Ive never had luck with LED but I’m going to stick this one out. I’ve had AI sol, vega, and hydra 26. I never could get good growth with them. I always switched back to t5 or halide. Now I have 2 G3 pros over a redsea 250 with diffusers running AB+ at 50%. My coral all looks great. It’s only been up for two months so I can’t say how growth is but I’ve only cleaned my glass once and I have 0 nuisance algae. My nitrates are somewhere between 10-25. Lights are mounted on Radion RMS mounts. Why don’t I have any algae growing? I had this problem once before when I had some cheap LED that weren’t dimmable and they were way to bright. I wouldn’t think that would be the case this time at 50%. Any ideas?
LED HELP
- Thread starter levi83
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Brew12
Electrical Gru
If your coral are looking great, why is this a problem? It just means that other things in your tank are out competing your algae. You are likely a light feeder and your coral are consuming the nutrients.
Porpoise Hork
Well-Known Member
The lack of algae growth is only partially linked to the light spectrum or PAR output of your current light system. Nuisance algae growth is linked more closely to available nutrient levels in the water column such as nitrates and phosphates. Corals with zooxanthellae have chlorophyll types C and A. These types require light spectrum in the 430-500 nm range as well as A also needs light in the 662 nm range but with far less intensity than type C that makes up the largest percentage of the zooxanthellae in photosynthetic corals. This is why most lighting for reef tanks concentrate the light spectrum heavily in the 430-500 nm and a small spike in the 660 range. Various plants such as algae are sustained mostly by chlorophyll A that primarily responds to light in the 662 nm range. This is typically why you see greenhouse grow lights that have that strong red tint to them compared to reef lighting. Another factor is time, how many hours a day the lights are on. Plants require a minimum of 12-14 hours of light per day for optimum growth. Where corals can be healthy and grow with as little as 6. As a result if your lighting system has a very weak level in the 662 nm range as well as a short light day cycle, nuisance algae will struggle to grow. This isn't to say they won't survive or even thrive in this environment provided the plants have readily available nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates. If you run an ultra-low nutrient system and/or have a large macro algae mass in the sump that is using the nutrients up faster than what's in the display tank, as well as have lighting with minimal reds in its spectrum the combination of all of these will lead to very little to no algae development in the display tank. It's a fine balance we walk to provide the right factors for happy and healthy corals, but working out ways to prevent nuisance algae development that doesn't negatively impact said coral health.
