Does actinic lighting in FW tank cause algae?
- Thread starter JESTERX626
- Start date
hmm well I had actinic lighting on my fw tank and the water params was spotless so I dunno. I got a bad case of brown algae from it, I can rub it off my plants and it just floats around till it sticks to something. I've heard in the past that actinic lighting does cause the algae though so i dunno.
So what's the consensus guys?
So what's the consensus guys?
There is a reason why it is designed for Saltwater.
Find me a Freshwater Habitat anywhere in the world with as much lighting intensity as a reef.
Find me a Freshwater Habitat anywhere in the world with as much lighting intensity as a reef.
Actinic lamps aren't high intensity, just targeted to the blue spectrum.
JESTERX626, what other lighting and how many tubes are you using?
How big a tank?
If your running 2 actinic tubes change one to a 5000k - 6000k daylight tube (and save the old actinic to exchange out in six months
).
Has your tank just gone thru a cycling? You may notice a brown algae bloom them too.
Done a massive water change recently?
Brown algae feed off of Silicates, DOC (Dissolved Organic Compounds), Nitrates & Phosphates from the tap water unless you filter it. Could be where the algae came from (pleasant thought huh?)
If you can afford it get a UV sterilizer, do so...PetSmart has a couple cheap ones (check online then take the ad to the store for same pricing)... Install it after the filter if possible...then clean the tank_filter out most of it and kill anything that gets past the filter (put extra filter material on top of regular filter mat. and remove it the next day).
Got any pix?
Dr Joe
.
JESTERX626, what other lighting and how many tubes are you using?
How big a tank?
If your running 2 actinic tubes change one to a 5000k - 6000k daylight tube (and save the old actinic to exchange out in six months
).Has your tank just gone thru a cycling? You may notice a brown algae bloom them too.
Done a massive water change recently?
Brown algae feed off of Silicates, DOC (Dissolved Organic Compounds), Nitrates & Phosphates from the tap water unless you filter it. Could be where the algae came from (pleasant thought huh?)
If you can afford it get a UV sterilizer, do so...PetSmart has a couple cheap ones (check online then take the ad to the store for same pricing)... Install it after the filter if possible...then clean the tank_filter out most of it and kill anything that gets past the filter (put extra filter material on top of regular filter mat. and remove it the next day).
Got any pix?
Dr Joe
.
Miles;571832; said:
everywhere, the sun hits the ocean and the freshwater lakes and rivers you know so that argument doesnt stand up well in my book a good friend of mine has actinic lights on his 55 FW and has never once had an algae problem but of course he is very OCD about his tank
I myself have wondered this question. I had a tank that I put an actinic light on a small community tank (10g). I thought it would look cool.
1) The fish would freak out and hang out at the bottom.
2) It made the algae grow faster.
1) The fish would freak out and hang out at the bottom.
2) It made the algae grow faster.
i noticed a increase of algae from actinic on my tank before but i have a friend that uses it on his and has no probs but he also has ocd with his tanks
What's OCD? And yea it was in the past with my 29gal, I wanted the actinic lighting because it looked cool, though it was for SW. But yea I agree actinics are geared at the blue spectrum, it was one of those XXXX-GLO bulbs, such as power-glo, aqua-glo or something like that, it was one of those but the actinic one, it was 15w btw. So what's OCD?