MH lighting/hairline question

[reefgirl78]

Hi,
This is a hairline algae/lighting question:
I have a 120 gal. tall walk around full reef. I am running dual 250 watt mogul 20k bulbs. I want to get rid of my hairline problem and figure out if I should keep the 20k's or switch and get t-5 for the actinic and maybe do 10k or 12k or something. My sump is being filtered with liverock and no sand or lighting. I want to fix it all and figure out what to do to fix it all. I do 20 gal water changes every week and a half and all stats are great and I am running a phosban reactor as backup which helps some but not all.

Let me know what I should do? I am heading for bed but will respond when I get home from work tomorrow with questions.

Just tired of the hairline problem and figure it is a combo of lighting and filtration issues.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Alison...

 

[danno14]

Excess Algae is an issue with supply.... the lighting you list is supplying light for photosynthesis; what is supplying the nutrients? I would look at your water for "cleanliness" before simply changing bulbs. Granted, old bulbs have their spectrum fall to a point that they are great algae gro-lights. But if the nutrients are not there, or are not removed quickly enough, even old bulbs cannot grow algae.

What water are you using for top-off? For water changes? If an RO/DI filter, is it functioning properly? Is the DI cartridge flushing contaminants instead of removing them?

Supply and demand. Take away the supply and there is nothing left to demand it
Good luck!
D

 

[edwing206]

Hairline? Is that hair algae or what? I've never heard of that.

 

[dnjan]

... old bulbs have their spectrum fall to a point that they are great algae gro-lights. But if the nutrients are not there, or are not removed quickly enough, even old bulbs cannot grow algae.

The spectrum fall is apparent, and not the result of an increase in intensity at those wavelengths which enhance nuisance algae growth. All wavelength intensities tend to decrease as bulbs age - the apparent colour shift is because the wavelengths responsible for the bluish tint to the light decrease at a faster rate than the yellow and red.

I fully agree that nutrients are the major problem in many (if not most) nuisance algae problems. And unfortunately, if the nutrients are organic, they can be difficult to remove. Not all organics are removed by skimming.

 

[reefgirl78]

Thanks guys for your responses. I have a RO/DI unit installed into a 25 gal drum for water changes and top off so I am good on water. I think it is my sump. What would you recommend for best filtration. I am just filtering with liverock in the sump with no light and I think that is partly the problem. I am good on fish load and I do water changes every week and a half at 20 gals.

Let me know..
Thanks,
Alison

 

[reefgirl78]

Edwing206-
"Hairline? Is that hair algae or what? I've never heard of that."

This is a type of algae yes. It is bad and a pain in the butt to get rid of it. I scrub my rocks and scrub and it just comes back. I am slowly getting rid of it by water changes and the scrubbing and purple up helps with covering the rocks with coraline alge- a good kind.

I kind of giggled when you asked because if you had it you would know because you would not rest until you found the cure...
lol.

-Ali
__________________

 

[edwing206]

Oooh, Ok. Thanks for clearing that up.

 

[mcvicker]

I would recommend lighting your sump and using some cheato to "use up" any excess nutrients. You can use a simple grow light from the hardware store and plenty of people on the site will provide cheato. It also makes a great haven for pods.
-chris

 

[jedimike]

I think most of us have been through our fair share of algae breakouts. Here's what was successful for me...

1. Regular water changes - sounds like you are ok there
2. Algae eating fish - rabbitfish or kole tang
3. Removing phosphates - I used a phosphate reactor
4. Manually removing it - also helps shorten it so snails will then take care of rest
5. Installed refugium - macroalgae will "steal" nutrients from nuisance algae

notice that I've never changed my feeding habits. I'm sure that will also help control algae, but I tend to feed heavy and think my tank responds well to the nurishment. The quickest improvement I saw was from the fish. They love that stuff.

 

[TWallace]

I've never heard of hairline algae either and thought the subject was a joke. Got a picture of it?