the symbiotic plants inside of corals and these plants grow/feed the corals). they need a source of phosphorus, nitrogen and light. if one of these three is inadequate the plant will not prosper. it may live and it may grow some but it wont prosper no matter how high the other two are. then you add the missing component and bam it starts to grow. corals dont need as much phosphorus and nitrogen as hair algae does. so now that you filled in the 3rd piece of the puzzle with the new lights algae is being the opportunistic little devil that it is and taking advantage of the new light also and using the extra PO4. even if your PO4 is just a tiny bit elevated thats all it takes because the plants in the corals can only use so much. also elevated phosphates will inhibit calcification in corals so then the coral uses even less leaving more for whatever is around to grab it (algae)
phosphate and nitrate are the nutrients to worry about. every tank has them, if they didn't nothing would grow. but phosphate is the one to really worry about.
lets look at it like this. photosynthetic plant need 3 things to grow(yes i know corals are animals not plants but we are really trying to grow the symbiotic plants inside of corals and these plants grow/feed the corals). they need a source of phosphorus, nitrogen and light. if one of these three is inadequate the plant will not prosper. it may live and it may grow some but it wont prosper no matter how high the other two are. then you add the missing component and bam it starts to grow. corals dont need as much phosphorus and nitrogen as hair algae does. so now that you filled in the 3rd piece of the puzzle with the new lights algae is being the opportunistic little devil that it is and taking advantage of the new light also and using the extra PO4. even if your PO4 is just a tiny bit elevated thats all it takes because the plants in the corals can only use so much. also elevated phosphates will inhibit calcification in corals so then the coral uses even less leaving more for whatever is around to grab it (algae)
a few links for you
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/sept2002/chem.htm
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/rhf/index.php
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/august2003/chem.htm
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-02/rhf/index.php
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-10/rhf/index.php
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-10/rhf/index.php
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/sept2002/chem.htm
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/rhf/index.php
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/august2003/chem.htm
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-02/rhf/index.php
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-10/rhf/index.php
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-10/rhf/index.php
