Green Algae questions

So my tank is about a year old now a days give or take. its 20 gallons with a 10 gallon sump. my clean up crew is quite large about 3-4 hermits and i bought a cuc of snails from reefcleaners. but yet i have green hair algae on a few of my corals and my lr idk how to get rid of hit i do my normal 10% a week water change but still haveing issues. its not in the sand bed just on the rocks and some coral... any ideas?

 

Get a phosphate test kit. High phosphates will grow algae.
A reactor like the phosban 150 or BRS with a dose of GFO will bring down your phosphates.

How many pounds of live rock do you have?

Is there anything missing that could be dead, or recently died that is giving you the problem?

Increased water changes will solve it eventually...
The reactor will solve it quick and keep the algae at bay.

 

ALSO!
What kind of lighting do you have?
T5 bulbs need to be changed about every year.
Power compacts around 8 months I THINK!

If you haven't changed bulbs, your due and that would explain the algae.

The bulbs spectrum changes to a different color temperature and grows algae MUCH easier!

 

LED lights and nothing has died. 20ish lbs in main tank 5 or so in sump

 

huh...
well, we'll need some more thoughts from other folks.
not sure what else would cause sudden GHA in a 1 year old tank with the water change schedule you say.

any other info will help.
how many fish, corals, power heads, what did you add recently and so forth...

 

havent added anything in probably 1-2 months. 1 power head but on full blast. 2 fish 1 clown 1 mandrine about 10 corals

 

I had the same problem but at the 6 month mark. What I found was even though I was doing weekly water changes on my 50 gallon the crushed coral substrate was harboring a lot of stuff that I wasn't really getting very well. I also found that my tank was in the direct path of an AC vent that I think was blowing normal household particles directly into the tank.

Another person I know had the same problems with the crushed coral. all the shells and other things in there can really trap garbage that is hard to get out with normal vacuming.

I reset the tank and changed to a thin layer of sand, about half an inch and changed the direction of the AC vent and haven't had any issues with algea. Only time will tell but it seemed to help me out.

Just my two sense.

 

Perhaps your phosphates simply crept up over the last few months and now you're seeing the result.

do you ever take a turkey baster and use it as a water jet to blast the ditritus off your live rock? do you ever change the direction of your power head? again, more specifics you give will help like what model power head and a breakdown of your maintenance routine.

Also, do you test at all?
what are your
nitrite and nitrate levels?

 

who makes your test kit? my thought would be that it is expired or is not real accurate?

 

yeaaa i should probably test and do the turkey baster thing that might help me out more... its just random that it will grow on some rock but not other and not on sand