alge is getting worse

is the tank by a window is sun light hitting the tank or close to the tank?

 

OK i see you have RO/DI

hmm that is strange. How long do you leave the lights on? Im thinking you might be overfeeding but

Oh i just saw that 10,000K MH...man thats like jet fuel to algae lol

Also you don't have a cleanup crew. My cleanup crew eats algae 24/7. That makes a HUGE difference.

My cleanup crew - Astrea snails, Caribbean Cerith snails, Florida Cerith snails, Nerite Snails , Planaxis snails and assorted reef safe hermit crabs. It takes this many to clean up my tank.

Get 10 of each. Cerith snails are the only snails as far as i know that will eat algae on sand but they are very small so you need a lot of them. These are pretty cheap.

 

thanks guys
i did another test today the nitrates are actualy less than 5ppm (poor eye sight)
with regards to the 2 tangs they are only small at the moment biggest is only 2 inches long. and with regards to the lr its a budget problem on that front. all the lfs round my area are only selling large bolders rather than big and small rocks so each bit is very expensive. as i get spare cash, i will purchase more.
oh and only the bigger of my tangs touches the alge but not the diatoms i think thats how you spell it (i cant spell lol)

 

Nerite snails eat diatoms.

I bought a boulder too. Then I took a pair of gloves, eye protection, a bucket of old water from a previous water change, chisel and hammer and proceeded to make perfect size for me chunks. Then I'd rinse it in the old water to get the dust and crap off. And in my tank it went.

Good luck.

 

what i mean when i say bolders is that the rocks they sold are soo big, they are expensive. the cheapest was about $70 the last time i went there
i poped into a fs when in another town, and their cheapest was about $14.
see what im trying to say?
i can aford little bits at a time but not large bits. lol

 

Have you tried doing some water changes to bring down your phophates? With them as high as they are this would help more than po4 media. Try doing a 50% water change and then another 50% water change two or three days later. Smaller water changes won't help as much.

 

Try to order base rock if you can. Much cheaper than live, no die off, no pests, and becomes live rock anyways.
And as said, your nitrates are probably much higher than what you are reading, as the algae would use that up as well. There are four major problems that contribute to algae (lighting, phosphates, nitrates, and water flow) so take a look at all four in your tank. And just for your info, flake food is often loaded with phosphates and nitrates. You may consider switching to a high quality frozen food. Also, though this may be a really bad situation, do you know what kind of conditions the live rock was being kept in? If it was kept in phosphate rich water, the rock itself will only keep leaching all of that back into your system. Also important to test the water you are ADDING to the tank, regardless if you are using RO/DI or not. And consider replacing that bulb with something around 14000K-18000K

 

hi all
went to the lfs today and bought something else to try and help the phosphate levels its called phos-zorb.
wot a merical item it is, after just 4 hours in the filter, the phosphate levels have gone down by half. and already the water is lookin cristal clear. i would recomend this stuff to everyone. hopefuly by morning, i will have no phosphates left wot so ever. and soon no agle woop woop.
thanks for all your help guys

 

Also, what is your tds reading on your RODI water?

 

Keep in mind that this is a temporary fix, unless you want to constantly run the phosphate material, which is probably ferric oxide. I would still try to find the source of the phosphates and deal with that accordingly.