Will old lights effect algae growth?

[fishflop]

:confused: I am having a problem with green hair algae!!! For those who saw my last post...STILL!!! I know that old lights will encurage algae growth however, my lights are about 7 months old...how much will that effect it? I have a 10g tank with a maxi jet 300 and a tetra tec filter. I have 65w actinic and 55w white. My phosphates are zero-.05 and my nitrates are zero. I keep my actinics on for one hour before whites and one hour after for a total of 10 hours. I have JUST reduced them to a total of 8. Do you think that this will make any difference at all???

[HARKAWAL]

You Must Have Organics In Your Water Algae Cannot Grow With Out It. Check Your Water Sample From A Few Shops If Posible. Rowaphos - Carbon - Ozone Will Help To Rid Of Problem. In My Experience At The Present Time Do Not Do Any Water Changes Which Will Help To Feed The Aglae. Nutrients Must Be Coming In From Some Form. Dont Worry About Your Lights Unless They Are Not Form Marine Tanks. Lights Which Are Well Over 1,1/2 Years Old Will Encourage Algae. Reducing The Time The Lights Are On Will Make A Differenc. 6 - 7 Hours Of White Light Is Still Fine Leave The Actinics On For A Little Longer If This Application Is Used....

[Glenn@home]

FWIW

The light emitted by a lamp changes in spectrum typically with the age of the lamp. When a lamp ages it typically shifts from the blue to the red end of the spectrum.

As i understand it most photsynthetic lifeforms (micro and macro algea) prefer light towards the red end of the spectrum and corals prefer it towards the blue end. Hence the ageing lamp issue.

So part of the problem may be attributed to the lamps and of course water quality may also a problem.

Regarding nutrients in your water as far as i can make out you will always have nutrients in your water, but using large skimmers, algeal scrubbers etc will minimise them and long term, prevent serious outbreaks of algea growth, but its unlikley you will not have any.

I see that you are new to the board, does this mean your setup is relatively new too?

Many tanks go through a series of phases including the growth of algea before becoming established and stable. This may be the case with your tank.

A bit more info might help give a better diagnosis.

[lenny]

:confused: I am having a problem with green hair algae!!! For those who saw my last post...STILL!!! I know that old lights will encurage algae growth however, my lights are about 7 months old...how much will that effect it? I have a 10g tank with a maxi jet 300 and a tetra tec filter. I have 65w actinic and 55w white. My phosphates are zero-.05 and my nitrates are zero. I keep my actinics on for one hour before whites and one hour after for a total of 10 hours. I have JUST reduced them to a total of 8. Do you think that this will make any difference at all???
you could try leaving all your lights off for a few days or up to a week and see if the algae reduces. if it does then it shows its your lights but if no difference then it,s down to nutrients . i,m havng the same prob at the moment and it has cleared up a bit after 4 days with no light on. will not hurt to cut your feed down by at least half while you try this. lenny

[fishflop]

I have actually had this tank "running" for 2 years and I use the term "running" loosely. I have only recently (the last 4 months) become very serious about this hobby. I became serious after conquering a cyano bloom last October. The Cyano killed EVERYTHING in the tank. A couple corals, a few snails, and a fish. I was really frusturated on Sunday and took the tank apart and scrubbed ALL of the rock. It really looks beautiful now. I also tested Alkilinity, PH, Calcium, Nitrate, and Phosphate. Po4 was the only thing off a bit at .1-.2 hopefully the rock scrubbing will help

[jon h]

HI
thats really intresting about old lights,mine were 2 years old and i was getting loads of cyno and algae,and always wondered if it was the lights:confused: .Because every other reading was good.I wasn't being lazy i was due to take tank apart so didn't change bulbs.
cheers jon;)

[wayne in norway]

The red content doesn't increase, however the blue content drops first and much faster. The overall effect is less intensity, and a more red colour. But I guess that means there's less 'vigour' in the activity of the organisms that compete with algae for nutrients.

[kim]

Wayne,

Do you have any evidence for that ? I'm not trying to be silly.

It does seem that correlated colour temp drops over time, and I've never really understood why, and your post got me thinking.

Possibly those ions which give out the blue light tend to "precipitate" out more easily, and become useless deposits and therefore no longer constribute as time passes.

But, perhaps also, this would itself lead to more red light since the remaining ions would have the field to themselves when grabbing the energy to emit light. Clearly we aren't converting lead to gold inside a halide, what does happen ?

It's also clear that "red" light tends to encourage vegetative growth. But it's not so clear to me that there's competition among the photosynthesing organisms, as opposed to a change in population among the radiating ions in the lamp.

If that makes sense...

kim

[wayne in norway]

The first bit or the last bit? The last bit is I suppose a presumption on my part - our tanks can be either a 'coral reef' or an 'algal reef' - we manipulate enviromental factors to decide what is dominant at a point in time, to encourage coral polyps and 'desirable' bacteria to outcompete bactere and unfavorable bacteria for the unfavourable nutrients. Light is an enviromental factor like any other.

The first bit I'd have thought was common knowledge. Bulbs are made, coloured by having different chemicals added in differing quantities. You then belt these with elctrons, which over time degrades the chemicals at different rates. If the things didn't degrade, you'd never need to change your lightbulb, but they do, and you do.
I don't have any specific quotes or references - I recall seeing that higher wattages = more electrons = faster wear, and that the lifespan of usable 1000watt 20K bulbs was about 90 days max. I guess Sanjay Yoshi has some stuff showing comparative spectra after 180 days or whatever.

I will have a look around

[Glenn@home]

Interesting point about the way the intensity of the various wavelenghts doesnt increase, bur rather the higher wavelenghts decrease. Never thought about the mechanism too much, only the impact of using a lamp with a red shifted output.

Its interesting to ponder the reasons why old lamps may consider the gorwth of undesireable algeas over desireable organisms, but it does seem obvious that if the spectrum shifts in such a way that the desireable wavelengths reduce that those organisms relying on them will do less well.

I wonder if its as simple as this in real life?