New light, New algae

[Kroeger]

Hey everyone,
I've recently purchased a new light for my 65 gallon FOWLR. I use to have a single bulb light fixture but am planning to start corals so i got a new four bulb fixture. since i've replace the fixture i've been growing new algae and am wondering what i'm doing wrong... PLEASE HELP!!!
here are some photo's of the algae growing

 

[ost911]

cyanobacteria imo. try to cut your lighting and slowly increase hours per day.

what kind of filtration? have you tested your Phosphates and nitrates?

 

[sasquatch]

its a fowlr setup, this is just the start of your new bff lol, unless your willing totally get radical on the tank... go back to the single bulb, you have literally opened Pandora's box

 

[DaveK]

It's not so much that your doing anything wrong. It's a function of adding more light. Algae can be limited in a tank by several means. One way is to limit the amount of light. Another is to limit nutrients, mostly nitrate and phosphate in the system. Since you have massivly increased the amount of light, you have removed that limitation. So now algae can easily grow. To stop the algae growth now, you have to control nitrate and phosphate.

The potential sources of nitrate and phosphate are feeding and fish wastes, and the water you are using to mix your salt. There are a few others, but they are less common.

To remove nitrate and phosphate, you can do water changes, use a large powerful skimmer, user algae scrubbing or a refugium growing macro algae, using various chemical media to absorb them, and cutting down on feeding. Usually you'll need to use one or more of the methods.

 

[Teddynola]

If you want a reef, which i highly recommend, then fluor need to acclimate your tank to the new lighting. Try a few days of complete darkness, then slowly increase your photoperiod. IMO, a reef is worth the extra work.

 

[Kroeger]

I was planning on buying a reef octopus bh100 protein skimmer would that be good enough for my 65 gallon tank? I don't have the room for the refugium and at my LFS they told me I should feed pellets in the morning and frozen food at night but my fish sleep if the lights aren't on because the aquarium is in the basement do there's no natural lighting. Should I just have the light on to feed them for now?

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Kroeger - how many fish do you have, what types & how much do you feed them... how many hours a day have you been running the lights? How often do you do water changes & in what %?

If you don't run a skimmer now... one will help for sure... the reef octopus bh100 is rated for a 50 gallon aquarium

I would consider only feeding frozen & less often - I feed my fish in my 66 gal only frozen & every other day - grazing fish like tangs, keeping nori hung is recommended.

Hi Ted,

to ReefSanctuary, a real Sanctuary of reef forums, with lots of very nice members

 

[Kroeger]

Nanoreefing4fun- I have two fire fish two clowns one yellow tang one orchid dottyback and one tangaroa goby. For my cuc I have 35 hermit crabs two cleaner shrimp and three turbo snails. For my filtration I use the Rena xp2 filter. My lighting turns on at 12 and off at 7. Also I do a 10% water change every Sunday.