anyone else use Current USA LED lights?

Is anyone else out there using the Current USA LED light strips? I'm finding that these lights are creating a ton of algae problems. I'm seeing a serious surge of brown algae, almost like dinos, when I run these lights! My nano has been unoccupied for the last 2-3 months with the lights never turned on. I put in my new clowns and run the lights again and BOOM, brown algae!
Looks like the LEDs are going to the trash and the hunt for new lights begins soon. Finding the right lighting for a 12G JBJ nano is a pain in the buttocks!

 

tigermike74

no experience at all of the LED light set up
but just wanted to A bump this for you and B - concur that lighting for a nano tank was the most difficult challenge I faced when setting one up, just not the options there are for larger set ups

Steve

 

First, in order to know if it is the lights, you would have to have a par meter and see if you are getting the correct spectrum. Second, I think adding fish is what sparked a mini cycle. Brown diotom algae is part of a cycle but can occur for a number of reasons. Wait it out.

 

I would normally agree jed, but this algae problem only occurs when I use that lighting. When the tank was bare, it naturally starved itself out and died off. Having the clowns are naturally giving it a food source again. I've eliminated the lighting as of this morning and put a 24" T5 across the top to see if it slows the growth. I never had this dino problem until after I picked up this LED light. When I ran the stock CF lights, no diatom nor dinos. I think I may just pick up a new nano and be done with this POS tank.

 

How high are the lights? I have those and I know they have to be about 8-10" above the tank to get the best dispertion of the light.

 

Mine were 3" above the nano. I removed the LEDs and put my 24" T5 over it and the brown is going away now. Maybe I just had a bum fixture or something?

 

it could be that you had phosphates in your water. after the addition of light the algae could use the phosphates up and grow.

If there are no phosphates in your top off water then i can see your problem. the LEDs are usually 8000k and the t5 are probably a higher kelvin (assuming you run actinics) which makes the growth of algae harder

 

Yeah, I tested my PO3 and they were undetectable on my test kit. I'm not sure why it caused this, if it is related to the LEDs that is. The sad part is that one of my clowns is starting to host the hair algae!
The T5s I'm running are 10000K and 720nm actinics. 8000K is definitely closer to the 6700K that is known to create algae blooms.

 

I run the Current USA led strips as supplemental lighting on a 50g a 90g and a main lighting on 2 fuges -- don't have a bad thing to say about them (other than you need a bunch of them and it costs lots of money!).

I have never tried to use them for my main lighting on any tanks, so not sure how effective they would be.

I have used these products for well over six months now, no algea problems or any other issues...