Help with red slime algae

Ok, this is what I have done so far and I am still getting the cyanobacteria (red algae) problem.

Day 1:
Apply chemiclean
Day 2:
Algae comes back
Day 3:
20% water change and re-appliance of the chemiclean
Day 4:
Algae comes back
Day 5:
20% water change and re-appliance of the chemiclean and turn-off lights
Day6:
Lights are still off and no feeding of fish
Day7:
Lights are still off and but turned on for the little time to feed fish
Day 8:
20% water change and afterward turning lights back on
Day 9 (today):
algae is back and lights are on.

*all 20% water changes include the sucking up of the algae.

What am I doing wrong?! It has never been this bad before...

 

Have you started gfo? What substrate do you have? How old are your bulbs? Are you skimming? What are all param's?

 

You didn't do anything about your real problem (high nutrients and lack of flow), just the symptom (the cyano). You have too many nitrates and phosphates in the tank that need to be removed, and too little flow. GFO will get rid of phosphates. A powerhead will add flow to the areas suffering from cyano.

For nitrates, there's quite a few methods. DSB, refugium, denitrator coil, have a bit of macroalgae, run a skimmer 24/7 and skim wet....

 

have any pics of the slim in your tank. just do water changes

 

Water changes don't help when the rock is leeching nitrates and phosphates, and/or covered in detritus.

 

Are you using RODI water? If you are using tap, and it happens to be high in phos or nitrates, your water changes could just be re-adding nutrients for the cyano.