Im about done!

jeez, im sick of cleaning my tank DAILY because the whole front glass is covered in green algae. I just cant keep up with it..ive tried weekly water changes of 20% for the past 2 months, increased circulation, decreased bio-load, decreased lighting, increased filtration...and still NOTHING! Its actually getting worse and worse. This tank is over a year and a half old, and ive never had these problems before. Not only am I dealing with it in this tank, ive also been dealing with the same issue in my FOWLR. Yestarday was my water change/cleaning day; everything was great after cleaning, until this morning when the front was getting green again. On wednesday, a UV steralizer is showing up, and hopefully this will cure the problem. If the UV doesnt work, I think the reef tank is going to come down. Please if anyone had ANYYYYYYYYYY suggestions please tell me!

Params:

sg: 1.023
temperature: 78
ph: 8.1
alkalinity: 9dKH
NO2: 0
NO3:0
Phosphate: 0
calcium: 400ppm
magnesium: 1250 ppm

 

Is it just film algae? if so there are a ton of cool fish/ inverts that will gladly handle the problem for you

 

yes just film algae, and they cant keep up with it, i have so many snails and hermits that sometimes a whole wall is filled

 

algae blenny will eat the stuff. i would add a refugium if i were you.

 

A few thoughts/suggestions.

1) Are you using RO/DI water for your water changes? If you are using tap water, there is the likely source of your problems.

2) Are you running any carbon and GFO? These will make a huge difference by sucking up any phosphates and organics. These are best run in a reactor (such as a phosban reactor)

3) Even though your test kit reads zero nitrates, you obviously have nitrates (since you have algae growth), but your algae is eating it up before your test kits can read it. What kind of protein skimmer are you running? If you aren't running one, again there is a huge source of the potential problem.

4) The solution to the problem is NOT an algae-eating fish or clean-up crew. The source of the problem here is obviously a nutrient excess. The ultimate solution is removal of nutrients by the methods mentioned above. Clean-up crews are just for mild algae blooms here and there, but won't solve a huge algae problem on their own.

 

You can get em even if you dont have a sump . there are lots of Hang on the Back models that work really well

 

couple of thoughts, ideas, French4life

1) are you running GFO on your tanks, granular ferric oxide will help to remove phosphates and this product will certainly help reduce the rate the algae does build up on the front glass IME

2) What is your lighting and how long are you using it - excessive lighting periods combined with nutrients will increase the amount of glass cleaning you need to do

3) tank location? if your aquarium is close to a window and receives direct sunlight in addition to your tank lighting, this combined with nutrients will increase the speed that micro algae colonises the glass

Steve

 

I have this awesome huge snail (mexican snail i think) that does an amazing job at picking up the annoying algae. He works all day eating it and because of him my tank looks nearly algae free (on the glass). I will post a pic of him soon

 

JJL is probubly thinking of a mexicann turbo snail they work well

 

yes i do use rodi water, i use carbon, but no skimmer. What is the point of a refugium?