Best Light Colour To Reduce Algae?

[lilirose]

I recently bought Fluval LEDs, the kind with the Bluetooth app, for all four of my tanks. I'm wondering if there's a colour of light (I have the choice of pink, blue, cold white, warm white, and pure white) that I can use as the overnight light without encouraging algae.

I know it would be best to turn the lights off entirely at night, but I tend to stay up very late and like to be able to see what's going on in my tanks even at 2AM. I also bought these lights (perhaps foolishly) so that I wouldn't have to manually turn them off and on or use a timer. I didn't realise that you couldn't easily have two different photoperiods until they were bought and set up.

The default night light is blue, but a few places online say that blue is what algae like best. I've currently got them set to 1% pink at night, but I've no idea if that's any better.

 

[A201]

I have the Fluval Aqua Sky LED's and I also keep my lunars on all night. The fish still sleep & the mean aggressive fish don't bump into each other in the dark. Its not good when that happens. No algae problem keeping the blues on. There are three preset lunar modes. Here is a pic of the lunar blue I use.

 

[lilirose]

The ones I have up and running are Nano Plant Spectrum lights, which don't seem to have more than one automatic setting for night (it's set automatically to 5% blue on any setting, though of course you can change it). I have an Aquasky for my 90 liter that I haven't set up yet- nice to know that it will have a few more options than the Nanos do.

 

[Wraithen]

I run the blue at 1 percent. Red would penetrate less and cause less algae, but I don't have major algae issues, and I don't want a Mars scape.

 

[lilirose]

I run the blue at 1 percent. Red would penetrate less and cause less algae, but I don't have major algae issues, and I don't want a Mars scape.

That's what I was thinking- red would penetrate less. I kind of like the way it looks. So far so good, but they have not been set up long enough to know for sure.

 

[Wraithen]

That's what I was thinking- red would penetrate less. I kind of like the way it looks. [ ] So far so good, but they have not been set up long enough to know for sure.

Red is the safer light. It's not very effective in par, and it doesn't go through water easily. I run co2 too so my algae problems are always pretty minor except when I change my flow situation (like I just did 5 minutes ago by swapping a powerhead out for a koralia. Who can resist magnetic mounts though?!)

 

[candiedragon]

I think so long as you don't maintain any level of ammonia and high nitrates that you shouldn't be faced with an algae issue.

You could also maybe change the photo period to whenever you're home, if say you're only home at night and leave during the day, or something to that effect. At one point, I had my lights on from 4pm to 11:30pm without any algae outbreak.

Healthy plant load would help out-compete algae as well, if you're into the planted tank.

 

[pagoda]

My light was white LED but the fish and plants hated it cos it was too bright & harsh and algae grew like weeds, so contacted my aquarium supplier who suggested using the plants version LED which is from Ciano who produced my aquarium. It is LED with alternating 3 x red/1 ultra-violet that is 75cm long

The plants and fish love it...and no algae whatsoever

Night time I use green/blue tiny LED's on my airlight bubbler which gives off enough light but without disturbing fish snoozes

 

[lilirose]

I think so long as you don't maintain any level of ammonia and high nitrates that you shouldn't be faced with an algae issue.

You could also maybe change the photo period to whenever you're home, if say you're only home at night and leave during the day, or something to that effect. At one point, I had my lights on from 4pm to 11:30pm without any algae outbreak.

Healthy plant load would help out-compete algae as well, if you're into the planted tank.

I'm doing a planted fishless cycle so high levels of ammonia and nitrate are kind of inevitable for now. I learned recently that I should have cycled before adding plants, but I didn't read that until the plants were already in. I spend hours late at night staring at them. Possibly I am obsessed.

My light was white LED but the fish and plants hated it cos it was too bright & harsh and algae grew like weeds, so contacted my aquarium supplier who suggested using the plants version LED which is from Ciano who produced my aquarium. It is LED with alternating 3 x red/1 ultra-violet that is 75cm long

The plants and fish love it...and no algae whatsoever

Night time I use green/blue tiny LED's on my airlight bubbler which gives off enough light but without disturbing fish snoozes

Thanks... I was specifically referring to my brand new Fluval lights, which have multiple colours and settings available (none of which are green). They were quite expensive by my standards and I don't intend to replace them.

I don't have a severe algae issue yet, I just want to prevent one and was hoping people with experience with the Fluval lights specifically would have tips.

 

[candiedragon]

I'm doing a planted fishless cycle so high levels of ammonia and nitrate are kind of inevitable for now. I learned recently that I should have cycled before adding plants, but I didn't read that until the plants were already in. I spend hours late at night staring at them. Possibly I am obsessed.

Haha I totally understand. It's too easy to get caught staring and admiring a planted tank. It's easier to plant after cycling in my experience, I recently started a planted tank and then restarted it a couple months later. I definitely had a better time the second attempt since my filtration system was established already. The first time though, I avoided algae issues so long as I kept on my water changes and maintained a 6 hour photo period daily. Of course, I didnt maintain it which is why I decided to restart, just a lot of stuff happened that I fell off the routine. If you can keep up with water changes--while maintaining enough ammonia to feed the nitrifying bacteria for the cycle--and a short photo period until your cycle and plants establish, I think you can avoid the algae issue.

 

[chardae]

I'm doing a planted fishless cycle so high levels of ammonia and nitrate are kind of inevitable for now. I learned recently that I should have cycled before adding plants, but I didn't read that until the plants were already in. I spend hours late at night staring at them. Possibly I am obsessed.



Thanks... I was specifically referring to my brand new Fluval lights, which have multiple colours and settings available (none of which are green). They were quite expensive by my standards and I don't intend to replace them.

I don't have a severe algae issue yet, I just want to prevent one and was hoping people with experience with the Fluval lights specifically would have tips.

Check out Bentley Pascoe's videos on You Tube, he has one on his Fluval 3.0 settings. One thing he recommends is to be careful of the blue light, it can lead to an algae problem, particularly BBA. I love my Fluval 3.0, and I was enjoying my blue light at 15% during the night, it made the tank look like a pretty blue night light....LOL! Then came the BBA. I'm following Bentley's recommendations now and the BBA is dying off.