Red led leading to algae issues?

[brokereefer617]

Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts:

I made the switch from t5's to led's

Ever since i've had the Vega unit i run my red led's at 10% intensity and algae has started to take hold in my reef tank.

I havent changed anything and never had algae problems( not really a problem just some hair algae poping up in spots)
I rechecked my rodi water still at 0% tds and used another friends tds meter just incase mine may be faulty...

Just wondering if the red led is the cause for the algae to come about kind of like when you have an old bulb and havent changed that in a long time you would start to see a change of wavelength in colorspectrum


just a heads up i only feed a minimal amount
i run a barebottom tank
29g biocube with 3 fish , 2 clown and a small lunar wrasse
deltec mc500 skimmer
fuge
phos ban (which i just checked with hanna 0.03 ppm )

any info would be great
thanks

 

[-Logzor]

Perhaps you could cut out the red spectrum for a week or so and see if the algae subsides? I think it's definitely possible that the red spectrum could increase algae.

 

[classklown90]

I just placed an order for a Steves led retrofit in my biocube and I wanted red but they advised me against it for algae issues...idk if that helps

Sent from my SGH-T769 using Tapatalk 2

 

[jcdeng]

to answer your question, Yes, especially cyano algae. but I notice that T5s can do that also, ever since I changed one of my day light (white) to a purple plus I notice cyano bloom. I just use a tooth brush to clean them off every time I do maintanence.

 

[brokereefer617]

thank you for the responses i will report back soon with any progress i completly shut off the red and green leds
so we'll see.

 

[Jay6363]

I have a radion and with full power it has my red and greens blasting my tank. As I ramp down for the night I run red and blue combo looks nice and makes the corals pop. Have been running it this way for a year and a half, no algae issues

 

[jedimasterben]

You have nutrient issues. Unless you're using a large amount of red (at 100%, the Vega does not come close to having a large amount), you won't have issues. Red is just as powerful for photosynthetic processes as blue spectrum (both in algaes and in corals that use chlorophyll a), so I'd leave them up as much as possible.

 

[k2parkstar]

I think the red may have something to do with it. I run T5's and ever since I put in a Fiji purple I've had way more algae, so I took the bulb back out, my algae is subsiding.

 

[Trex]

You have nutrient issues. Unless you're using a large amount of red (at 100%, the Vega does not come close to having a large amount), you won't have issues. Red is just as powerful for photosynthetic processes as blue spectrum (both in algaes and in corals that use chlorophyll a), so I'd leave them up as much as possible.

Yep, get rid of the excess nutrients, and the algae issues will go away. Light alone (( no matter what "color"/spectrum )) will not cause algae to grow -- it needs nutrients too. Remove of of those (( need light, so that leave nutrients )) and the algae issues will go away, in time.