Lighting Duration on a New Tank

[Aaron Shapiro]

I've been running my lights for ~11hrs a day. I'm getting, as you can imagine, a WILD hair algae outbreak... Now it's a newer tank, roughly a month in, is this run of the mill "uglies," or should I reduce my lighting duration? Nitrates are testing zero, but I'm just assuming they're being consumed by the algae entirely...

The tank is an IM 25 Lagoon, roughly a month old. Light is a Hydra 32, mounted 12" above the waterline.

Here's my setting:

 

[JoshO]

Do you have corals?

 

[Aaron Shapiro]

Do you have corals?

There are some Zoas in there and two lil LPS'.

 

[JoshO]

There are some Zoas in there and two lil LPS'.

What Lps are they. If you'd answered that no then I'd have suggested leaving the lights off until an evening, purely for viewing purposes. A lot of people will suggest no lights for the first few months purely to allow enough bacteria to populate that will outcompete algae outbreaks.