Green hair algae issue. Need advice

[WVNed]

I recently turned my lights down at 70% blue and 15% white, produces a par of around 70-100 throughout the tank. I had my whites at 50% before

I have read many posts on here about the color of lights having an affect on algae. I am not sure it is true. I run my tanks quite white and it doesn't seem to be a problem. I often wonder if the people that shift the spectrum to blue aren't actually reducing the overall power somewhat.

 

[Garf]

In my tank, live Phyto led to a spike in PO4 - anyone else experience this? Also - i stopped dosing Reef Roids - def led to higher PO4. Been stable at 0.02 for a couple of months now and algae is almost gone and acros/all corals are thriving.

Doesn’t surprise me. It’s just food with probable excess fertiliser. I just add a few drop of guillards f/2 to the tank occasionally and miss out the middle man. Blooming algae can produce H2O2, that other algae’s can’t tolerate however (along with other water soluble chemicals, which last time I looked, were under investigation).

 

[Bucs20fan]

I have read many posts on here about the color of lights having an affect on algae. I am not sure it is true. I run my tanks quite white and it doesn't seem to be a problem. I often wonder if the people that shift the spectrum to blue aren't actually reducing the overall power somewhat.

I think its because they attribute it to white light is always more powerful as you have stated and it contains all colors of light spectrum into one. When going to more blues its less powerful and a different specific spectrum with less red wavelength, which fuels all plants. I think everyone gets drawn into less red and lower power blue leds help alot.

 

[WVNed]

I think its because they attribute it to white light is always more powerful as you have stated and it contains all colors of light spectrum into one. When going to more blues its less powerful and a different specific spectrum with less red wavelength, which fuels all plants. I think everyone gets drawn into less red and lower power blue leds help alot.

Perhaps, but I am running 1.4 kilowatts of MH/T5 over my tank. In my case I shorten the time and do not change the color of the lights.

 

[Picassoclown]

Hey Frank. I am a novice that has been in reefing for about 13 years, but I have been absent for 10. I have lost a lot of knowledge, but slowly it's coming back. My 215 gallon tank is relatively new like yours (2 months old) and I was starting to get diatoms due to lower phosphates and nitrates. I have 0 algae in my tank now since I have started dosing microbacter 7 as well as dosing phytoplankton & copepods, which I saw someone else here recommend. I have always been a believer that prevention should be started at the smallest level and build up to macro scale (bacteria, copepods, snails, tangs, etc). Copepods are the best CUC you can want and dosing phytoplankton will help combat the bad algae for nutrients, while establishing a healthy colony of pods.

My current method that is working:

Stopped all water changes until phosphates rise from 0.04 to 0.1 (currently at 0.1) and nitrate goes to 10 (also currently at 10). I will now start doing 10 gallon (5%) water changes weekly to keep nutrients somewhat high. I also have been cycling my skimmer on 12 hour periods on and off.

Every 3 weeks I dose 20ml of microbacter 7 for 10 days
Every 3 weeks I also add 4-5 jars of ecopods from algae barn (I am in the process of growing my own phytoplankton and pods) and add in 10ml of phytoplankton for 3 days and than 5ml for 4 days

I have not a single trace of bad algae and I am noticing my zoa garden is starting to look a bit more happy due to nutrients being a little more elevated. Hope this helps!

 

[Dom]

Thanks for the reply Dom. The tank is about 3 months old. I was doing 5 gallon water changes every Sunday like clockwork, I stopped doing water changes about a month ago trying to get my nitrates and phosphates up. When I was doing water changes it was putting my nitrates at 0 and my phosphates at 0 and as I understood you don't want both of those levels at 0. So basically I stopped using filter floss and stopped water changes and started to feed more to get my nitrates at 10-15 and my phosphates up. Obviously something has backfired on me.

As far as clean up crew i have 1 lawnmower blenny, 8 hermits and a few astrea snails and turbo snails

What are your thoughts on how I should move forward?

You need to do 20% water changes. You have 73 gallons of total capacity between the two tanks, but you are only changing 5 gallons per week. That is only about 6% weekly. This is why you have a GHA issue.

Water changes are about two things; nutrient export and replacing consumables such as calcium and carbonate.

But 6% water changes will not export enough nutrient.

I suggest 5 gallon weekly water changes on the 20 gallon cube and and 10 gallons on the RedSea 200

 

[frankrizzo787]

You need to do 20% water changes. You have 73 gallons of total capacity between the two tanks, but you are only changing 5 gallons per week. That is only about 6% weekly. This is why you have a GHA issue.

Water changes are about two things; nutrient export and replacing consumables such as calcium and carbonate.

But 6% water changes will not export enough nutrient.

I suggest 5 gallon weekly water changes on the 20 gallon cube and and 10 gallons on the RedSea 200

Sorry for the confusion, I was changing 5 gallons a week out of my max nano 20gallon tank but stopped because i bottomed out my N03 and P04

 

[Spare time]

I think its because they attribute it to white light is always more powerful as you have stated and it contains all colors of light spectrum into one. When going to more blues its less powerful and a different specific spectrum with less red wavelength, which fuels all plants. I think everyone gets drawn into less red and lower power blue leds help alot.

The blue violet area is the most widely used area in photosynthesis. Algae is, and never should be, limited by light. In our tanks, algae needs to be limited by predation.