Old leds

[Jeff3313]

Ive had my tank running for 5 years. It is currently a fowlr tank and I use two Chinese box’s bought 3 years ago. The tank is 125 gallons with a 20 gallon sump. I use a sock, a huge reef octopus skimmer, and a phosphate reactor. I’m still having algae growth (green hair). I took all the rocks out and scrubbed the algae off about three weeks ago because I couldn’t stand looking at it any more. Under the bad stuff was coralline algae. The green and now brown algae are coming back and covering the coralline.
My lfs says I need new lights. I trust them as they are friends of mine and they’ve never steered me wrong. I can’t find anywhere saying old less cause algae growth.
I do a 30% water change every 2 weeks. I was doing it every week for three months then about three monthsago cut it to every two weeks.
Do old leds cause algae growth?

 

[Somuchflo99]

#reefsquad

 

[Flippers4pups]

People say that they can loose output over time, but there isn't any statistical data backing in that claim. As many people that have had them for periods much, much longer than you, I would have to say "no".

Let's start off with the basics.

What's your water pramameters?
Do you use RO/DI water in your system?

And, welcome to reef2reef!

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Light alone doesn't cause alge
Any light can grow it. Some lights have more of what green plants like , but you can't just say a bb causes alge. You need to know what spectrum is in the light. Knowing the brand , and the spectrum of that brand is important

Edit. T5 and MH get "warm" when they get old , orange yellow reds , leds usually , don't get warm.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Personally I've never heard of this before. LEDs are one of those things either they work or they don't work I've never heard of them losing power over time. I guess it's possible. LEDs have a life of about 50000 hours even if they left them on 24/7 365 for the three years that you had them that's only 26,000 hours so you only have half life on those LEDs still. Again that's 24/7 365 you're probably only running them from 8 to 12 hours per day

 

[Hitman]

I would say no. If the lights were not performing then even the algae would not be able to grow. Just my thought.

 

[Jeff3313]

Ok. Thanks. That helps.
I got my nitrates way down. They were high for a while. The phosphates are my current issue.
I’ll increase water changes. I didn’t think it was the lights.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Ok. Thanks. That helps.
I got my nitrates way down. They were high for a while. The phosphates are my current issue.
I’ll increase water changes. I didn’t think it was the lights.

Possibly less food for awhile till you get them in check.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

A little gfo, some snails and crabs , and a toothbrush.

 

[Cory]

Leds getting old wont cause algae to grow. As far as I know led spectrum doesnt shift with age, intensity does. Having more red color, especially in the 660nm range will promote algae more than any other color. Algae need red for growth. In nature algae flourish in shallow waters. At deeper depths algae gets less and less. Why? Red is absorbed quickly the deeper you get.

Thus If you can turn down the red or white (which has red) to the bare minum, algae growth will be halted, but not killed.

What gets rid of algae in nature are sea urchins, snails, crabs, mollusks, fish especailly parrot fish zooplankton and bacteria. But each species is an expert at hunting certain algaes. No single predator will completely eliminate all algaes. For example rotifers would eat phytoplankton while snails most eat films. And sea urchins can mow down grassy types.

A study was done where sea urchins were taken from a local coral reef. Algae grew rampant. They put them back and algae growth subsided.

Another study was done where they screened off a section of the reef barring any entry from predation. What happend? Algae grew over it. Grazing fish couldnt eat it. After they removed it, the algae dissapeared.

Dosing carbon sources is a very effective way to eliminate hair algae, except for cyanonacteria.

Gfo, and other phosphate binders may work, but other living things may suffer such as coral, as they are also photosythetic like algae. Thus your best option is predators. I dose vinegar to keep algae at bay.

Carbon sources work by doing a few things. First as bacteria grow, they consume no3 and po4 which are algaes food thus setting up effective algal competition. Secondly as bacteria levels rise, your tank gets covered in a film thats barely noticable. This is most obvious on the glass. This film is now in the space where algae would have grown. Since it took algaes place, algae hasnt got the space to grow. Makes sense? Bacterial barrier sort of.

Now, if your already dosing a carbon source use more. This will help a lot. But lets not forget predators to help too. Hope this helps.