Turf Algae

[leemchildress]

I have been out of the hobby for almost 12 years so consider myself a newbie again. I have a 60 gallon cube which has been set up for one month now. I used crushed coral (dead) for my substrate and my dead rock came from Reefcleaners. I use RO water. This last week I have noticed the start of some turf algae. My Astera snails are munching away on it and I plan to purchase more snails. I believe emerald crabs will eat this but I have some firefish that sleep in a hole in a rock each night and I am worried an emerald crab might decide to have firefish for a late night snack some evening.

My question is, right now my lighting is a Ecotech Radion XR15x G4 Pro which I am running at 45% intensity using the Fast Growth setting which is more of a white light throughout most of the cycle. If I changed the lighting theme to like Intense Color (not in front of my home computer so guessing at theme names) which runs more on the deeper blue side, would that help to inhibit the growth of the turf algae, or would the change in lighting trigger a worse outbreak.

Any other suggestions? I hate adding more livestock just for the reason of mowing down the algae because you never can be 100% certain they will and then you are stuck with a reef inhabitant you really didn't want.

Awaiting all your great answers from you much smarter than I people

 

[mcgyvr]

In general..it seems that many algaes enjoy the reds spectrums and don't do as well in mostly blue lights..

Its pretty normal to have algaes/cyano,etc.. with a new tank as it needs to mature,etc...
What are your nitrate/phosphate levels?

If you don't have corals then you don't need light at all really.. Fish don't need it..

But ensuring your nitrate/phosphate levels stay low the algae should die off..

 

[leemchildress]

All my parameters are in check. I'm chalking it up to "new tank syndrome" but just don't want it to get out of hand. I do have four simply corals (a mushroom, a rhicordea, frogspawn and small zoo colony). May try the bluer spectrum while the tank matures. But still open for other suggestions!