Algae with good water?

Has the tank only been running for 3 months? It might be still going through a cycle. What is your PH before the lights come on? I would try to get it closer to 8.3 to 8.4 I've found that when my PH went down to 7.9 to 8.0 I seemed to get algae otubreaks and once I was able to stablize it and keep it around 8.3 things seemed to get better. The higher PH will help release and phosphate that might be bond in your rock.

 

Thanks, that seems to make sense. It has only been up 3-4 months now. I just couldn't figure out why NOW. Doing everything I could to have good chemistry. Through two massive water changes, changing my phosban (soon to be rowaphos), and adding a yellow tang and lawnmower, I think I'm beating it. It looks like my phosphates are back to zero on my seachem kit. Compared to my rodi it's the same and comparing the 1.0ppm sample in the kit to the chart, I think I'm at zero or very close. The stringy black cyano is the major trouble now. I clean it all up (off the substrate) and one day of lights and it's back. I'm just running the actinic today to see if it helps. I am adding 1 tbsp. of kalk/gallon to my rodi top off. Is there a better way to raise my PH to 8.3? It was 8.2 two days ago. Thanks for the post.
Jim

 

Phosphates may be present in our tanks in many forms. Most phosphate test kits only account for the (orthophosphate) inorganic form and ignore organic forms. Moreover, most phosphate test kits can't detect PO4 readings below 0.0015-0.02ppm. Algae, especially microalgae(filamentous green algae)Derbesia and Bryopsis, can bloom under this low level of phosphates.
Phosphates can be attributed to tap water, trace and minor elements and certain activated carbons. Carbon, if not replaced frequently will release/leach phosphates and silicates etc. back into your water column that it had recently adsorbed!
I have one question for you...how often are you doing water changes????
I suggest doing small water changes WEEKLY!!! It will help your tank immensely in more ways than one IMO!

 

Thanks for the lesson. Is there a way to measue those organic phosphate? I assume we have to wait for them to be converted. I do water changes on Sunday, usually 5 gallons of an 80. The last two weeks I've done 25 gallon changes. What would be a good volume to change in your opinion? I haven't been running carbon, only phosban. Would carbon be good to add to the reactor to cut down on the micro?
Lastly, the slime has been decreasing the last two days. I picked a bunch out and have been running only actinics on the light cycle the last two days. How long can I keep that up with corals?
Thanks,
Jim