Slime Algae

Came back home after 3 days out of town and found a lot of algae coating glass and powerheads. Cleaned the glass, next day the glass was coated again. This is not usual for my tank. My parameters run consistently sg:1.025 ammonia:0 nitrate: 0 alk:9 calcium: 460 (I no longer trust my api phosphate test and do not use it) 2 weeks ago phosphate read with hanna photometer: .03 The only thing that I have changed is adding a homemade ATO. I am wondering if there is any chance that the bucket I used which is from home depot is leaching nutrients into the water causing this spike in algae.

 

Are you topping off with RO/DI water or tap water? Tap water will have many bad effects on your overall water quality.

 

Ro/Di. Batch test every batch 0 TDS.

 

Then it could be the bucket. Try filling it up with RO/DI water for 24 hours then testing it again for TDS.

 

sounds like a great idea. Only other cause I came up with was selcon. coraline algae also began growing rapidly also.