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Innovative Marine Aquariums

Light setting question


Noobreefer90

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Ok so I left my blue nightlights on all night and day and came home to brown algae all over my acrylic glass the blue leds are really bright but on there lowest setting can’t go any lower. 

Would the blue leds cause the brown algae. And when I turn the light on bright for daytime I turn it on full blast Which is all leds on blue and white does the corals need the blues to grow or should I adjust the blues down some during the day to mostly just white 

 

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Little more info would help. How old is your tank, do you test/ know your nutrient level/ how long do you run your lights/ what lights are you using ("full blast" varies greatly). Either way i would not run my blues all night and tone them down some during your day cycle.

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Blue light doesn't really grow algea well, and at its lowest setting especially wouldn't cause it. 

 

But regardless of light, excess nutrients are the cause of large blooms. And as far as that goes, as mentioned above, more info would be needed to determine the source. 

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Light doesn't really cause algae, it fuels its growth but nutrient issues is what causes it.

 

Running moonlights all night is not normally an issue because the lighting is super low. 

 

Algae loves lighting at 6500k, so usually white and red spectrum.

 

A lot of hobbyists run heavy blue lights and low white, to prevent algae issues and the blue spectrum is essential to corals as well as making them "pop"

 

 

What light do you use and have you checked your phosphates and nitrates?

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Brown algae all over the Glass, sounds like Diatoms, I'm guessing your tank is fairly new, this would be a typical result of a Cycle. If its not new you have probably put heavy stress on the bio-load? 

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31 minutes ago, Exodus said:

Brown algae all over the Glass, sounds like Diatoms, I'm guessing your tank is fairly new, this would be a typical result of a Cycle. If its not new you have probably put heavy stress on the bio-load? 

The tank has only been up and running for maybe 3 weeks and I will have to test water this evening I dosed with spectrum prime about 4 days ago.  

 

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46 minutes ago, Noobreefer90 said:

The tank has only been up and running for maybe 3 weeks and I will have to test water this evening I dosed with spectrum prime about 4 days ago.  

 

Bingo! Your Cycle is running its course :) Diatoms are perfectly natural and will go away after some time, in the meantime don't go adding anything new to your aquarium, give some time for beneficial bacteria to populate and keep up with your water changes and weekly maintenance. 

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CarolinaShoreReef

Just wanted to throw this out there. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4584358/#idm139953390181504title 

 

Blue light absolutely stimulates the growth of algae. Chlorophyll b absorbs optimally at (~400nm; blue light) and chlorophyll a at (~700nm; red light). That’s why you’ll see people using blue and red grow lights for their algae and other photosynthetic organisms.

 

*This is not to deviate from the point that, the tank is cycling and producing many nitrogenous and phosphoric compounds which are readily used up by the algae for growth.* 

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