how bad are they really?

i have a nova extreme light 48" are the lights that came with it really that bad ? they are afew months old i had a moderate cyano algae outbreak thats coming to an end now. ( killed it by straining food) . now the darn tank is getting green hair algae grrr. should i just bite the bullet and get the new lights or can i wait it out? money is pretty tight. my car just slammed me with a huge bill literally

 

I ran that same set up on my 75 and I thought the lights were just fine. How old is your tank? Are you using RO/DI water? What are the tank occupants?

 

tank is about 7 months old lights are mabe 2-3 months old few corals 2 saddle back clowns and a purple fire fish and a buncha snails and hermits....yes water is ro/di

 

IMO, the lights are pretty decent lights. It seems that most people usually fight some sort of algae even in long established tanks. If I were you, I would attempt to manually remove as much of the GHA as you can. I am pretty sure some others will chime in as well. How much do you feed? Overfeeding and tap water seem to be the 2 leading causes of algae, but you are already using ro/di water.

 

I have a nova extreme pro t5 fixture running for over a year. Have never seen even a trace, ever, during that time.

I DID use to have that problem in my previous home when I used metal halide lights, a cheap ro system, and lived in an area with particularly high silicates in the water supply.

The problem went away when I began using a better ro system, moved to an area with lower silicates, and began using the nova extreme pro t5 lighting.

I'm guessing that, for me, the problem was caused by either the cheap ro system and/or the silicates.

 

These nova extreme and extreme pro fixtures are really quite good. I highly doubt it is the fixtures. The stock bulbs however are not that good, but will suffice, provided that they are not that old.

 

I really dont think your problem is the lighting. Maybe others can help determine the cause of your hair algae....knock on wood.....I have never had it, so I have no first hand experience to help.

 

Have you tested for phosphates... odd you are having GHA while using RODI....

 

they are afew months old 2-3 ...ro/di water ... i started going very light on the feeding when i got the cyano outbreak as well as straining the food twice in ro water.as well as doing 15-25% water changes weekly and siphoning out the cyano. i have started to rip the gha out . i have not tested for phosphates yett ... i need to go get the test kit for it