brands of bulbs

[duke62]

i have a t-5 setup which i have been using for a year and 4 months.when i bought it it had a different brand of bulbs in it.i switched to a different company 6 months ago.my question is before i switched i didnt notice much algae growth.now i get this green algae that is tough to scrape off and i hade that outbreak of cyano.could this be because it was a cheaper brand of t-5.or does that have nothing to do with it.oh i tested all my water yesterday and i am in range of all par except calcium which is a little high.490 and alk which is a little low 7.4 kh.mag is perfect and phos says its zero.the switch was from.d&d aquarium solutions to hagen

 

[mr_X]

it's very possible that the color of the lamps are contributing to algae growth.

 

[KathyC]

it's very possible that the color of the lamps are contributing to algae growth.

+1

What bulbs are in there?

 

[duke62]

hagen 18,000 k .1 blue 3 daylight.same combo as first set of lights.not sure if first set had 18,000 k though

 

[jackson6745]

I was talking to Kathy about this the other day with my tank. I was thinking about it and the only thing that makes sense to me is that the increase in intensity from the new bulbs is what triggered the algae growth IMO. Kathy mentioned that the purple/red bulbs seem to cause the most algae growth, consequently they have the highest par. I'm sure plenty of guys run the same bulbs as you and don't have problematic algae. We all know that po4 testkits suck, so I would say the problem is nutrient related.

 

[duke62]

jst trying to pinpoint where my cyano outbreak came from.seems very odd that i never had cyano before and it seemed to happen just around the time of the bulb change.month or 2 later.the hard green algae doesnt seem to bother me.it seems to turn into purple coraline after a couple of weeks.even when i stopped feeding my tank for a month it just keep coming back with force.so thats what now is bringing me to my lights.