New lights cause algae bloom?

[guitarfish]

I need some help guys, I don't know what's going on.

I replaced my PC bulbs about 6 weeks ago. A month later, cyano is growing all over this one rock. After a week it was pretty bad, so I siphoned it off. A week passes, it's back, and I've also got green hair algae starting to grow on some rocks. I've never had green hair in my tank, except for a couple small spots by the overflow.

- I use RO water. It's possible the RO filters need changing, not sure.
- I'm testing zero for nitrates.
- I grow chaeto in the sump, it grows like mad & I prune every week.
- Skimmer is working as always, pulling normal amount of stuff.
- I don't have a phosphate test kit. I have a new bag of Phosban in the sump.
- I drip kalk weekly, same as I've always done.
- I only have 3 small fish, low bioload.

I had a cyano problem over a year ago, but it went away when I added chaeto & Phosban. The only change I recently made was the new lights. I can't figure out why I have this problem all of a sudden.

Thanks

 

[ray-ray's_55]

new lights will do that. Keep up on water changes useing RODI water and in about a month from "lights on" it should be disipated

 

[Bandsaw]

It was new bulbs in my tank that triggered my Hair outbreak. That was last October.

I am finally starting to put a dent in it. No NO3, No PH4, no over feeding, heavy skiming - RO/DI Water, phosban (just in case), still the damn stuff persists.

Almost afried to change my bulbs again.

 

[NoSchwag]

For the record I do not believe that new lights can possibly cause an "algae bloom".

However, I do believe that nutrients can.

 

[NoSchwag]

You have the problem again because you never fixed it.

To get rid of the cyno, clean the rocks. Use a turkey baster to blow them out, then off.

 

[Bandsaw]

I have to agree with you NoSchwag. It does not make any sense. You would think the opposite. Old bulbs tend to shift thier light spectrum down to where the algae likes it.

Just seems that a lot of people begin thier outbreaks at the same time a light change is made.

As you say, Nutrients - but the light change may be a trigger point.

Just plain weird

 

[Chappy]

Has your water circulation changed? Try aiming a powerhead toward that area and see if it helps. It might just be an area of low circulation that is prone to outbreaks whenever something changes.

 

[guitarfish]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. When I changed my bulbs, someone had said "watch for an algae bloom" and I thought that was weird... and here I am. Like Bandsaw said, probably a trigger point.

 

[FishhyRen]

Replacing them as in with MH's or stronger lights?
From what I was told about it (don't know if it was true) it can actually send your tank into a 2nd cycle (so you'd see a lot more algae)...

If the new lights are a lot stronger than the old ones you should slowly introduce them (like starting a new coral on the bottom and moving up).

To do this with lights, I've heard of people putting layers of screening on top of the tank and taking a layer off each week-

But probably more common is just to start your lights out at 2 hours a day for the first week, and add an hour more each week.
Doing this will allow the tank to gradually get used to the new amount of food producing light.

 

[guitarfish]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6562283#post6562283 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NoSchwag
For the record I do not believe that new lights can possibly cause an "algae bloom".

However, I do believe that nutrients can.

Actually it makes perfect sense. Where do you think many nutrients come from? Lights allow the zooxanthellae in the corals to grow, and the corals feed on the by-products of that. That's how they grow. Therefore, more/better light has a direct correlation to more nutrients.

Think about it, it makes perfect sense. I agree with FishhyRen, the lights were the catalyst here.

My old PC bulbs were pretty dull/bad. The new ones, still PC, are much brighter. There's probably a lot of new growth & activity going on now, resulting in an increased nutrient load.

For the time being, I'm going to cut back on the photoperiod, and I increased the chaeto photoperiod from 12hrs to 24hrs. I'm going to blow off the rocks as suggested and do some water changes, and see if I can help get things back into equilibrium.