Lights...Camera...ALGAE!!!

[WhiteRat]

Right. So I've been reading about people's different photoperiods. My ~2-month old tank has been going 14 hours on 2x55w 50/50 10K/True Actinics and 4 hours (around noon) on a 10K 175W metal halide. Everyone else was using many more hours of MH, soooooooo I decided to try 14 hrs of the 50/50 and 10 hours of the MH.

 

My corals LOVED IT. Visible expansion all over the place.

 

So did that damned brown algae that grows on the glass which I hadn't had before.

 

Temporarily I've STOPPED with the MH completely to try to give my snails the chance to reduce the algae. They aren't catching up, from what I can see.

 

So, opinions here: Should I (1) not worry about having 'more intense lighting for a longer photoperiod' and go back to 14/4, (2) go back to the longer photoperiod and hope the algae will go away, (3) go back to the longer photoperiod and buy a few more snails?

 

Ratty

Ratty's Reef

[Masoch]

You might want to check here for some info:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/bgafaqs.htm

I've been dealing with a cyano outbreak since I added some live rock. If'n you do have cyano and if I've done my reading right, they slurp back phosphates like nobody's business; in fact, they require more phosphates than nitrates unlike most of their cousins.

 

The control methods boil down to water changes / direct removal of the slime and/or improved skimming and/or some macro algae to lower the phosphates. The water changes and skimming remove disolved organics from the system while the macro ties it up in growth. Cutting back on light might even be contra-indicated. Did anything else in your tank change?

 

Hope this helps!

 

Oh, and phosphate testing kits are, apparently, not that accurate at detecting organic phosphates.

[| ReEFnEwB1E |]

I had the same problem algae in my 100 gallon fowlr too. So, I went to ReefCentral.com and asked for advice. They told me it's a part of the cycling process and algae blooms are normal for the newer tanks because our tanks and perimeters are not stable yet like a matured tank. For the mean time they said to cut back on lighting from 12hrs a day to 10hrs or from 10hrs to 8hrs... something like that. Then they said to clean as much off as possible and just make routine waterchanges. Caulerpa does help also in reducing Phosphates & Nitrates that these nuissance algaes feed on so maybe a Refuge with some Caulerpa would help. I also tested a few snails & hermits to see which ones would do the job of taking some of it in and found that the Left handers, Turbo snails and the Mythrax Crab does the job quite nicely. After like a month most of it was gone and whatever was left just simply got siphon'd out. Good luck with your tank!