Lighting Question

[Mad Marik]

Not quite sure how to frame this, but here goes;

Whats the best white light to use, that will not affect tank growth at all?

In other words, I want a light for viewing, but not to interfere with my aquablues.

Hope that makes sense. Point here is, I have found, in my tank, that white lights tend to cause nuisance algae growth, so I wanted to minimize the white light interaction with my tank.

Thanks in advance.

[Rhodes19]

First, welcome to RS.

If you are having problems with nuisance algae I would look to your water parameters first. Usually there are high nitrates or phosphates, or both. As for the lights, that really depends on what you want to keep. Fish only, softies, lps, sps, clams. Once you know what you want you get the lights to support them. Nuisance algae will grow in most lighting conditions but they usually like the lower kelvin lights (6500 K). I am using 10,000 K bulbs on my tanks with some actinics to give a little blue tint to the tank.

Tell us some more about your tank and what is in it. How long has it been set up. Pictures are always nice.

HTH

[Mad Marik]

My lighting is new, its a Nova Extreme 36" - 4 x 39w

It comes with 2 white and 2 acnit, but I wasn't having a algae problem till I powered them up ( the new lights )

So that makes me believe its a lighting issue, I have ordered (4) Geiss Aquablues for it, and was going to run a low watt LED 36" tube for the white light when needed to try and cut down on the algae growth

I was just trying to figure if my thinking was correct. All my water tests are nominal as they have been for a while, none of the algae growth occurred till I added the new lights, so thats what prompted my question

[chipmunkofdoom2]

What spectrum were the whites?


It isn't white light that causes algal growth, it's predominantly the red spectrum that does. If you have 10,000k whites, then it likely was not the light change. 6,700k is more toward the red end of the spectrum and could have encouraged algal growth.

I'd look at your feedings and test results. You say the results are normal, but if there was any detectable phosphate or nitrates at all, I'd blame that before the lights.

[BigAl07]

It's not uncommon for new lights (new fixtures, bulbs etc) to cause an algae bloom. Your tank was "in balance" with light, nutrients, and algae. The additional light pushed that balance over a tad bit.

you have excess nutrients from one form or another and the new light gave it the BOOST to go wild

[carmexx]

Hey Mad Marik, I ran into the same thing when i upgraded to a 6 x 39w Current USA fixture. I had 3 10,000k and 3 460nm stock bulbs in it and I got an Algae Bloom that I have been fighting to this day. It's probably been months and months. I had problems with my fixture so I traded it in on another upgrade...an Aquatinics TX5 fixture and I went with 2 Ati Blue plus, 1 Fiji purple, 1 Geiss actinic 03 and 1 Geiss 6500k for growth. I definately think going Blue has helped with stunting the algae growth.

I think ,in your case, with replacing the stock bulbs you will be better off in the long run. Those Current USA bulbs are crap IMO.

[BigJay]

I am one to disagree strongly that lights are causing your algal bloom if its a long term issue. Seeing bleaching, algae , dino's etc under new lighting like Al said is common but shouldn't be a long term issue. All that being said I am not a fan of the bulbs current uses. They may be listed as a 10k bulb but who knows where its really peaking. Just based on my own obsverations with the naked eye they are not within spectrum and shift quickly. The naked eye test is hardly scientific but I can see a huge color difference from a 10k current bulb and that of manufacturers I trust.
As Carmexx posted I've used a 6500k bulb in my reef tank as well with no negative effects and if there is a bulb that should grow algae thats the one. I only removed it cause I didn't like the coloration.
Running pure actinics had not been proven to lessen algal blooms and may actually make them worse. Buy some good bulbs like ATI, UVL or Geisemann in the color spectrum that is appealing to you (10k, 11k , 12k,14k , 15k or 20k or a mix) and if the algae continues look for problems with excess nutrients.