Extremely Pale Algae... Thoughts???

[torosax]

Hey guys! Was just curious if anyone has any thoughts on my issue. I went to clean my screen today and noticed that the algae was an extremely pale / almost white color. The skimmer has definitely done its work over the last couple months! The hair algae in my tank went crazy after adding a new (used) lighting unit in which the seller told me the bulbs were pretty new.

I should have taken pics of the scrubber before cleaning it, but of course I didn't think of it.. I'll try to update with pics next week before cleaning it again.


Has anyone else had this sort of issue though..?


Here's a couple pics of the scrubber and bulbs in the sump.. <--taken today


<--taken July 5th



**In case anyone is curious what kind of lights I'm using**

http://www.ebay.com/itm/E27-18x3W-54...EAAOxyOMdS2PJx

[amwassil]

I'm sure SM will have some helpful advice. For me, I followed your link to look at the LED bulbs. The first thing that struck me was they have way too much blue. The LED panels I purchased from Expressions Ltd have 8 red to 1 blue. These grow beautiful dark green hair algae in abundance! The unit you're using has 2 red to 1 blue and it appears to be designed specifically for general hydroponic use. While I know that the whole point of a scrubber is to provide an ideal environment for algae to flourish, including light; I don't know how critical the ratio of red to blue is. I bet SM does, though!

The second thing I wonder is what exactly is your skimmer removing from the water? Might it be something that the algae would like to have to grow healthy and green?

I'm a FW guy, so if none of this is applicable to SW, please ignore.

[torosax]

The second thing I wonder is what exactly is your skimmer removing from the water? Might it be something that the algae would like to have to grow healthy and green?

I actually quit using my protein skimmer once I got the scrubber up and running.. I figured no sense in removing the dissolved food from the water column if the corals are going to feed on it still..

And I have no idea as far as Red - Blue ratio.. lol! We'll wait and see if anyone has any other thoughts.

[SantaMonica]

I think you pulled a lot of phosphate out of the rocks, and that's what was causing the thick growth on the rocks. Now that your nutrients are removed, the scrubber is just growing less.

[amwassil]

The skimmer has definitely done its work over the last couple months!

Did you mean 'scrubber' here? If so, then my comments about red to blue light ratio don't seem apropos since you successfully grew algae during those couple of months. Judging by one of your photos, however, I'd say back off the lights another inch or two. It looks like the light is concentrated in the center of your screen where the algae is very thick, but the corners are not getting enough light and aren't growing much algae, especially below the growth.

[torosax]

Yeah, meant scrubber not skimmer.. And I'll look to see if I can adjust the proximity.. I'll also try and post pics in a few days here when I clean off the screen..