Lowering lights for algae control and SPS health

[mp2022]

All - the basic question is will considerably lowering my lighting schedule to deal with hair algae kill my more sensitive SPS corals?

Tank details - 40 something gallon. 20 gal sump full of Chaeto in a refugium. No skimmer. 13w uv sterilizer plumbed in the sump.

Alk 8.3
Ca 400
Mag 1230-1260
salinity 35
Nitrate 10
Phosphate .02

Long version: so I am having the standard hair algae problem with maybe a slight Dino problem. I have posted about this before and have received great advice from the community. The dino problem was much worse weeks ago but since bringing my nitrates up from 0 by dosing to around 10 and using a UV sterilizer the Dino problem has gone down considerably and I only see it intermittently. The Dinos may be popping back up because my phosphates plummeted which I am now dosing to keep detectable. Right now I am managing the hair algae by manual removal and with increasing my cleanup crew - I have a very large snail population of all the usual varieties, emerald crabs, and increased my tuxedo urchin number from 1 to 3 and added some Mexican turbos a few weeks ago. They are certainly helping but can’t keep up with growth.

The issue is I recently purchased a reefbreeder meridian light about a month which has been great for my SPS but may be part of the problem. My montis are taking off, the few acros i have finally showing good color and polyp extension, and I even have some acros pieces I thought were long dead randomly come back to life. That being said I am thinking of scaling back my lights to help with the algae so the CUC can catch up.

The question is what are the odds of this just killing off my SPS? Any recommendations on how to do this so as to minimize this risk?

I have attached a pic of the lighting schedule but may not be helpful.

Thanks in advance!

 

[tbrown]

What CUC do you have? I find a lot of mine don't enjoy longer GHA. If I start helping by just pulling clumps when I can, they'll start eating and cleaning the rest.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I've never thought of lowering lights as the solution for algae. We all have a light on our tank, but we don't all have algae, so light is not a common denominator. Besides, 2-3 days blackout really does nothing against algae, it will just resume growing when you turn the lights on again.

You can increase the filtration, increase the frequency of water changes, increase the water flow, increase the cuc - to me these are more viable than lowering lights.

I believe that nutrients and dissolved organics are the main issue, not the light. Just my 2 cents, good luck.

 

[mp2022]

What CUC do you have? I find a lot of mine don't enjoy longer GHA. If I start helping by just pulling clumps when I can, they'll start eating and cleaning the rest.

Thanks - I have a bunch of different snails - astrea, margherita, nassarius, turbo; 3 tuxedo urchins; 2 emerald and 2 pitho crabs; couple of serpent stars; a sea cucumber. The snails have also multiplied considerably. They all seem happy and hard at work. Not sure I have more room for any more CUC though lol.

I have removing any long clumps of algae mostly because it’s just faster but makes total sense how it can make the CUC job easier…

 

[Project1004]

Best and easiest way to get to algae free tank is by removing the problem rocks and scrub it down to the surface with brush and return to the tank. Basically removing the roots. Using saltwater for water change for rinse. It may come back but you will have ahead start. 40ish gallon tank, I be scare to have the sea cucumber. Specially if not matured.

 

[X-37B]

Just get a Sea Hare from the lfs. After it cleans your system the cleanup crew will handle it. You can then return it.
A pic of the system always help.
No need to lower the lights, imo.

 

[BryanM]

Long term I do not believe lowering lighting will help all that much. Gotta figure out why and fix that, get a bigger CUC, or algae eating fish, etc.

 

[bobnicaragua]

You do have room to reduce your 13 hour photoperiod. Before everyone used ramping lights, 8 hour photoperiods were common. I would just do a quick ramp up and down with more of a long flat peak. An 8 hour peak with a 30 minute ramp up and 30 minute ramp down would be a reasonable schedule.

I probably have 90 snails in my 135 gal tank plus tangs, urchins and hermits. How many snails is “a lot” in your 40 something? I would just keep adding cuc and maybe a lawnmower blenny.

 

[mp2022]

Best and easiest way to get to algae free tank is by removing the problem rocks and scrub it down to the surface with brush and return to the tank. Basically removing the roots. Using saltwater for water change for rinse. It may come back but you will have ahead start. 40ish gallon tank, I be scare to have the sea cucumber. Specially if not matured.

Thanks. Any suggestion about doing this if there are a bunch of coral glued and/or encrusted on the rock?

What is the concern with the sea cucumber?

Thanks.

 

[mp2022]

You do have room to reduce your 13 hour photoperiod. Before everyone used ramping lights, 8 hour photoperiods were common. I would just do a quick ramp up and down with more of a long flat peak. An 8 hour peak with a 30 minute ramp up and 30 minute ramp down would be a reasonable schedule.

I probably have 90 snails in my 135 gal tank plus tangs, urchins and hermits. How many snails is “a lot” in your 40 something? I would just keep adding cuc and maybe a lawnmower blenny.

Thanks. Would you still ramp up to the same maximum intensity with the long flat peak?

I probably have 40 snails total - most of them are stomatella snails that multiplied a bunch since starting my tank. Thinking of getting the lawnmower blenny. Thought about a sea hare but don't have great access to a LFS that both carries these and that I trust.

 

[bobnicaragua]

Thanks. Would you still ramp up to the same maximum intensity with the long flat peak?

I probably have 40 snails total - most of them are stomatella snails that multiplied a bunch since starting my tank. Thinking of getting the lawnmower blenny. Thought about a sea hare but don't have great access to a LFS that both carries these and that I trust.

I would bring down your peak 10% or 20% just to avoid shocking your corals. You can bump it back up over time based on how the corals react.

Stomatella snails are great to have, but they’re small and aren’t keeping up. Keep adding urchins, turbos, astreas, hermits, and trocus snails.

 

[Project1004]

Thanks. Any suggestion about doing this if there are a bunch of coral glued and/or encrusted on the rock?

What is the concern with the sea cucumber?

Thanks.

I think sea cucumber eats like no other cuc and they need lots of space. Your tank maybe just too small… and when they die, they nuke every tank because the reefer usually find it dead too late and toxic has been released.

Best way remove algae is simply take it out of the water and scrub it with bristle tooth brush. The part where the corals have encrusted, skip over that part or do gentle scrubbing. It really need hard manual remover if you want to win fast.

 

[mp2022]

I would bring down your peak 10% or 20% just to avoid shocking your corals. You can bump it back up over time based on how the corals react.

Stomatella snails are great to have, but they’re small and aren’t keeping up. Keep adding urchins, turbos, astreas, hermits, and trocus snails.

Thanks.

 

[mp2022]

I think sea cucumber eats like no other cuc and they need lots of space. Your tank maybe just too small… and when they die, they nuke every tank because the reefer usually find it dead too late and toxic has been released.

Best way remove algae is simply take it out of the water and scrub it with bristle tooth brush. The part where the corals have encrusted, skip over that part or do gentle scrubbing. It really need hard manual remover if you want to win fast.

Thanks - stupid question but does taking out the rock and manual scrubbing the rock remove its capacity for biological filtration?

Re: the sea cucumber, it's been in my tank for probably 5 months now but I have always worried about the tank nuking aspect. May try to rehome it...

 

[Project1004]

Thanks - stupid question but does taking out the rock and manual scrubbing the rock remove its capacity for biological filtration?

Re: the sea cucumber, it's been in my tank for probably 5 months now but I have always worried about the tank nuking aspect. May try to rehome it...

In someway you are resetting your tank but it shouldn’t be enough to cause bad effect to your tank. Just try to rinse well in saltwater before adding back the rocks…

You are basically taking the root of the algae off the rock surfaces and allow other things to cover the surfaces. Bottom side probably don’t have algae’s?!. Manual remover is best weapon against hair algae. Or it will be a slow fight to win using other method if algae’s are strong hold already.

I did beat initial hair algae using urchin and snails…. But if it got worst, I would have pulled it out and scrubbed it.

Something are better left in the ocean… sea cucumber being one of them probably. lol.