6500k Bulbs Causing Algae Problems??

[redstorm6]

Hi Everyone,

A little background: I currently have a 55 gallon tank I setup roughly 3 months ago. I purchased a 4 bulb Tek Light T-5 lighting hood for it that came with four 6500k spectrum GE lights.

The tank also has two SEIO820s for flow. The past month I have been having an absolute crazy time with algae on the glass. I have setup 6 tanks over the past few years and I know to expect algae problems with a new system; however, this algae is SO prolific, that after cleaning the glass, it will completely cover the glass in less than 3 hours....and that is not an exaggeration!

I have tested the tank and my readings are:

Ammonia: 0 PPM
Nitrates: 0 PPM
Nitrites: 0 PPM
Phosphate: 0PPM !!!!!!!

The tank is also a bare bottom setup. I have two Acropora SPS corals and a large leather coral that have doubled in size over the last 3 months. My SPS corals have retained thier colors so I do not think my tank is saturated with nutrients(which tend to cause browning in SPS corals.)

Sorry for the novel.

Any thoughts???

[Zoalander]

The light could be the culprit.

[Blown 346]

I also agree with the lights being the problem.

[sjm817]

You are running the 4 6500Ks? Yikes. Normally in a 4 bulb setup, you would use 2 Aquablue (11K-ish) and 2 Blue+ (20K-ish) and maybe replace 1 Aquablue with a 6500K.

Isn't the lighting VERY yellow?

[redstorm6]

Yeah, the light is extremely yellow. It's more of an experiment really as I wanted to see the growth rates and compare them to the bulbs I ordered yesterday.

I must say the coral growth is prolific but the algae is just unbearable. I also forgot to mention the algae grows like this with a 50 snail clean up crew...

Living in algae hell,
Chris

[VaderWS6]

I use 2 250watt Iwasaki 6500k's , no algae problems here. Must be your brand bulbs.