LED lighting

[bryan oestreich]

I been using these lights for about 7 months. ever since I went an upgraded to stronger LED fixture I been battling brown algae.

im basically looking for advice on how to run these lights? how high from the tank? what power for blue and white lights (0-100%).
currently running the blues at 50% and whites at 25%. fixtures about 14-15" above the tank (measured from top of glass to bottom of the fixture). I run blues for 10 hrs and whites for 8hrs. I am getting nothing but brown algae growth on glass, on my protein skimmer, my aqua clear 70. sand is pretty brown also but my super tungan (however u spell it) nassurius snails (only have 2 plan on getting more they do wonders for sifting through the sand. otherwise I only have like 6 trochus for snails. rest of CUC is a cleaner shrimp a coral banded and a peppermint shrimp.

ever since I upgraded to thses lights I battle with brown algae. any advice would be great and im basically trying to either rule if the lights are my problem or if its something else. FYI these lights are 3watts per LED and have 55 LEDs in each fixture. (I have 2 fixtures). tank is a 60 gal. 48L x 24H x 13W.

 

[Lenny_S]

I looked up a bit of the information on this light. It seems they use a mix of warm and neutral white, as well as 660nm red... (8 warm white, 6 neutral white, 6 cool white, 20 royal blue, 7 blue, 4 violet/indigo, 2 green, and 2 red) The warm (probably like 2700K), neutral (probably 3000K maybe 3200K), and 660nm diodes are going to promote algae growth. And depending on the CRI of the white diodes, it may be compounded by lower quality components.
But lighting alone won't cause nuisance algae problems, high levels of NO3, PO4, and Fe also contribute... do you know your nitrate and phosphate levels? Are you adding any iron supplements? Any pictures?

 

[bryan oestreich]

im working now so no pictures. my nitrates don't go over about 20ppm and phosphates are barely detectable at least last time I checked it. I am not adding anything into the tank at all.

 

[bryan oestreich]

I use a small marinland LED light in the 30gal cube for 7 months. never had any algae problem. I transferred the 30gal into a 60gal in beginning of april. new live/dry sand mix (20lb dry/40lb live sand) and 50lb of live rock) about 20lb was in the 30gal cube. cycled the 60gal tank with the sand and 40lb live rock for a month. then transferred everything from the 30 gal to the 60gal except I didn't use the sand from 30 gal. and that's when I got these lights. algae problem every since so that's why im gussing the lights are the problem.

 

[Lenny_S]

20ppm nitrate isn't super high, but high enough... depending on what kind of a test kit you have for PO4 "barely detectable" might be pretty high depending on the scale of the test.... it only takes 0.04ppm or higher to fuel an algae bloom, especially with high nitrate and algae friendly lighting involved. Maybe try some nutrient management (organic carbon dosing or water changes). I don't really recommend GFO, I've seen too many threads on this forum with people having issues. Besides, if you do carbon dosing, the bacteria will need that little bit of phosphate to process the nitrate. Perhaps once the nutrients come down, you'll find the lighting is actually fine. At least I hope you do.

 

[bryan oestreich]

ya the phosphate I believe cant really remember off hand but right around that .03 ppm mark. I cant get it to go down ever. I mean ive done 30-35% water changes for a month straight and it didn't help at all. I have salifert for phosphate test. the RODI water I get from LFS ive tested multiple times and no nitrate or phosphates so I know my water is good. I do reguar 20% water changes weekly. my protein skimmer pulls light brown in the collection cup about half a cup a week. I clean out my aquaclear 70 every water change and rinse out the sponge filter that is it there. I clean the protein skimmer once a month. I blow all the rocks with turkey baster right before water changes, I only feed once a day half a cube of blood worms and half a cube of Mysis shrimp. I thaw out in tap water strain in then put in tank water then feed with turkey baster I try not to give more than what I see they eat. I scrub the glass once a week. I blow the sand once a week to free any debri sitting due to dead zones. I just cant figure out what the problem is

 

[Lenny_S]

Carbon dosing might be worth a shot.

 

[bryan oestreich]

Carbon dosing might be worth a shot.

whats carbon dosing?

 

[Lenny_S]

This is a better explanation than I could give. [emoji6]
http://www.reefaquarium.com/2012/carbon-dosing-in-laymans-terms/

 

[ReefLEDLights]

Spectrum Matters.

Not all LED Fixtures Bin Their LEDs for the best reef spectrum.

Anything above 490nm is available in the natural shallow reef where these algae thrive...I've walked the tidal pools only to find thousands if not tens of thousands small hermit crabs feasting on this.

Each of our reefs are different and some can support a higher nutrient level with a shallow spectrum...Others do better under a reef spectrum especially with reduced nutrients for an SPS Tank

Carbon Dosing with Aggressive Skimming Works...Also lots of Critters in a perfect symbiotic balance works as well but is harder to achieve then balance.

As far as lights go. Choose one that gives you the flexibility of limiting the >490nm while being strong enough to provide enough <490nm for good growth...

Once you achieve good balance its nce to be able to tweak the >490nm spectrums for best looks.

Bill