Could my programming on my LED be causing algae?

[saltyfilmfolks]

Kinda ironic now to illustrate that plants get most of. Their power from blue.

And also illustrates why coral light manufactures started adding red.

 

[Lenny_S]

Kinda ironic now to illustrate that plants get most of. Their power from blue.

And also illustrates why coral light manufactures started adding red.

Sort of... photosynthetic organisms adapt to their environment. Most corals live at depths where the red spectrum has been almost if not entirely absorbed by the water, so they have adapted to use the blue spectrum which is still abundant. While algae grows at the surface or very shallow depths where the red spectrum still penetrates. So yes, both ends of the spectrum fuel photosynthesis, but it does not mean both are used by all life.
Interesting article on red light and coral...
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/red-light-negatively-affects-health-of-stony-coral

 

[jsker]

Very interesting, when I first installed my H 26 Hd's I was told to turn down the red for the reason I was having an algae issue. Let ask this. Do you think I need to tweak my reds still? Also do you think I should raise my UV and Violets? @Lenny_S @saltyfilmfolks

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

That actually goes for trees and plans as well. The sky is blue and most indirect light is well. Blue.
And yea I'v read that one a lot.
Raises more questions for me than answers. As many corral also grow at sea level but photosynth shuts down in coral at about 350 par. So how bad is it. And begs the question what depth is your coral from exactly and what color light should you really be keeping it at.
Danas research is on the coral in the tide pool next to his house and he also shows a huge colony the size of a house twenty feet under the water. Lotta Roy there. IMO
So We also from Dana know it wants red.
IMO it's this conflicting data that has skewed the led market. And Moneygrubbing full spectrum everything in HD too.
We need red. But too much may be bad. And some coral don't get any red at all.

And yellow. Oy don't get me started on yellow [emoji1]

So for me the ever skeptical reefer. The jury is still out.
Everyone always in the hobby level has always asked the same question or make the same blame. My light is growing algae or cyano.
Funny thing is. Coral and algae need the same light.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Very interesting, when I first installed my H 26 Hd's I was told to turn down the red for the reason I was having an algae issue. Let ask this. Do you think I need to tweak my reds still? Also do you think I should raise my UV and Violets? @Lenny_S @saltyfilmfolks

No one really knows yet what uv does it if the uv diode does anything. They also don't know on the other end of the spectrum what ur or ir does in nature or a tank.
Keeping in mind red has a longer wavelength so penetrate much deeper. That's we use it to explore space.
Is these mysteries of photon production that make up all the theory behind the t5 mh myth. As both produce more photons than you can see and much more evenly in the testable visible spectrum.
Led are narrow band emitters and usually use a filter.

So in short. I don't know. How do the corals look. What depth are they from

 

[jsker]

No one really knows yet what uv does it if the uv diode does anything. They also don't know on the other end of the spectrum what ur or ir does in nature or a tank.
Keeping in mind red has a longer wavelength so penetrate much deeper. That's we use it to explore space.
Is these mysteries of photon production that make up all the theory behind the t5 mh myth. As both produce more photons than you can see and much more evenly in the testable visible spectrum.
Led are narrow band emitters and usually use a filter.

So in short. I don't know. How do the corals look. What depth are they from

"LOL" Various depths, corals look good, very good. I am guessing, if it is not broke do not fix it.:)

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Lol right!

@Lenny_S id really have to read the actual paper not the head line to determine how much it really effects it. It may have been more a experiment to collect data points than active actual conclusions and the short article doesn't list the actual spectrum used in detail It's shows red bad. And pics of dead coral. In lab I'd assume that's the extreme. I blew that one off because of that the first time I read it.

 

[lion king]

Brady Brunch I see you already lowered your reds and have said it has made a difference. That might be all you need to do, I think when I checked those lights out there is also a green channel. Your green doesn't need to be very high, but give the tank a while to respond to the lowering reds; then maybe lower the greens if you need an extra push. Someone here also mentioned iron, that is another overlooked contributor in algae. Reefers are a marketing dream(I spend so much money), so not only on over priced lighting but on additives. So if you are using any additives, check for iron. I did have a tank once that had an algae problem and it was caused by elevated iron.

 

[Lenny_S]

We're down a real rat hole here.... let me just add a few more bits that hopefully gets the OP @jsker and others a little closer to some possible answers.
Visible light is wavelengths between 400nm and 700nm, below 400nm are the various UV wavelengths (UV-A, UV-B, UV-C), and above 700nm is infrared. None of the LED fixtures I've come across, AI included, use a true UV lamp, they are all lamps that produce 400nm to 405nm which I would really call a hyper violet than true UV. That 400nm to 405nm wavelength won't necessarily damage your coral at high levels as long as it is raised slowly, but I've seen it enhance the coloration of corals by safely stimulating the natural "sunblock" the corals develop which is mostly the color you see. IR (above 700nm) is equally, if not even more damaging to corals as UV is. Luckily both of those ends of the spectrum are filtered out in relatively shallow depths of water.
Corals can adjust over time to a pretty wide variety of lighting, so making any change slowly enough probably won't harm your coral, even adding more red. I did read the article and other papers I referenced and one major flaw was the corals were simply thrown under the 2 different lights with little to no acclimation. Since most corals live (if not thrive) at depths of 20 to 50 feet where nearly all (if not all) the red light is filtered out. So it stands to reason that in our very shallow little pieces of nature, if the light emitted is already at a spectrum that closely matches what the coral receives at its normal depth, they will do well (all else being equal). Our tanks (unless your a real aquarium nut) simply aren't deep enough for the water to do the filtering of wavelengths for us.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

We're down a real rat hole here....

In this hobby, we all so enjoy them...
Good talk.

And nice writeup btw.

 

[Lenny_S]

Brady Brunch I see you already lowered your reds and have said it has made a difference. That might be all you need to do, I think when I checked those lights out there is also a green channel. Your green doesn't need to be very high, but give the tank a while to respond to the lowering reds; then maybe lower the greens if you need an extra push. Someone here also mentioned iron, that is another overlooked contributor in algae. Reefers are a marketing dream(I spend so much money), so not only on over priced lighting but on additives. So if you are using any additives, check for iron. I did have a tank once that had an algae problem and it was caused by elevated iron.

@lion king has the simple answer, lower the reds (already done) and watch the additives.

In this hobby, we all so enjoy them...
Good talk.

And nice writeup btw.

Thanks @saltyfilmfolks, I've done a lot of my own reading and research on lighting... all I hope for is that folks find it useful.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

. all I hope for is that folks find it useful.

Exactly.

 

[mcarroll]

That actually goes for trees and plans as well. The sky is blue and most indirect light is well. Blue.
And yea I'v read that one a lot.
Raises more questions for me than answers. As many corral also grow at sea level but photosynth shuts down in coral at about 350 par. So how bad is it. And begs the question what depth is your coral from exactly and what color light should you really be keeping it at.
Danas research is on the coral in the tide pool next to his house and he also shows a huge colony the size of a house twenty feet under the water. Lotta Roy there. IMO
So We also from Dana know it wants red.
IMO it's this conflicting data that has skewed the led market. And Moneygrubbing full spectrum everything in HD too.
We need red. But too much may be bad. And some coral don't get any red at all.

And yellow. Oy don't get me started on yellow [emoji1]

So for me the ever skeptical reefer. The jury is still out.
Everyone always in the hobby level has always asked the same question or make the same blame. My light is growing algae or cyano.
Funny thing is. Coral and algae need the same light.

From what I have read, in general, corals are under oxygen stress at high illuminance levels and they use red light to determine how close to the surface they are. Makes sense that they would have a gauge since it's stressful to them.

We use red light because we think it looks cool. ;)

2¢

 

[Lenny_S]

From what I have read, in general, corals are under oxygen stress at high illuminance levels and they use red light to determine how close to the surface they are. Makes sense that they would have a gauge since it's stressful to them.

We use red light because we think it looks cool. ;)

2¢

@mcarroll brings up another good point... corals under high intensity lighting can suffer from oxygen toxicity. There are several studies on this subject as well. The prevailing theories are that they use traces amounts of Iron, Manganese, and Potassium to help detoxify the O2. And the occasional break in intensity from cloud cover also helps coral to eliminate some of the O2 built up. This is one of the reasons I like the cloud effect on the AI lights.

Interesting side note for any of you SCUBA divers. O2 toxicity also affects us humans in a similar way. As you dive deeper the partial pressure of O2 increases, above 5 ATM (atmospheres) of pressure, regular air (21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen) starts to become toxic due to the increased partial pressure of O2. That's why really deep dives (> 150 feet) are done on what is called tri-mix (O2, Nitrogen, and Helium). It lowers the O2 to a safer level (16% or even lower) and reduces the nitrogen (50% or lower) as well to prevent nitrogen narcosis.