Major Algae Issues need expert help lol

so i need help, i live very far away from my parents and they came down visited me and seen my tank and wanted one themselves. So anyways 8 months later they are having sum major issues. Its a 46gal tank. it has about 45lbs of liverock in it. sand bottom. it has 6x39watt t-5s in it. 3 koralia powerheads. 1 octopus 100ss skimmer. and a canister filter for tanks up to 100gallons. They are having major alage issues. They are getting terrible red slime algae. and also like a brownish algae too. When i come home every few months i clean up the tank really well. The livestock is 2 percs,1 mccoskers, 1 diamond goby, various species of snails, brittlestar, blue legged hermit crabs. They had coral growing for about 3 months before the tank went into decay. only a bubble coral is surviving and a toadstool is holding on. The canister filter is well maintained, but im suspecting maybe thats one issue in the big problem. 2nd i told them to get new lights because maybe the bulbs r bad. They Always use r/o di water. So what do you see that can help?

 

What are the parameters. They might be over feeding since you are not home. How long has the tank been running? Maybe you might change how the powerheads are pointing. It could be from having bad circulation.

 

um i told them to feed every other day to see if that helped. i pointed the powerheads so they are fine...and ill get back 2 u with parameters

 

I don't know about the wrasse, but the clowns and goby should be fine with 2x a week feedings.

 

I used to have bad problems with algae in my 46 bowfront. I reduced feedings, and that put a huge dent in the algae.

 

My guess is over feeding too. It's not how often, but more how much. Also,the canister filter needs to be cleaned frequently, IME, at least once every 2 weeks. How often do they do water changes? Do they supplement anything?

To me, it sounds like they like the idea of a salt water aquarium, but don't like the maintenance that goes with maintaining a successful and beautiful tank.

 

Also that brown dust-like algae may be because of the silicates on new plastics that you put in the tank. For example a new power head, a new temperature probe or even the probe's wire can cause that one.
For the red slime (probably cyano bacteria) you could increase the flow in the area where the bloom is. This is what I was recommended to do when having the same problem. I redirected my flow towards the affected area and it was like a miracle. 3 days and it was all gone.

Good luck!

 

Overfeeding sounds very possible. Is the skimmer adjusted correctly?

Here is my algae checklist. It may help you.

Mark

 

when i first started my 55gal i had a canister filter, It gave me a good amount of algae even after maintaining it well. I took it out as suggested and slowly the problem went away. I have an octopus 100ss hob skimmer and that pretty much all my filtration. Get a decent cuc, they need to do a water change at least 1se every two weeks, if not more.

 

do they even do water changes? cheato in a sump? lose the canister, and just get a filter sock.