blue actinic lighting and brown and green algae

[sanchezkk]

I am currently working on getting an algae problem under control. Would my lights (actinic) contribute to the outbreak?

 

[Bectan01]

Not exactly, what is your current lighting schedule? Feeding schedule?

 

[sanchezkk]

My lights have been off for the last 3 days. I feed 1/2 cube of mysis shrimp a day. I failed to state that they are LEDs.

 

[Bectan01]

I always have some algae present, how bad is it? Algae comes from poor water (nutrients in the water) from too much food, or too much lighting (this is debatable but 6-7 hours a day should be plenty) Is it a reef tank? How big? What kind of filtration do you have and how often do you change your water?

 

[sanchezkk]

I always have some algae present, how bad is it? Algae comes from poor water (nutrients in the water) from too much food, or too much lighting (this is debatable but 6-7 hours a day should be plenty) Is it a reef tank? How big? What kind of filtration do you have and how often do you change your water?

Yes, it is a reef tank. It's a 55g tank. I have mechanical filtration along with live rock. I do 10% wc weekly to biweekly. The setup is a year and two months old.

 

[Ingy]

What do you do for nitrate removal? Are you running any special filter media? Water changes do very little for nitrates as they only remove a small percentage (10% in your case).

 

[sanchezkk]

What do you do for nitrate removal? Are you running any special filter media? Water changes do very little for nitrates as they only remove a small percentage (10% in your case).

No special filter media or anything like that. I use live rock. My trates are normally at under 10ppm usually.

I don't normally use any chemicals except for Kent supplements.

 

[Ingy]

If you do nothing to consume nitrates, they will build up until your 10% weekly removal = weekly nitrate addition. LR has very little anaerobic area for nitrate removal and mostly just creates nitrates (thru nitrification process). So without nitrate removal, algae will start doing that for you.

Many filters have chambers for additional media packs to either lock up nitrates with resins or provide the area required for denitrifying (anaerobic) bacteria. Or you can add a small chamber for macroalgae either in tank (like a breeder chamber) or the hangs on the back (ie CPR Aquafuge).

 

[sanchezkk]

Ok, but will chemiPure work?

 

[54seaweed]

I used to do 10% WC weekly till I found it really didn't change anything than I started 25% WC and it made the difference never had issues with nitrates or algae blooms ever again
this tank is up and running a little over a year
everything seems happy and growing at a good rate

 

[Sniperhank]

How big are we talking here? We both started our tanks around the same time, and you always had much better water quality than I did. If those nitrates are creeping up, look into some macro algae to suck it down. I'm currently loving my red bone grass. But putting the refugium literally moved the hair algae growth from the display into the sump, which is what it is partially the intent. Easier to remove from there and not an unsightly issue in your display.

 

[sanchezkk]

I don't have a sump or fuge yet so I will have to settle placing my macroalgae in my display tank inside of a breeder net just below the lights.