Open shades to slow down red slime!?

My LFS guy was telling me to open my shades near the tank to help combat the red slime. His theory is that if the "good" algae can grow it will stop the red from growing?
I have two windows near it in a corner.
Right now its in patches on the LR and starting to cover the CC/sand bed...
My bulbs are 10k 175 MH and they are about 2 years old. But do they need to be replaced like florescents do?
My phoshates are very low, I have a LOT of water movement and I keep the lights on about 8 hours.

 

I would never recommend any indirect sunlight on a fish tank.

The problem there is that unless you are either only allowing sunlight to directly penetrate the top of the tank during the height of the sun's path across the sky, you are not going to get good light. The only other option is to use a series of tracking mirrors and windows to the outside world. The latter option would indicate that you are rich beyond compare and would not even be worrying about such as thing as nuiscance algae as you would have someone else taking care of it for you and it would be 50000000000 gallons with a baby whale shark . . . ok maybe a bit over the top.

But seriously, do not allow indirect sunlight on your tank. By the time the light refracts through the outside glass window pane(s) on your house and the glass on at least one side of your tank, the spectrum has changed for the worse.

Adding natural sunlight is like what Australia did with the cane toad back in the day - they had an undesirable grub that was destroying crops (nuisance cyanobacteria) and to combat it, they brought in the cane toad from south america (natural sunlight). So now, there are tons of these grubs, and even MORE of the toads.

This is what you would experience. You would not get rid of the cyano, and you would have the additional problem of lots of nuisance algae to go with it.

LFS certainly do not have a great overall track record for helping you out.

Now you are going to try what your LFS told you, then you are going to have a secondary outbreak of algae along with a continuing epidemic of cyano. Then you are going go back to the LFS and tell them that the natural sunlight only made it worse at which time they will act surprised and then try to sell you some other "Snake Oil" - like product that will only bring you back to the LFS with another problem . . . .(see the pattern!?!??!?!)

Posting more specifics - like actual phosphate levels, nitrates, pH, Alk, Ca, Mg, can be helpful to us to see what is going on.

Also, how old is the tank?

What filtration do you have? What powerheads (GPH do you have)?

I would also offer some advise and attempt to avoid making statements like "my phosphates are low" "plenty of flow" "water quality is good".
In this hobby, numbers play a huge role in assessing almost every conceivable problem and when those generalizations are made - that is often where the problem lies.

Also, taking a look at your lighting - you absolutely have to replace the MH bulbs - once a year at minimum - i like to change every 9 months.

The flouro bulbs should be changed out every 6 months.

A 2 year old bulb is not going to help you with anything.

I would also recommend going with a 14K/20K bulb in place of the 10K - but that's totally personal preference. The 10K is too white for me.

You also might want to replace your Flouro bulb with all actinics and lose the 10 K flouro bulb.

 

I'd certainly replace those bulbs. It's a good rule of thumb to replace any bulb at least every 12 months. As for the algae, sounds like parameters to me.

 

Thanks. Im going to close the shades back!
My phosphates are at .25 or lower.
Something else I forgot was I went on vacation for a week and only had the florescents running - NO MH. Also I had my auto feeded running..
I did a water 20% change when I got back.
Should I just leave the Florescents off total or run them with the MH combined? I will be looking for some new MH 12k soon.
Has anyone tried these on ebay?
http://cgi.ebay.com/175W-12-000K-E3...815?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43a3fdb457

 

When my tank was exposed to natural sunlight I got more cyano, and it was almost seasonal. Interesting theory but one I am not to sure about.

 

There is no algae in the world that can outcompete cyanobacteria.

If your MH's are 2 years old, they've color shifted and that is definitely making your cyanobacteria issue worse. Remember that when you replace the bulbs, the PAR they put out is going to be much higher so you'll want to phase them in. (I.e. 4 hours for a couple of days, 5 hours for a couple of days, etc)

If you're still getting a phosphate reading when you have algae and cyanobacteria in the tank, your phosphates are much higher than you think. You'll want to use some phosphate remover.

 

Just added a pouch of phosgaurd. As far as the bulbs, they are Coralvue 10k. To my eyes they still are a nice color, but like you said they may be changing. Maybe I will go with some 14k coralvue?

 

If they're 2 years old, I guaranteed you that they've changed....A LOT!! You can't tell by your eyes. You can tell with a spectrometer or by watching when nuisance algaes and cyanobacteria starts showing up.

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Seasonal? Yes, in a different sense. The suns axis tilt allows the sunlight to come in my den window now that it is winter, this doesn't happen in summer and fall so to that extent it is "seasonal".