Mars aqua 300w light color and algae

[tassy]

Out of the light colors on the Mars aqua.( green red blue or the whites). Which one or ones would be most responsible for red algae. Blues are at 100% the other channel at about 70%. Tank is 20" deep.

Thanks in advance

John

 

[mcgyvr]

Not red

 

[jayball]

Not red

To expand on this a bit (have to admit, I chuckled) because it is a red alge, or probably cyanobacteria, it can not absorb the red color you see because that light is bounsing off into your eyes.

to answer a little further, it is mostly the blue but also the white and green, some of the red also gets through.

here is a collection of charts with cyano absorption points, it is not very selective. https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.4319/lo.1992.37.2.0434 (third page there)

Long story short, you can blame the lack of biodiversity(common espically in young tanks) and water quality for it rather than your lights. If it is cyano I have always found a three day blackout with wet skimming to be a good reset to try to get everything back on track. If this is the first bloom then just let it do its thing, it should die off eventually.

 

[mcgyvr]

And if its cyano.. Its not algae.. Its a bacteria.

 

[tassy]

Thanks for all the input it just seems that everytime I try to turn up my white Channel it gets the algae gets worse and or bacteria. there is no three day blackout option do to my 12 to 14 inch gigantea. That's one tough anemone once established had it for about 2 years in this tank. I'm terrible at water changes I'll start working on water quality thanks

 

[Diana A]

How long has the tank been running? Describe what the algae looks like. Is it red, stringy with bubbles, grows as a red mat on the rocks & sand, etc.

 

[slief]

Thanks for all the input it just seems that everytime I try to turn up my white Channel it gets the algae gets worse and or bacteria. there is no three day blackout option do to my 12 to 14 inch gigantea. That's one tough anemone once established had it for about 2 years in this tank. I'm terrible at water changes I'll start working on water quality thanks

The white channels as opposed to the blue ones will tend to grow algae so minimizing the white spectrum (which also contains red spectrum) will reduce algae growth. Corals and your anemone use more needed photosynthetic radiation from 420nm-460nm which is the bluer spectrum. Normally, I would suggest a 3:1 ratio of blue:white for a mix that is great for corals while also minimizing algae growth rates.

That said, cyano doesn't normally care very much about the spectrum but often, the common cyano is confused with Spirulina (also in the cyano family) which tends to spread faster under white light as opposed to blue in my experience

 

[mcgyvr]

Thanks for all the input it just seems that everytime I try to turn up my white Channel it gets the algae gets worse and or bacteria. there is no three day blackout option do to my 12 to 14 inch gigantea. That's one tough anemone once established had it for about 2 years in this tank. I'm terrible at water changes I'll start working on water quality thanks

BS....the "gigantea" will have no problem witha 3 day blackout...

Pics will also help us identify and recommend a proper plan of attach...

 

[tassy]

Once again thanks for all the input I had originally put electrical tape over my red and green LEDs which I took off. Put my Blues on 100 and adjusted my white channel to 30 to 40%. We'll concentrate on water changes and circulation. And again the tank and nem are over 2 yrs.

Thnx
John