Brown Algae

[Err]

Hi, I have a 75 that a month ago was a wonderful planted tank, well I got rid of it all and I now have a pair of 3" Oscars and some nice lights I will use for a reef tank I plan on setting up somtime in the near future. In the meantime however I am useing a nice little 54w coralife T5 strip, it came with a 6700k and color max bulb. I didnt care much for the 6700k against the white sand so 2 sec later I poped it out and put in the one 03 Actinic blue bulb I had next to the color max and presto! Love the look of the new light, well now I have Brown Algae growing, is this from the ligting? I never had algae problems with all the plants and 4w/gallon I used to run.

Here are my tank/water stats.

Filtration: Fx5, emp 400, mag350 always useing micron media (no carbon at all)

NH3/4=0 NO2/3=0 Ph=6.8 TDS=220 GH=4 KH=3 79-82F (no heater, I live in S. Texas)

50% wc's useing re mineralized/bufferd RO/DI every 3 days and a 5-10g quick vac of any poo or itty food scraps the fish leave every evening (refill useing RO/DI)

Sorry for the long write up I just wanted to provide all the details as to try and eliminate any guessing. Thanks!

 

[Err]

No ideas?

 

[Fishman0]

I've had the same problem in one of my tanks without too much luck so far

 

[Ullopincrate]

Using an actinic only you narrow your light spectrum. organisms that favor that spectrum are going to grow. Since the other light waves aren't present the organisms that grow under them aren't either.... This eliminates competition and is probably why the algae you are seeing is growing unhindered.