What's wrong with my lights?

[Larry Grenier]

I had to wait for a while because looking at them is near blinding.

Background: The setup is two custom-made tanks connected. Each is a little under 100gals. This means chemistry such as water column ferts & CO2 are the same in both. Flow appears to be decent in both.

Downstairs (yes I went thru the floor) is only about 90watts of LEDs however the tank is only about 18" tall and 6' long. It has no noticeable algae and seemingly happy plants.

Upstairs tank is L42"W / 24"D / 22" tall. Light are also LEDs. 76w from 2:00 - 9:00pm with an additional 15w from 3 - 12midnight making 91w from 3 - 9pm. The LEDS are all Cree LEDs and are amazingly bright and consist of 19 cool white, 7 warm white, 4 blue, 4 red, 2 green. and the 2nd-shift lights are 3 blue, 2 cool white, and 2 red. I bought kits from RapidLed. Plants are growing good and showing good color except everything has an almost black spotty algae plus the java fern grows fast but always looks brownish.

The reason I'm focused on lights is most everything else is the same as-in one body of water.

No, I do-not have a Par meter.

So what do you think?

[krisw]

Is the downstairs light also RapidLED of a similar breakdown of colors? 90 watts when talking about LEDs isn't necessarily a very useful metric. If all lights are the same, we can use it as a comparable, but if they're different, it's going to be hard to compare at that level...

If you're saying that the Java Fern always looks brownish, I'm guessing that it happens to be sitting under one of your red LEDs that may not be getting diffused/blended enough with the other colors.

Usually, BBA is an indicator of too many organics. Could the substrate or filter upstairs be dirtier than the one downstairs, causing more localized higher organic levels? Is the CO2 properly distributed with adequate flow in both tanks?

Are you using any lenses on your RapidLED LEDS?

[Larry Grenier]

Thanks for the reply Kris

Is the downstairs light also RapidLED of a similar breakdown of colors? No, it's cheapo Beamsworks LED fixtures with white plus a little blue. 90 watts when talking about LEDs isn't necessarily a very useful metric. Yes, I know If all lights are the same, we can use it as a comparable, but if they're different, it's going to be hard to compare at that level... Agreed

If you're saying that the Java Fern always looks brownish, I meant Java Moss I'm guessing that it happens to be sitting under one of your red LEDs that may not be getting diffused/blended enough with the other colors. Possibly

Usually, BBA is an indicator of too many organics. Could the substrate or filter upstairs be dirtier than the one downstairs, causing more localized higher organic levels? Yes!, it looks dirtier upstairs. I assumed this couldn't be the case sine it's essentially one big body of water, I'll try to address this. Is the CO2 properly distributed with adequate flow in both tanks? If anything, it's better upstairs. The CO2 goes directly into the pump sending water upstairs so the downstairs tank only gets whatever leftovers are left.

Are you using any lenses on your RapidLED LEDS?

None to get the widest dispersion.

I'm now thinking more organics upstairs plus ambient light from a nearby window. I will cut-down on both. Thanks

[krisw]

Good deal -- if you continue to have problems, let us know. Also, knowing that the Beamsworks LED is downstairs where there's no algae, I'd be willing to bet that the difference in PAR is significant between the two tanks. The RapidLEDs are probably 3W Crees, the Beamsworks are 1W each, although there are more of them. If you have a dimmer on the RapidLEDs, you may want to decrease the light slightly to see if that makes a difference as well...

-Kris

[Larry Grenier]

Good deal -- if you continue to have problems, let us know. Also, knowing that the Beamsworks LED is downstairs where there's no algae, I'd be willing to bet that the difference in PAR is significant between the two tanks. The RapidLEDs are probably 3W Crees, They are 3-5w Crees but according to RapidLED, with my driver, they are running at about 2.1w the Beamsworks are 1W each, although there are more of them. If you have a dimmer on the RapidLEDs, you may want to decrease the light slightly to see if that makes a difference as well...
-Kris

Here's what I just did:
1) Decreased the photoperiod 1 hour
2) Decreased ambient light from a nearby window
3) Put a DIY water polisher in the tank and the media started turning brown in about 5 minutes I'll do a more long-term solution soon.

Thanks again

[Larry Grenier]

The 3 items I did on the 9th helped. I also have done a few spot treatments with Hydrogen Peroxide and slightly overdosed Excel and things are looking better.

I yanked much of the java moss and noticed it's doing better just sitting in a plastic shoe box with no flow and only light from nearby tanks, go figure.