LED color and algae growth

[wurking_girl]

I tried to do a search for this but wasn't able to find anything at a basic level that I could understand! Hoping there is a fairly simple answer to my question - it's been a long time since physics class...

I have LED lighting - white, blue, red and green. I've primarily been running the white and blue as my 'daylight' with the red/green used for sunrise/sunset effects. I'm starting to have some escalating algae issues, so started running GFO and was going to try a few days of lights out as well. Just wondered if it's primarily the white light I need to worry about or if light is light when it comes to algal growth? And does this require a full lights out, or just a reduced photoperiod? Right now, the lights are on from about 11 AM until 7 PM and I'm only running the white lights at 50% power.

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[Terrance]

I run my lots of reds for 8hrs along with all the other colors and whites. No algae so far, but my nitrates and phosphates have always been near 0.

If you just recently introduced the red, then that might be the culprit. How long have you had your lights? What are your current nitrate and phosphate levels, and did it rise at all? These questions and many more to come will help figure out your algae issues.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Algae needs nitrates, phosphates and light in order to grow. You changed one and it pushed you over the edge. I'd concentrate on nitrate and phosphate control because the algae in your corals likes the light as much as the problem algae does. I have 2 month old leds with full color and I had a bit of a cyano outbreak after the new lights. I just watched my feeding better and changed some flow in the tank and it's almost gone. Good luck.

 

[wurking_girl]

Thanks - my tank is still relatively 'young'. It's been up and running for about 8 months, but I've only been running the lights for the past 3 months or so (dealing with plumbing issues prior to that). The LEDs are new (well, almost a year ago new, but just running for 3 mos). I think things are still just breaking in, as over the past 3 months I've gradually added a CUC and two pairs of small fish. Nitrate has been staying between 0 - 0.2, but phosphate has been rising to 0.13 so I just started running GFO.

Interestingly, almost all of the algae so far is growing on the rocks on the left side of the tank, which happens to be farthest from the wavemaker. I have a nice wave going and the frogspawn that is on the left side of the tank is moving in the current so flow is good, but maybe not good enough?

I guess I'll wait and see what the GFO does and in the interim keep sucking the stuff out every other day. I'm not even sure what kind of algae I'm dealing with - it is greenish, grows super fast, and forms long strands that sway in the current. Nothing on the sand, just on half of the rock - with tufts also growing on the snails that hang out over there. There is algae on the walls, but it's not the same as the stuff on the rocks, which looks sturdy enough until you touch it - then it is kind of slimy and breaks very easily. Sucking it up with a turkey baster and putting it right in the overflow so it collects in the filter sock is the best resolution I've found. (Haven't been able to get a good picture of it...)

 

[mikeatjac]

Reducing your nitrate and phosphate levels is most important. Also reducing the amount of red light in your tank will help too.