Comment on light settings/algae growth

[Briskee]

Hello -

I have 3 AI Hydra 64s over the 180g peninsula. Initially, everything was as expected. The tank was cycling, minimal bio-load, parameters were coming around to "normal". After a year or so I had a LFS tech come in and adjust the lights. BAM! Within a week, brown algae was covering most of the rock work. NO3 & PO4 were within range. I tried to manually scrub the rocks with in the tank, but that proved to be a frustrating exercise. As soon as I would get it "clean", algae would just grow back. Prior to this outbreak, water changes were every 2 weeks. Since the outbreak, I'm scrubbing the rocks and doing weekly water changes about ~40g. I should mention that my tank gets indirect sunlight, but the algae mostly grows on the other side of the rocks. I tried the blackout method for 3 times for 2 week each (after taking the rocks out and scrubbing), lasted maybe a month before algae started growing again. I reduced the intensity of lights, still on for 12 hours a day, but much lower intensity. I've attached the settings for my lights. I don't know what is optimal to encourage coral growth but not algae. I've taken all my corals of the rocks and place them in the sand bed until I get this figured out.

 

[Reefering1]

What's in the tank? At those settings, the lights are barely on. 17 of 129w(I have the same 3 lights, on similar sized tank between 2 halides, maxed out). Solve algea another way. Herbivores/ cuc. That's a fair sized tank, what fish do you have? What kind of algea is growing? Gha?

 

[PotatoPig]

What were the settings before?

One comment - the lights kinda come “pre-adjusted” for the greens and reds. They have a quarter of the green and red diodes as each of the blues, so even if the lights are set for equal power on all channels you’ll get 8x as much blues as you do reds or greens. There’s definitely personal preferences and aesthetic goals, but with the light configuration there shouldn’t be much need to power down the reds and greens so much.

All that said, I’d be amazed if tweaking the lights caused an algae bloom. My money is on something else going on in the tank or a new algae being introduced that found an opening.

What snails, crabs and other algae eaters do you have in there?

Also - what are your nutrients and can you post a picture of the algae?

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

Lighting doesn't cause algae to grow. It could be high nutrients, rusty magnets, etc. Lighting is there when it starts to grow, but it certainly doesn't cause it to grow. Assure your nutrients are low and make sure there are no rusty magnets. Do you use tap water? What salt mix do you use?

 

[exnisstech]

A tank pic under white lights will be helpful. Are you trying to keep the rocks white?

 

[bobnicaragua]

I would go to the pet store every week and load up on all types of snails, hermits, peppermint shrimp, urchins, etc.

There is no light setting that grows corals and not algae. You need to have the right inhabitants in your tank to consume all the algae.

You will want multiple tangs and maybe a fox face in a 180 gal.

 

[Briskee]

Here's what I have:
2 Small Leathers
1 Duncan colony
1 Elegance Coral
Small Montipora
1 Candy Cane
1 Torch
3 Tangs
1 Rabbitfish
2 Clowns
4 Cardinals
4 Damsels
1 Wrasse
1 Gamma

Latest clean up crew:

JH1QZC129Dwarf Cerith
JH3QZE14Nassarius Vibex
IF1QZG37Florida Cerith
JH5QZG14Assorted Hermits
LD7QZN2Tiger Conch
AD1QZW6Indo Turbo Snail*

I use Instant Ocean, filtered through whole-house filtration (I have a well), then through RO/DI.

Latest water parameters from last week are:

SG - 1.026
pH - 7.93
NO3 - 1.6
Ca - 519
kH - 9.8
PO4 - 0.04

Ca & kH have been climbing for a couple weeks which I don't understand with weekly water changes. Dosing Ca at 1ml and Alk at 2.5 mL.

 

[Briskee]

 

[Briskee]

 

[Briskee]

I have not removed the algae from the rock in the first video, that is original from when algae started a couple months ago. The second video is from rock I've recently scrubbed. You can see the algae starting to grow back.

I use an app called Aquarium Cam. Do my captures look "blue" because of the lighting I have setup?

 

[Briskee]

A tank pic under white lights will be helpful. Are you trying to keep the rocks white?

Not white, just remove the algae.

 

[Briskee]

I would go to the pet store every week and load up on all types of snails, hermits, peppermint shrimp, urchins, etc.

There is no light setting that grows corals and not algae. You need to have the right inhabitants in your tank to consume all the algae.

You will want multiple tangs and maybe a fox face in a 180 gal.

Posted what I have along with the most recent clean-up crew purchase selected for my 180g.

 

[Briskee]

Latest readings before today's water change:
SG - 1.026, pH 7.89, NO3 - 1.5, Ca - 512 (trending down), kH - 9.9, PO4 - 0.0, Temp 78.3.

 

[bobnicaragua]

Posted what I have along with the most recent clean-up crew purchase selected for my 180g.

The turbo snails will help with the algae on the rocks, but not the cerith or nassarius.

I have a 6” 135 gal and have something like 40 trochus, 10 turbos, 25 astra, 30 hermits, 1 urchin, 3 tiger conch and a few hitchhikers that reproduce.

I would keep loading up on snails and maybe a few urchins.

 

[Briskee]

Just to go over what I've tried to get rid of GHA in my tank. It ain't working for me, but the guy at the LFS said this is the way to go (maybe I need more patiene). I have CaribSea LifeRock Live Rock in my aquarium. This is the first breakout I've had. Maybe I was due. Anyway, the first two weeks I tried to blackout method. No lights at all. Took all the rock out and scrubbed it, placed it in another container with no light, added Vibrant, and let the run for two weeks. I cycled all the rock in the tank through this process. At one point, all the rock was clear, but now everything is covered again with GHA. I'm still doing weekly water changes, all parameters look good, PO4 and NO3 are good. I'm not 100% sure weekly water changes are helping.

 

[bobnicaragua]

Every week I would keep adding urchins, turbo snails, aestrea snails, trochus snails, margarita snails.

Let them do the hard work.

 

[reinert]

My 8 month old 14 gal BioCube has a hair algae issue. I scrub the rock. I change the lighting. I have a small CCU group because I had lost so many during the ugliest and lack of understanding, not knowledge, but definitely rookie mistakes. I run the stock white lights for about 6-8 hrs a day and the remaining day I run the blue lights and shut off the lights at bedtime. I do shut off the white lights if the sun is shining throw the closest window to the tank, allowing for indirect sunlight. I have one coral that absolutely loves the bright white light I give it, but the hair algae is trying to suffocate the poor thing. I pick off the algae best I can. I have a giant snail, a turbo snail, an emerald crab, and a blue legged hermit, a nassaris snail, a black tipped star, a clown fish, a golden watchman gobby, and a firefish. My parameters have been beautifully steady. I do a 2 - 2 1/2 gallon weekly water change along with a weekly glass cleaning. I let the starfish and the giant snail clean the glass of any films. Are there any suggestions for the hair algae blooms?

 

[VintageReefer]

My 8 month old 14 gal BioCube has a hair algae issue. I scrub the rock. I change the lighting. I have a small CCU group because I had lost so many during the ugliest and lack of understanding, not knowledge, but definitely rookie mistakes. I run the stock white lights for about 6-8 hrs a day and the remaining day I run the blue lights and shut off the lights at bedtime. I do shut off the white lights if the sun is shining throw the closest window to the tank, allowing for indirect sunlight. I have one coral that absolutely loves the bright white light I give it, but the hair algae is trying to suffocate the poor thing. I pick off the algae best I can. I have a giant snail, a turbo snail, an emerald crab, and a blue legged hermit, a nassaris snail, a black tipped star, a clown fish, a golden watchman gobby, and a firefish. My parameters have been beautifully steady. I do a 2 - 2 1/2 gallon weekly water change along with a weekly glass cleaning. I let the starfish and the giant snail clean the glass of any films. Are there any suggestions for the hair algae blooms?

Stop letting sunlight hit the tank, very common cause for repeat algae. Not always. But I would start with that.

 

[reinert]

Stop letting sunlight hit the tank, very common cause for repeat algae. Not always. But I would start with that.

It does not get direct sunlight. And my LFS said that the indirect light is not an issue. They tell me it is the stock white lights on too long.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

The lighting color would not be a main cause of algae (it may or may not be a contributor; that's quite heavily debated) - finding ways to control the algae (such as by adding more CUC to eat it) would likely be much more effective than changing the lighting to reduce it.

As a general rule, if the light can grow corals, it can grow algae. Additionally, there are many tanks run using literal sunlight (some direct and some indirect, depending on the tank) that don't have algae problems, and plenty of tanks run using strictly blue light that do.