Any light schedule recommended for biocube 32 with Steves LED upgrade? Have a lot of green algae growing on sand bed since upgraded. Water parameters are all good. Im running blues for 12 hrs w 2 hr ramp up and down and whites about 10 hrs in between. Almost all LPS in the tank. Do the LPS need that much white?
Light upgrade now algae
- Thread starter Alanm60
- Start date
Imo you don't need to run them for 12 hours. I run my lights for 8 hours.
How old is the tank? What are your nitrates and phosphates ? Also I would shorten the time your lights run
I have the same light setup on my biocube 32. I rebooted the tank about 8 months ago. The only time i see problem algae is when nitrates and/or phosphates get out of control. I try to keep nitrates below 20 and phosphates below .1 .When i keep the nutrients under control I only have to scrape some minor dust algae off the glass once or twice a week. I run m lights for 10 hours a day with 2 hours ramp up and down. That gives me about 6 hours of high light. I have the blue channel cranked way up and adjust the white channels till i like the way things look.
The first step I would take is to test and post NO3 and PO4 levels. The 2nd thing I would do is shorten the light schedule. I run my light for 8 hours with blues only an hour before and an hour after the whites torn off and on. I guess that really means I run my blues for 10 hours with the whites for 8 but you know what I mean.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I am going to try reducing the time. I suppose that the stock lighting is not a good guage since I had those on 12hrs with no algae. I know my nitrates are under 20 but since I dont have a phosphate test Ill take it to my lfs. It was a little elevated a month ago but my guy said not too bad and have been running Seachem Phosguard since then.
I would invest in a phosphate test. If it goes high it can be trouble and if it goes to low it can be trouble too. Just take your time and make small changes. We all go through problems like this and the best thing is to take things slowly.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I am going to try reducing the time. I suppose that the stock lighting is not a good guage since I had those on 12hrs with no algae. I know my nitrates are under 20 but since I dont have a phosphate test Ill take it to my lfs. It was a little elevated a month ago but my guy said not too badand have been running Seachem Phosguard since then.
Will do..which do you recommend?
I like the Hanna ULR phosphate checker and i keep a salifert phosphate test kit as a backup. If the Hannah checker is not in your budget I would get the salifert test. Any test is better than nothing.
