how to get green algae instead of red

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saltguy21

Shmuck
Joined
Mar 28, 2004
Messages
70
Location
Kent, Ohio
How long should I leave my lights on for? standard lighting in a 120 gallon tank with fish only, no coral. I heard 14 hours from my lfs. he said less and the algae I would produce would be red.
 
From a newbies point of view ....... I run 12 hours @120w vho's and 10 hrs @ 2/250w MH, and from I still fight both green and red algae. From what I've been reading in this site I have actually two problems I'm trying to overcome.

1) I was using RO water only instead of RODI and that problem has been taken care of but still trying to remove extra nutrients from my tank with waterchanges.

2) My second problem is the wife does the feeding and tends to overdo it. I have tried to talk her into feedign less but she feels they are starvign to dead. I quote, "Look at the way they react, they are acting like they are staring to death already. And you want me to reduce how much I'm feeding?"

Well they are all really fat and getting fatter so I guess I've lost that battle. But i have added cato to the sump and trying other things as well. Guess all the crabs need to eat as well :) :)

Not sure if I answered you question but it is more than just a lighting issue from what I've learned. IMHO algea needs light to grow as well as food so ..........most everything I've read is it's an abundance of nutrients that is mostly the cause not lighting.

Please someone correct me if I'm wrong

Duane
 
Your cool Duane. Here is what will help you to get a better answer. What kind of lights? What kind of bulbs, what wattage and how many. What size tank? What are your nitrate levels, and phosphate level. To explain why, If you are using a 20 watt bulb on a 29 gallon with 0 nitrate and 0 phospate, you would get a different answer than if you were using 500 watts of MH with 220 watts of vho on a 75 gallon with nitrates of 50ppm and phosphates of 5 ppm. I hope this makes sense. Steve
 
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