Actinic lighting and algae?

Joined
6 May 2007
Posts
493
Reaction score
2
Location
Inverness Scotland
Guys just wanting to pick some brains out there...............

Q.
How well does problem algae do under atinics only ?

I am going to run halides for around 8 - 10 hrs a day but still need to work on the atinic schedule.

My thoughts were to have the main 400w (x3) running when we are mainly at home but thought about evenings with Atinic only and switch 1 of three tubes off over a three hour period but this would run into 15hrs total atinic...

Am I just asking for trouble

Any thoughts..........
 
from my experience actinics dont cause algea its our white bulbs that cause it.dont know if anyone else has had any bad algea experiences with actinics
 
I don't think the Kelvin rating is high enough for them to cause algea blooms. They will make your coralline grow though.
 
Again, lighting does not cause algae. Excess nutrients cause algae.

However, things grow better under "white" light like 6500K but pretty much the higher the PAR the faster they will go. (ceteris parabus for those latin speaking people out there ;))

Actinic lights have very low PAR so anything photosynthetic won't really grow under them. So now if you leave off the white lights and have only actinic lighting it will slow the growth of your algae, and if you have enough grazers it might give them the advantage as in they can now eat the algae faster than it grows. BUT you still need to be exporting those nutrients in some way. If you're skimming/DSB/phosphate remover are all good then you should see a positive effect when leaving the lights off.
 
Thanks folks,

I was just looking for reassurance I guess........... The dsb filter and skimmer will do the job but like us all I didn't want to create a situation but rather avoid it in the first instance...........

Cheers for your time.....
 
what i have found strange.is that one of my LPS corals was loaded with hair algea to a point where i couldnt even see it.took the piece and chucked it into my first compartment of my sump and left it there for 3 weeks as i forgot about it.after three weeks,i picked up the coral and looked at it,there was not a hint of algea to it.yet it was in the same high nutrient tank.can someone please explain that.
 
Rory is correct in what he says, you wont have problems under antinics.
 
Yes. You are depriving the algae of light and thus it dies. The "released" nutrients are either exported or are taken up by other algae growing in the display. So yes complete light deprivation does kill or at least impede algae. If it was an LPS it might have had another food source or it was just slower to die than the algae.
 
100% agree with Rory. Actinics have low PAR which will impede algae growth.
 
Back
Top Bottom