Actinic Lighting and Hair Algae

[GMGQ]

Well you're getting into semantics now. Obviously you dont want to reduce your lighting to say 1hr/day. But light does "attribute" to HA, in a system that has nutrients.

I stick by my equation of: Nutrients + Light = Algae.

Reduce either Nutrients or Light and the Algae will not grow as profusely.

But I totally agree that the ultimate goal is Nutrients = 0. No question. (BTW, feel free to include Phosphates as part of the problem as well).
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It just sounds like Jaws is a busy guy, sometimes leaving his actinics on from 9am-12am over his nutrient filled tank. In the short term, he definitely doesnt need to leave the actinics on for 15hrs/day. So by getting a timer to automate and reduce the lighting period, he should see some immediate results. The reduction of nitrates is usually a long term process.

Originally Posted by TheReefGeek

His question was actually:

And my answer is no, not any more than lighting in general.
Nutrients are the problem, not the actinics. If you want to solve hair algae with lighting reduction, you will have to kill all your corals to do it.