I am running an older black box on my 36 Bowfront. This box has quite and blue leds. I have reduced my photoperiod for the whites, to a couple hours a day due to GHA issues. All parameters were checked by me and confirmed at the LFS to be well within normal limits. The tank has LPS, fish and inverts... so the question is, with running only actinics for most of the day, how can I brighten up my tank vor better viewing?
Would Like Some Lighting Advice
- Thread starter Khow
- Start date
luvreefs23
New member
Your gonna have to find the source of fuel for the gha, using RO/DI?, running gfo? I battled gha on my first 29 cause I didn't know what I was doing...using tap etc., even after multiple waterchanges with RO and phosphate removing media I ended up trimming what was left of gha with small curved barber scissors as close and possible to the rock while my dad siphoned out what I cut off. The emerald geeen crabs that I had in there all along finally started to pay attention to the small short leftover patches of it. It was just to long and they didn't bother when it was swaying in the current.
All water is RO/DI from the shop. Phosphates zero or as close as I can detect with my Hanna, nitrates as close to zero as chemical test kits can find, both here and tested at shop. GHA is gone after manual harvesting and keeping the light period low. Having a bryopsis breakout now. Manually removing as much as I can. Gonna grab a mag test out and try raising my magnesium. I might even grab a lettuce nudi. I just wonder if any of the newer lights that have reds or other LEDs might help to brighten things up?
luvreefs23
New member
Seems like you are on he right track. I know having low magnesium can contribute to excess algae so that's a good thing you are checking on it. I don't have experience with black box led lighting but perhaps the light is helping contribute to the gha growth kinda like worn out t5 bulbs do when they change spectrums with age. Maybe not quality leds or something is off with that thing.
Ron Reefman
Active member
Your leds don't 'age' like t5 or MH which shift spectrum in 12 to 24 months to a red and help (not make, just help) algae grow. Even at 5 years your leds may be weaker in intensity, but I doubt there is much color shift.
You might try covering the red and green leds in the white channel, especially the red! And you can run the white channel, just keep the intensity low. As stated before, you need to find the source of the food the algae is using and deal with it. Like less fish feeding, better filtration, better flow to keep detritus from settling.
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