less light to control algea

[drakebuffie]

I see posts where people with reef tanks reduce their lighting to control algea.

I have a finnex light and have monti, zoas, shrooms and a candy cane. All corals seem to be doing just fine.

Is running just blue lights for a few days give the corals what they need and keep white and red off to starve some of the algea?

Or am I off on this?

 

[Jedi1199]

I see posts where people with reef tanks reduce their lighting to control algea.

I have a finnex light and have monti, zoas, shrooms and a candy cane. All corals seem to be doing just fine.

Is running just blue lights for a few days give the corals what they need and keep white and red off to starve some of the algea?

Or am I off on this?

The term "Starve off algae" is a misnomer.

I wish we could get that mindset out of the hobby.

Algae will always be present in our ecosystems, just as it is in the ocean. What we need to understand is control, not eliminate.

The best defense is a strong offence in this case. A healthy micro-fauna is one of the biggest keys here.

Consider this... Have you seen those beautiful tanks that have been running for years and seem to have no algae at all? That is the microfauna doing its job. It simply eats the algae before we even know it is there. Copapods, and dozens of other living things, that we do not see with the naked eye, feed off of the algae before it has a chance to form a colony that we can see.

Obviously, once you have a full infestation, more drastic measures will need to be employed. A good CUC will also help keep it in check.

But to directly answer your question... Dialing back the lights, will starve to corals as well as the algae. Running full blue will not starve either one, although it "may" slow the growth of certain nuisance algal forms. I say "may" because in my own experience, algae grows under blues just fine.

 

[drakebuffie]

The term "Starve off algae" is a misnomer.

I wish we could get that mindset out of the hobby.

Algae will always be present in our ecosystems, just as it is in the ocean. What we need to understand is control, not eliminate.

The best defense is a strong offence in this case. A healthy micro-fauna is one of the biggest keys here.

Consider this... Have you seen those beautiful tanks that have been running for years and seem to have no algae at all? That is the microfauna doing its job. It simply eats the algae before we even know it is there. Copapods, and dozens of other living things, that we do not see with the naked eye, feed off of the algae before it has a chance to form a colony that we can see.

Obviously, once you have a full infestation, more drastic measures will need to be employed. A good CUC will also help keep it in check.

But to directly answer your question... Dialing back the lights, will starve to corals as well as the algae. Running full blue will not starve either one, although it "may" slow the growth of certain nuisance algal forms. I say "may" because in my own experience, algae grows under blues just fine.

Thank you for the answer.

Tank is fairly new. Started march 5th. One pink clown several snails several hermits 2 emeralds just added.

I have been looking to get a hob refugium and adding copods. Adding a one spot foxface tomorrow.

Need more cuc for sure.

 

[Jedi1199]

Thank you for the answer.

Tank is fairly new. Started march 5th. One pink clown several snails several hermits 2 emeralds just added.

I have been looking to get a hob refugium and adding copods. Adding a one spot foxface tomorrow.

Need more cuc for sure.

You can add Copapods directly to the tank. No need for a refugium. Do this well after lights out so they don't get eaten before they can settle and dig in.

What size is the tank. I am guessing from the "HoB" refugium that you either do not have a sump, or no room for a fuge in the sump?

Adding pods, and having a fuge are 2 completely different things and do 2 completely different jobs. A fuge aids in nutrient export. Pods eat algae and then become a food source. It is true that most people add pods to the fuge. Reasons for this are, one, usually no fish to eat the pods, and two, a good living space for pods to colonize and breed. They eventually work their way into the DT.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Turning the lights down or off is a very temp solution, if it does slow the algae down, it will just come back at full speed when you turn the lights back on. The only way to beat algae is by full assault: reduce lighting to 7-8-9 hours per day, control feeding, monitor and control phosphates, increase CUC, frequent manual removal by scrubbing with a toothbrush, add more flow, etc.... Bottled stuff also works, but if the underlying problems are not resolved, the algae will always come back.

 

[sfin52]

Think off a reef like the Serengeti. The biggest food source is grass. There are a ton of herbivores to keep the grass mowed down.

A healthy reaf is the same way. Your tank is going to have algea. There's a couple things to do. Adding a refugium or algea scrubber will allow you to harvest algea. The other option is cuc which you'll need anyway.
Fish that will eat algea are important, I consider them part of the maintenance crew. A couple of examples foxface and tangs. A foxface has a wide and diverse palet. They can eat everything from bubble algea to turf.

When adding cuc its important for a new tank to slowly increase cuc. You add too many too fast they may starve because of lack of food. Most cuc don't like long flowing algea (forrest). Manual removal to help keep it short works better and allows your cuc to more efficient.

 

[drakebuffie]

You can add Copapods directly to the tank. No need for a refugium. Do this well after lights out so they don't get eaten before they can settle and dig in.

What size is the tank. I am guessing from the "HoB" refugium that you either do not have a sump, or no room for a fuge in the sump?

Adding pods, and having a fuge are 2 completely different things and do 2 completely different jobs. A fuge aids in nutrient export. Pods eat algae and then become a food source. It is true that most people add pods to the fuge. Reasons for this are, one, usually no fish to eat the pods, and two, a good living space for pods to colonize and breed. They eventually work their way into the DT.

70 gal tank. only 1 fish in there right now so adding pods should be sucessful

any pods you recommend or place to get them from??

 

[drakebuffie]

You can add Copapods directly to the tank. No need for a refugium. Do this well after lights out so they don't get eaten before they can settle and dig in.

What size is the tank. I am guessing from the "HoB" refugium that you either do not have a sump, or no room for a fuge in the sump?

Adding pods, and having a fuge are 2 completely different things and do 2 completely different jobs. A fuge aids in nutrient export. Pods eat algae and then become a food source. It is true that most people add pods to the fuge. Reasons for this are, one, usually no fish to eat the pods, and two, a good living space for pods to colonize and breed. They eventually work their way into the DT.

no sump correct

 

[Jedi1199]

https://www.algaebarn.com/ Thats the "where"

Tig pods are most common. They have a couple others that are available. I use Tig pods in my own tank, but I will also be adding a couple of the others in my system to add to the bio-diversity.

 

[Bpb]

Without reading the whole thread, you’re not entirely off but definitely not “on”. You’ll starve and stunt the corals into not doing much, just as much as you’ll be doing to the algae. It’s better to stock things that will consume the algae than to try and create an environment where it can’t grow. Algae and coral will be equally happy under the same conditions. Algae is a normal and important part of the reef ecosystem. It just looks unsightly so we stock things to keep it eaten/trimmed

 

[minus9]

Old school phrase to live by, "you don't have an algae problem, you have a herbivore problem". Remove the herbivores and algae grows. The same conditions that corals need to grow are the exact same conditions algae needs to grow. Controlling algae via nutrients (reduction) is a complete waste of time and I've never seen a case where that was proven to do the job.

 

[jdpiii3]

You need to figure out where your algae is coming from just reducing light isn't going to fix your issue.

How good is your RO water is it truly zero TDS?

What types of nutrient export are you using?

How is your water movement do you keep debris and detritus suspended in order to be filtered out?

Are you overfeeding?

Using natural sunlight to light my 400 learning how to properly control nutrient export was the key to managing algae.

 

[ClownSchool]

I see posts where people with reef tanks reduce their lighting to control algea.

I have a finnex light and have monti, zoas, shrooms and a candy cane. All corals seem to be doing just fine.

Is running just blue lights for a few days give the corals what they need and keep white and red off to starve some of the algea?

Or am I off on this?

I’ve watched coral farms give tours and talk about their lighting experiments.
More than one has claimed a high intensity over eight hours produces less nuisance algae than lower intensity for ten, or twelve, hours.

 

[jdpiii3]

I’ve watched coral farms give tours and talk about their lighting experiments.
More than one has claimed a high intensity over eight hours produces less nuisance algae than lower intensity for ten, or twelve, hours.

I could definitely see that I have full spectrum high intensity natural sunlight over my tank all day long algae has never really been a problem.

 

[drakebuffie]

I could definitely see that I have full spectrum high intensity natural sunlight over my tank all day long algae has never really been a problem.

How do you accomplish that?

 

[drakebuffie]

You need to figure out where your algae is coming from just reducing light isn't going to fix your issue.

How good is your RO water is it truly zero TDS?

What types of nutrient export are you using?

How is your water movement do you keep debris and detritus suspended in order to be filtered out?

Are you overfeeding?

Using natural sunlight to light my 400 learning how to properly control nutrient export was the key to managing algae.

I have a relatively new ro buddy. TDS meter reads 0.
I have a skimmer and change my filter socks twice a week as well as a 5 gal weekly water change. Did a 10 gal recently.
I only have 1 fish in there, Getting my second today which is a 1 spot fox face which should help with GHA. I have over a dozen hermits, 2 emerald crabs and more snails than I can count. Need more snails and hermits though I beleive.

Over feeding is definitley not a problem. I feed several pellets a day to the clown and watch him eat most if not all of them.

My flow is very good. I sometimes think its too much actually.

 

[rsumner]

I don't want to place blame on the Finnex light (because I know nothing about it), but you definitely want to keep the reds at a minimum. I use AI lights and have my red channel reduced to 4% intensity.

It looks like you're following a good regiment and have a cleanup crew to help with surface algae -- that's good. On the topic of cleanup crew -- make sure you aren't starving them. When they die-off, your phosphates will sky rocket drastically outweighing the benefit of underfeeding. It sounds like this is a fairly new setup, so test your phosphates frequently during these early days. Don't overdo it by zeroing-out your Po4, but keep the numbers healthy and in correct contrast to your Nitrate. Consistent and balanced nutrients is what I've found to be the most successful. Just keep in mind, that algae is a reality in our reef tanks -- the key is having the right balance of food for the competitive organisms to keep the undesirable algae at bay.

Finally: one thing that will help you is running 100% of your return water through a UV sterilizer capable of delivering 30,000 uw/cm2 at your flow rate. Any free floating algae and algae spores will get zapped by the UV and prevent them from replicating. It's not a silver bullet, but it's a tool in the arsenal.

 

[jdpiii3]

How do you accomplish that?

Check my build

 

[drakebuffie]

Check my build

Just did. Very cool and alot of cash.

 

[minus9]

Did you start the tank with dry rock? If so, how long did you cycle/cure it before starting the tank?