Algae On Glass Due To Powerful Lights

[8inary]

I have powerful lights x4 T5s, but this causes green algae growing on the glass. I find myself cleaning it every other day as it bugs me.

What algae solutions have you all come up with....if any at all?

 

[Colin_T]

reduce the lighting
Put something in there to use the excess light.
is it fresh or salt water? Freshwater you can use floating plants like water sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides). Add algae eaters, snails or suckermouth catfish.
you can also move the lights to the back of the tank.

 

[Bloo]

As Colin says - simply reduce the lighting.
My tank is only on for one hour in the morning and 4 hours in the evening. No algea at all.

 

[8inary]

Even with reduced lighting, I still get algae. It is a 1000ltr tank, tropical. Due to the fish, mixed cichlids and oddballs means I cannot have real plants. I have artificial stuff instead.

Vid of the tank..

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLGa8d9L1SY

 

[TylerFerretLord]

Why do you have such powerful lighting when you have no plants?

That seems to be the source of the problem.

You can try to get a colony of Malaysian trumpet snails established, they come out at night and eat algae and detritus. They also tend to stay under the substrate during the day so no worries if you don't like snails.

 

[8inary]

I went with these lights due to the look they give. I went with a Marine type look as you may see in the vid, however the down side to having lights like these, is the algae problem. I may try the snails, but fear they may get eaten by my fish. I have had clams in before now, which were eaten within 24/hour.