should I not be using flake food?

Yesterday I came home from work to find hair algae all over my tank - especially on my live rock. The usual green stuff, but also some gross looking black stuff (looks kind of like clumps of nose hair...). I was surprised because I am running 2 phosban reactors - 1 with phosban, 1 with carbon. My readings were ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0, phosphate 0, pH 8.2, temp 80 F, salinity 1.026. I run my lights about 12 hours per day.

So the only culprit I can think of for the algae bloom is overfeeding, which is definitely possible (I like to watch the fishies eat). I will cut back the feedings, but I wonder if I should not be using flake food, because it tends to float all over the tank. Do people here find that other types of food pollute the tank less?

 

ive got a little stick on square that stops the flake from floatin all over. i put the flake there, and it drops straight down instead of floatin on the surface

 

You gotta be care full not to feed to much with flake. Looks like a lot less before you drop it in, then its snowing flake food in your tank. As far as I have heard flake isn't as bad as frozen meaty stuff as far as polluting the tank.

 

I had a problem with pellets. It seemed that they sank really fast so the fish werent able to get much of it. I havent had any problem with the flake food.

 

theres quite a few fish that will raze ythe bottom forthe pellets. my foxface,tang, and angels all do. plus my clean up crew get at it also

 

Two minute rule of thumb!

I literally time my feedings to ensure I don't overfeed...
Two minutes... eat what you can because it's done.
I do that 4 x times a week with flake... seaweed paper 3 x a week.

Seems to work... no algae problems whatsoever!
Good luck!
Ryan