[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Brown Algae out of control!
Jeff,
Your post left me wondering: how come that your aquarium with 2.25 watt/gal
suffers from a brown algae outbreak and no plant growth, while mine at
2.0 watt/gal had in the beginning only green or grayish algae varieties
(it's sparkling clean since them)? Mine also shows awesome plant growth and
pearling, at least on the top half of the plants closer to the lights.
And I started with lots of badly infected plants from a former setup.
A closer look at you particular lamp setup suggested me that it is the
excess blue light the culprit for the algae bloom. Or at least it could be
playing a significant role in it. You got both one Triton and one PowerGlo,
both of which put off way more blue photons than red (roughly a factor 3
more). The single GroLux, with its factor 2 excess red photons, cannot
balance out the mix well. And aren't blue-emitting lamps specifically
meant to feed algae in marine systems ? Brown algae should be specially
fond of blue light, that's why they are brown in the first place. Does this
reasoning make sense ?
Another possible factor could be the excess fish population for a 1-month
old tank. I had a similar problem: 46 gal tank with about 40" worth of fish
from day one. I used a phosphate absorbing resin in the filter and that
helped a long way in killing the algae (and cyanobacteria as well). BTW,
my tank never had any algae-eating critters except a solitary CAE.
-Ivo Busko
Baltimore, MD