does light colour affect black algea growth?

[Mattzilla]

Hi i have bad balck algea on some of my tanks.... i have been told to get some young flying fox to clean it up but i was wondering if the colour of the light tubes affect the growth?

In one tank i used to have one white and one blue globe and i didn't seem to get that much black algea... well about a month ago the blue light died so i put another spare white one in. since then the black algea has gone crazy and is taking over the tank. i understand that more light can often mean more algea.

The tank is a standard 3fter with two globes now, which are:

1 x Atman 15000k Tri-Power Light (slight purple tinge to it)
1 x Atman 10000k Super Light (white colour)

I fertilize with Sera Florena at the reccomended dose.

i have attached some pictures of the problem

i was considering putting a blue globe back in.

any suggestions of ideas?

Thanks
matt

[MFG]

Hi,

i have the same problem, at least i know that my BNs are not working.

regards
MFG

[rwel4809]

I'm not sure about the globes but as you probably know, black algae indicates that the light - fertz - C02 balance is off.

With slow growing Anubis being the victim I am guessing that it is too much fertz too little C02.

Do you have any fast growers like wisteria (hygrophilla difformis) in the tank to suck up the excess nutrients? It might help.

I believe that double dosing flourish excel might solve your problem for now.

I reakon SAE's are pretty good at preventing BBA by eating it when it starts to grow... but I'm not sure if they will eat it once it has grown to that stage... I'd be interested to find out though :)

HTH and sorry if I'm just telling you what you already know :D

[Xtreme]

Matt, forgot too sms you back, SAE's are in store for ya :)

Bec

[Mattzilla]

spewing i was in there today!

will try to pop in tomorrow on the way home from work again.... about 2pm

ciao
matt

[fish_r]

with BBA i squirt excel direct onto the affected areas with a syringe and within a few days u will find it will die off. then just dose excel as per directions and maybe cut down ur lighting hrs in a 24hr period and should help to fix the problem.
if u see it coming back again dose excel up to double strength.

[Krumpet]

Hey mate, I have the same problem in my tank, really frustrating stuff. I found that even reducing the lighting by about 2hrs a day pretty much stunted the problem. I find when i clean it off the glass it doesn't grow back anymore (well anywhere as quickly), which is better than nothing for now. Was actually wondering if anyone knew whether or not a uv sterilizer would make a difference or not?

[MangoR34]

Same with mine but mine are all over the gravel, glass walls and some on the leaves of my Helferi >.<!

[fishgeek]

the lamps have very high kelvin rating , are they correct... normal daylight would be something in the range of 6000ish

i dont think any of the studies into spectrum actually suggested that colour made that much difference, initially red and blue peaks were suggested as best (your purple looking lamp!)


i would maybe propose nitrogen deficency as being part of the issue, especially in a discus keepers tank where you are probably aiming for no nitrates at all

andrew

[fishgeek]

guessing that the florena is traces and contains no macronutrients