Help with Algae please :)

Greetings guys,

i have been fighting with this algae since quite long now. the tank is old and mature, stocking is very minimal still i am not able to get rid of this algae
please help



this is overpowering the tank and the rocks as well
the tank looks dirty and i dont feel like looking at the tank except feeding

 

Is this tank still outside?

that algae looks like diatoms to me, I know you're getting indirect sunlight for some time during the day which may be contributing to this but I also know that you are using tap water for your source water, unless you have gotten yourself an RO/DI system?

if you're still using tap water then you may want to test it for silicates, diatoms love silicates and until the silicates are used up in your tank the diatoms will remain, someone correct me if I'm wrong here.

what does your clean up crew consist of? I'm not sure but I believe there are animals that will eat diatoms like hermits or snails of some kind.

if you do test for silicates and it comes out to be high then you could try running some seachem phosguard this is known to remove slilicates from the water, you don't have any corals right now so you don't have to worry about the possibility of aluminum oxide getting into your system (even though I don't really believe this happens anyways)

 

yes this tank is still outside and not possible to move inside till i shift to new house

my phosphates test is normal as i bought phosphate test of Hanna from BRS
still i run the Phosguard in my tank and change it every 6 days

my clean up crew is
sand shifting star fish
lots of hermit crabs (around 18-20)
loads of snails (20-24)
and algae eating blenny fish

 

how about your source water, tap or ro/di?

I would still test for silicates in the tank and your source water.

 

Try running a fuge to have other like chaeto's fighting for the same nutrients? That should help and I have also tried algae gone and it's reef safe with no ill effect.

 

no idea on size of your tank, but 20-24 snails is only a "Load of snails" if your tank is 5 gallons or less. I keep about 200 or more in my 55 (mostly dwarf ceriths).

Tank outside, there are too many variables there. Is there a top on it? Maybe something is getting blown in. Where are you? Might be too hot outside (warmer tanks get more of this IME).

Might be just me, but that pic, that glass, that tank doesn't look old and mature. It looks pretty fresh... but I don't know tank's backstory.

P

 

Tank is outside where it gets light from surround we cant also say indirectlight but still light is coming
I use tap water rodi unit is way too big to fix here ll fix once i shift to new place

The tank is around 6 months old
The tank runs a chiller and controls the temperature of 25-26 celcius constant

 

That's your problem. Tap water and sun light.

 

Hmm then ll ATS and over skimming the tank help ??

 

overskimming might help... some.

You'd be better served getting RO/DI or buying RO/DI water. If possible, shade the tank more. And last, get a CuC the right size for your tank (John at reefcleaners.org can set you up for cheap).

I used tap for a long time before switching to RO/DI. In my case, it made no difference (I had pretty good city water). But I moved 14 months ago and where I live now, there's no choice, RO/DI or no fish tank the water is so full of crap (I'm on a "community well"). My point is, I'm not the type to blanket say tap is bad, but it is *always* a crap shoot at best and fatal for your fish tank at worse.

6 months isn't mature. That's barely even made it to stable. I wouldn't call any tank less than 2 yrs "mature" when it comes to SW. Personally, I'd put the mark at 1 yr to even stop calling it 'new'. Bacteria levels always fluctuate, but those first two years are the worse. Just FYI for when you're trying to give info on forums.