got a new test kit today and i was shocked by..

So I have been battling an algae problem for about 4 1/2 months now and it has been driving me nuts. I had a test kit that was made up of dip stick test strips. I purchased them when I first set up my tank and thought that they were giving me an accurate reading. Boy was I wrong. I knew something had to be off because I have been fighting green hair algae, red algae slimy and hairy. So my old strip test kits were giving me perfect readings and I had no idea why I kept having such problems. But now I see that those strip tests are not so accurate. Here are my params:

PH - 8.2
Ammonia - 0 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Nitrate - 80 ppm -- this is where my problems is im sure
Calcium - 460 ppm
Carbonate Hardness - 179 ppm
Phosphate - 0.5 ppm

My tank is a 20 gallon long, about 30 pounds or so live rock, corallife protein skimmer, aquaclear filter and im running carbon with it, I have a pair of clowns, 4 stripe damsel, lawnmower blenny, lavender mushrooms, blue and orange ricordea mushrooms, leather toadstool, eagle eye polyps, colt coral, frogspawn, green trumpet coral and numerous blue leg hermits and turbo snails. I have noticed that my frogspawn has been shrinking in the last couple of days and I was getting worried and thats why I decided to shell out the bucks and get a premier test kit. I am also running a corallife 96 watt pc lighting fixture. I have changed my feeding schedule after immense research and getting out of my newbie stage. I feed flake 4 times a week and give my inhabitants a nice meaty meal usually mysis or brine shrimp two times a week or less. I have also been doing water changes every other week usually about 25%. I have also cut my lighting period to about 8 hours a day since my algae breakout began and nothing I have done has helped.

So.. What else do i do now that I know what my params actually are? Am i doing the right thing or should i change it up to get this mess cleaned up.

Is there anything that I can do now that I have realized the real param results?
I would appreciate any help that I can get and I thank you in advance.
Once again thank you and please feel free to give me your honest opinion even if you think im a complete idiot and doing everything wrong, I will never know if im never told so please give me your honest opinion and dont worry you wont hurt my feelings. I just want to give my tank the best it can have and be. Thank you again

 

Keep making those water changes, change any filter material weekly, give all of the equipment a thorough cleaning, see about using some GFO for your phosphate issue. Try to get your nitrates below 5 and your phosphate to zero.

 

Buy a stiff bristled toothbrush and scrub your rocks to get the algae off. Remove all you can before it dies when you succeed in getting your parameters in line.

 

grow algae to reduce nutrients, ATS, chaeto, caulerpa etc...increase water changes, cut back on feedings and check to make sure your water is good before doing more water changes to bring it back in line.

 

Agreed. Get some macro algae.

 

Thanks everyone, I am actually getting ready to head to my lfs and pick up some more water and do a water change this afternoon. I really appreciate all of your help and hopefully I can get this thing knocked out.

 

so i just spent about 4 hours cleaning and breaking down all my equipment and scrubbing my rocks clean of algae. It looks a whole lot better but i know that i am not in the clear. I went ahead and did a 50% water change after i scrubbed everything down and rearranged my rock work. I am going to do a full water test tomorrow when i get some more time. I also picked up some Phosphate-e, my lfs told me that adding this should help bring my phosphates down. I appreciate all the help once again. I have to go and study now

 

Things have been much better the last few days since I cleaned everything out and scrubbed my rocks clean. I have also started to dose with phosphate-e. Has anyone else tried this out with any luck of reducing your phospates any? Thanks again

 

Yeah nitrates are sneaky like that. I run Phos-Ban media by sea chem and it usually knocks phosphates down in a couple of days. I basically put it in a medium sized media bag and set it in a high flow area of my sump. I have never used phosphate-e before but would like to know how it works for you? Like mentioned already macro algae is great for nitrates and frequent water changes too.

Travis