LED = Heavy Algae Problem?

[mxg5299]

I recently got an LED light strip for my 60 gallon freshwater tank and I've recently had big algae problems. It's at my school so I brought a glass magnet scrubber from home but that wouldn't scrape a lot of it off. There is now little speckles of red/brown on the front glass that won't rub off. I had a rubber Pleco that recently passed and I tried to replace him with 6 Otocinclus but I found only one after this weekend. There is now algae starting to bloom on the gravel, which I'm sure I can eliminate with a weekend blackout. Any advise on this odd glass algae and possible algae eater solutions? THANKS

 

[Delapool]

I recently got an LED light strip for my 60 gallon freshwater tank and I've recently had big algae problems. It's at my school so I brought a glass magnet scrubber from home but that wouldn't scrape a lot of it off. There is now little speckles of red/brown on the front glass that won't rub off. I had a rubber Pleco that recently passed and I tried to replace him with 6 Otocinclus but I found only one after this weekend. There is now algae starting to bloom on the gravel, which I'm sure I can eliminate with a weekend blackout. Any advise on this odd glass algae and possible algae eater solutions? THANKS

If you went from low light to higher light I could see that causing issues. I'd reduce your light period to 6 hours if it is.

With new lights I find it better to start off at half-power and work up. I've got a new led that I'm running only one third of the bulbs so plants can adjust and I can check algae doesn't take off.

 

[mxg5299]

If you went from low light to higher light I could see that causing issues. I'd reduce your light period to 6 hours if it is.

With new lights I find it better to start off at half-power and work up. I've got a new led that I'm running only one third of the bulbs so plants can adjust and I can check algae doesn't take off.

The only thing is that it's a display tank at the main lobby of a school. Is there any way to manage the algae from the inside without jeopardizing visibility? There are plenty of settings on the LED that I can test out and see if that helps, it's pretty bright right now. Suggestions on algae eaters?

 

[Delapool]

The oto's are worth a try for soft algae. Liquid carbon (glut) dosing I find useful for black beard algae. You can also spot treat (try a small patch first) with hydrogen peroxide or glut.

What sort of light is it and what controls does it have? Much brighter than the old one and are you ferts dosing / co2 injection?

Here I've switched off all the blue lights to run just white light. There is plenty of blue in white lights (it also penetrates water well). Plants don't always use much of it (depending on spectrum).

I'd suspect your previous light didn't have good par levels at substrate. Now you have higher light intensity at substrate level and the algae is making hay while the sun shines (so to speak).

 

[aqua_chem]

Can you get us a picture of the tank? I would also like to know more about the setup, especially carbon dosing, fertilizer, and what kind of LED you got.


I do have some advice you might not appreciate. If appearance of the tank is really important to maintain, have you considered just putting the old lighting system back on the tank? Or did it really need the upgrade?

 

[mxg5299]

I have a 48' Fluval Aquasky LED that runs on a timer, staying on from 7am-5pm. From what I can tell, I only have 2 of my original 6 otocinclus that I bought last week. There is a large piece of driftwood in the center, theoretically could be anywhere on that. I typically have it on a "light blue" setting, alternating blue and white LED along the strip. I had a final exam yesterday and changed it to a much darker shade to attempt a "blackout" effect without jeopardizing the look of the tank. We'll see how it looks tomorrow. I turned over most of the gravel so that looks fine for the time being, but there are these red smudges all over the front glass that my magnet scrapper can't break.

 

[mxg5299]

I have a Penguin 350 and 150, each with a carbon packet to get rid of some color leeching I had early on with the wood.

 

[mxg5299]

I just bought 6 zebra nerite snails to start and have the light on a shorter timer (7am-3pm). I'm pretty certain that I now only have 2 otocinclus, so I'd like to know what kind of algae eater you'd recommend.

 

[mambee]

Why not take advantage of the bright lighting to grow live plants. Floating plants would be especially useful because they would use the CO2 in the air. You could also add other fast growing plants to starve the algae.

Bristlenose plecos work well, but you have to make sure that you don't starve them. You could add algae tabs or zucchini slices to the tank.