Weird situation

My buddy has a 55g tank that he has been using power compacts on for about 8 months. He's never had a algae problem before.
I tore down my 90g and let him borrow my 4 bulb t5 fixture. Its a sundial with 1 month old ati bulbs in it.

Now when I had my 90 it seemed like I always had bad film algae probs on the glass. And now that he has the fixture he's getting the same problem.

How can brand new t5 bulbs make algae but 8 month old pc's didnt ? I don't get it.
For the record we both use the same ro unit.

 

Heh, I swap my stock odyssea pc bulbs with UVL-R 1 week ago. Never had film algae before, now my back glass does, go figure.


Edit. You know, may be I had it all the time, but never seen it under low light? That may explain it.

 

I do not consider film algae to be a problem but rather a sign of a healthy system and good lighting. Some algaes prefer different spectums of light.
Snails, starfish, chitons, limpets, urchins love the stuff.

 

+1
I leave it on the backglass just to keep my snails and stars well fed

 

Agreed.

This is for you Corailline; "Lately it occurs to me....what a long, strange trip it's been."

 

Indeed sir, indeed!

 

Hey, you keep calling me sir and I'm going to start calling you "kid."8)

 

More light usuallly equals more algae, thats why I dont have my sundial on my 46bowfront yet :-/

 

I just have to throw this in. Respectfully; light isn't measured in "more" or "less", it is measured as PAR, intensity, penetration and spectrum. usually, less or shall we say proper spectrum on a low level cause algae. Bright intense lighting usually will not cause algae. Fading spectrum ranges and excess nutrients cause algae.