this is pi$$ing me off.

[tank90]

Ok, I would like to discuss this with some folks......uv units. I have heard people say thery dont make much difference with fresh water tanks. I have 4 rays, aro, 3 shovelnose in my tank. I run an emp400, hot magnum, and an eheim pro2 on my tank. I do 25% water change every 2 days, I have black felt covering the back and both sides of me tank and guess what.....I still have brown algae all over my glass, I can take everything out of my tank, clean it, clean the glass, do a 50% water change, and withen 2 days everything is covered with brown algae. What the hell is going on ? Would a uv unit kill this problem ? because I am at a total loss. I use a coral life light delux 48 inch with 50/50 & 10,000 k bulbs, the 10,000k run for 8 hrs, and the 50/50 for 10 hrs a day other than that is lights out.

 

[prm]

The UV will only kill free floating algea spores, that means it will kill ones in the water that ARENT attatched to glass,decorations,rocks etc. So clean the tank real well before putting the UV in and you shouldnt have many problems.

 

[musichead707]

Ok, I would like to discuss this with some folks......uv units. I have heard people say thery dont make much difference with fresh water tanks. I have 4 rays, aro, 3 shovelnose in my tank. I run an emp400, hot magnum, and an eheim pro2 on my tank. I do 25% water change every 2 days, I have black felt covering the back and both sides of me tank and guess what.....I still have brown algae all over my glass, I can take everything out of my tank, clean it, clean the glass, do a 50% water change, and withen 2 days everything is covered with brown algae. What the hell is going on ? Would a uv unit kill this problem ? because I am at a total loss. I use a coral life light delux 48 inch with 50/50 & 10,000 k bulbs, the 10,000k run for 8 hrs, and the 50/50 for 10 hrs a day other than that is lights out.

1st off very informative post, everything we needed to know was in there, i love a post like that.

Well, i just hooked up my 1st uvs on my 240, im running a xp3 through it, and all i can say is WOW, its only been a few days but nitrates went down(could be xp3 which is also new) the water looks like aquafina to me, i can look long ways through 8 feet of water and can hardly tell the difference. As for algae, i dont think it has been running long enough for me to notice a change, but im hoping that it will start to decrease.

But if you are not wanting to shell out $100+/- than u might want to try and throw the algae growth off by having your lighting on for 2 hours but thenn turning it off for 1 hour and just try to change up the lighting cycle as often and as much as you can, which will help stop the quickness of the algae growth.

Hope this helps

Peace

 

[Miles]

UHhhhhh...

It's because your running 50/50s and 10ks.. They are SW bulbs, and the spectrum of light they put off is ideal conditions for 'brown diatom algae' growth..

Your bio-load will always keep nitrates and phosphates in the water, which will create a formula for Algae growth.. A UV might help fix the problem, but it helps alot more with 'floating' algae, not as much the brown diatom algae. Or you could tone down your lighting to regular 4000k-6500k bulbs..

The intense lights might irritate the Aro or Rays too.. They aren't used to that kind of lighting intensity like most marine fish.

 

[NVTE]

very interesting . I only turn the light one when the water get cloudy . UV is for float algae . try to remove phosphate and nutrients in water , that what my friend recommend.