To some degree, yes, a lot of light can cause algae. But I think of lot of that is going to depend on other factors like nutrients. If you keep it as a low nutrient system, that'll be half the battle with algae. If you are designing a cold water system, you are going to want to pick a region and a depth and design around that. If you were to, say, design a BC species tank, you'll see that aside from macroalgae, there really isnt anything photosynthetic in our waters. We simply don't get enough light here for photosynthetic species to survive. So it begs the question, do you even need a lot of light on this style tank? You should be looking more toward azoox or NPS tanks for maintenance and set-up inspiration. A low power actinic or blue led light would suffice. If you are using high light, you would be creating an environment similar to the shallow zones where algae dominate such as the kelp forests and tide pools we find here.
If you are using natural seawater for water changes, you may introduce waterborne algae into the tank. These could cause algae blooms, but the blooms arise more from the availability of nutrients and warm temperatures rather than light alone. I have no experience with UV in aquaria but my PhD research is based on UV; I'd say yes, it could help reduce algae in the water column. Someone, please correct me if I am wrong on this.
I think husbandry and light selection will be more effective in keeping the algae down than a UV.
I've been dreaming of a coldwater tank for a while. Everytime I go diving I have these wild dreams and aspirations on what I COULD do. What a PhD student can afford to do is another matter.
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