I don't get it

Have never been a fan of using chemicals to correct a problem, its like a bandaid on a bullet wound.. but that's just me.

Get a TDS meter and check the water that you are getting from the pet store. If I were buying water by the gallon I would stand for nothing less than perfect ( 0 TDS ).

You could also test phosphates, might be time for a phosphate reactor.

What it boils down to is that somehow nutrients are getting into the system that feed the algae, which could be TDS in the water, phosphates, overfeeding, and there has also been talk of silicates in play sand causing algae issues (if you used that for substrate).

Good luck with it!

 

Vacuum out what you can. Increase frequency and amount of water changes.

Always worked for me. Have not seen for years now.

Common to see a few cycles of this over first year or so as tank matures.

It will pass...

 

Thanks for all your help once again

 

the only question i have is do you have to use flakes and pellets or can you use frozen and wash that off

 

as stated above, Check for phosphates thats a big contributor to cyano blooms
Also, make sure no sunlight is hitting the tank, the distorted sun light through windows causes major algae issues in many forms, if you recently changed foods, you may want to try something else, also just make sure not to overfeed. You can also try some animals that will eat it, I have a dragon goby that loves the stuff

 

Hope all works out....

 

Couldn't have said it better. NEVER trust the water you get from somewhere. The teenager working at night probably forgot to change the canisters out last month at the store....you never know until you test. I would invest in a RO/DI unit because by the time you figure up your time and what ever you are going to pay for chemicals to clean this up you would have paid for one.

 

You are more than likely importing nutrients into your system via poor water quality from lfs, phosphates even though test kit says zero, overfeeding or something to that effect.

 

oh, and if you float them you can grow chaeto underneat, if that is how your lights are setup. Best of both worlds.

 

Float what?