A question on red light.

[H.K.Luterman]

Ok, so I have a single Nicrew light on my 40 breeder that houses my featherfin catfish. Recently I rescaped her tank and removed all of the duckweed, and thus MUCH more light is getting in there now, and so now I'm getting spot algae on the anubias and hair algae on the bolbitis. I raised the light up on the little stands that came with it, but it didn't make much difference. 

I'm not interested in buying a dimmable light at this moment in time, not until this Nicrew bites the dust, so I've been playing with ways to dim the light using other methods. I found that I really like the look of this red scarf I have; it almost looks like a blackwater tank with the colored effect, and the dimness adds to the mysterious look I'm going for (plus the girl in me loves the little flowers on the edge of the scarf). Also I think the catfish probably appreciates the darker environment.

My question is, would the red color of the light make the algae worse? Should I just look for some of that sticky window tint stuff to apply to the light, or onto the glass top? Do you have any other suggestions on how to dim the light?

My light schedule currently is 5 hrs on, 4 hrs off, 5 hrs on, which works great for all my other tanks (that contain duckweed, lol!).

Edited June 4, 2021 by H.K.Luterman

[Trish]

Good question about the red light spectrum.  I have dimmable LED's but still put a full length piece of black screen door screening folded in half neatly under them.  In my community I try to keep the Anubis's and java fern down one end and a carpet of crypts down the other.  I leave a section uncovered by the screening and give it a few hours of high light every day before I dim.  I have the time to do this but many probably don't.  I've had timers for over a year but haven't used them as of yet...

[H.K.Luterman]

Well, I decided that I didn't like the red light for my blue platies - their color looks muted. If it were just my catfish I might keep the look as an experiment. Also, I didn't know Nicrew makes a separate dimmer for their lights! I got one off Amazon. Soooo I answered my own question I guess! X3

I'm still curious if red light would increase algae, if anyone has an idea. I know blue light would.

[Jungle Fan]

Red and and amber are the wavelengths plants prefer, blue is pretty much no use to plants but algae thrive with it, that's why I got rid of my blue moonlights. Both Anubias and Bolbitis are slow growers that leave nutrients for algae to exploit, it might help to add some faster growing stem plants in the background.

[Isaac M]

@H.K.Luterman I never get tired of looking at that catfish! Haha but I am a little confused, is the red light red because of the red scarf (looks red to us because the light is reflecting off of it) or because of an actual red light? From my understanding, the red light spectrum is helpful for plants. 

[Patrick_G]

I hope the dimmer solves the problem. Keep us updated! 
 

[H.K.Luterman]

19 hours ago, Isaac M said:

@H.K.Luterman I never get tired of looking at that catfish! Haha but I am a little confused, is the red light red because of the red scarf (looks red to us because the light is reflecting off of it) or because of an actual red light? From my understanding, the red light spectrum is helpful for plants. 

Yeah that was another thing I wasn't sure of. Is it actual red light if the light is passing through a colored filter? 

I never get tired of watching Pooka either. X3