green hair and red slime taking over. (lighting problem)

Hey guys. i have a 35gall tank, running a floral hob filter with purigen, matrix and phosgaurd in it. Also remora protein skimmer. I have one wave maker rated quite high. My water parameters seem in the norm however green hair and red slime continues to take over my nice live rock. My lighting is 2nd hand so its probably really old. I run a black light and a normal one. could they be the reason why the algae gets so bad. I'm at a loss here. Any other ideas to help out. Thanks so much for any help.

 

Please list the numbers for nitrate and phosphate. List your fish stock and how often and how much you feed. How often do you clean your equipment?

 

+1 and also are you using ro/di water?

 

I have 2 clowns, 2 domino damsels and 1 bi colour angel. I feed them a little bit in the morning like a few spirulina flakes. Once at night ill feed either mysis shrimp or pellets. I usually add a little bit at a time and wait till they eat it all then give a bit more. I use r/o water from the lfs. Do a 10% water change everyweek. My nitrates are about 10ppm and I Havnt actually tested for phos cause I don't have a test kit for that. hope this helps.

 

is your tank cycling?

 

Tank isn't cycling. I've had it for 8 months. Plus algae has been around for months even after trying phosgaurd and installing protein skimmer. Although the skimmer has only been in for a month ( well installed for month and a half but had to break it in)

 

The water from the LFS could be a problem. They do not always do maintenance on the filters. I would get a phosphate test kit and I would test the water from the LFS.

 

have you changed the lamps in the 8 months you have had the second hand lighting and what type of lamps are they?

if they are PC they are almost certainly past their prime and you will have experienced a drop in the color temp they give out, which means they will be moving towards the red end of the spectrum and thus encouraging algae growth

if they are T5 the above could also be happening as we dont know how long the lamps where used when you got them

wavemaker - you state its high power - what exactly are the GPH or LPH (gallons or litres) per hour marking on the unit
and as you have only 1 - IME I find it difficult to get flow through all areas of any reef tank using only 1 powerhead or wavemaker

your answers on some of the points above
will affect any follow up comments I make

Steve

 

Steve;
The wave maker i have is rated at 3000 L/ph or 792 g/ph as it is rather bulky i dont really want to put another one.

Im not actually sure what type of lights i am using as it came with the tank i got 2nd hand.
i have attached the following pictures and i hope you could tell me more about the lighting im using. and no i havnt changed the lamps at all.

 

Ok great images

the lighting you have is T8
you have a twin 20 watt canopy
one of them is actinic
the other lamp was probably a 10k Lamp at one time
but if its over 12 months old, it will be drifting in color spectrum by now

you have 35 gallon tank - with 790 gallons of flow thus just over 20 x tank volume

I cant see the single power head in the picture so am not sure what type it is
but if its one of those 1cm or 12mm nozzle type power heads, which put a lot of flow in a single direction , that may account for why you have so much cyno (the red stuff) in the lower half of the tank and in the corners against the glass

suggestions to get rid off this

1) look at changing out to a wave maker style power head or better still 2 of them at 400 gph and place these on either end of the tank - your water surface looks dead calm and that tells me flow is not ideal with what you have
2) syphon out what you can get at next water change
3) introduce some Granular ferric oxide or GFO into your filtration system in order to remove phosphates which algaes utilise (use in reactor if you have one, or in cannister or in HOB filter - Rowaphos is a good brand for use in cannisters and HOB filters as it does not clump like some others do
4) lighting - I note some shrooms in there , cant see what other corals you have - shrooms, zoanthids, and other softies would be OK under 2 x T8 lamps (done that myself about 15 years ago) but it may be worth considering an upgrade to a T5 lamp unit as this will give you more options on tubes available (aquarium T8s are getting harder to find I notice out here) but at very least, 2 x new lamps 1 x 10k and 1 x actinic
combined with manual removal, better through tank flow and reduction of nutrients

should help to eradicate this issue for you IME

Steve