Do I have the right light???

[firstallie]

Help? I have a 180 thats 9mos old. It includes 2 med size tangs a coral beauty angel 1 jawfish, 2 gold striped maroon clowns and a green manderin. We have 10 different corals thus far and 3 different anemones. All parameters on water are perfect or near perfect by anyones standards. I am running a 36watt UV sterilizer 25gal W/D sump with protien skimmer and a chiller (water temp 78deg). I have (3) 400 watt MH mounted in a hood 16 in above water (2) 10000K on outsides and (1) 20000 k in the middle. (2) 150watt actinics. I run 20k for 10 hrs a day and all light for 6 hrs a day. Im getting a lot of algea on the glass although the water stays clear. ( must clean every 2 days). Is this normal or do I have the wrong light or something else???? Note I do not use RO or DI water Could that be the problem??? Thanks for reading Jeff

 

[fishieness]

well how often are you feeding these fish and how much?
did you just upgrade?
is the tank in the sun?

 

[firstallie]

2 times a day, 1 cube of myisis ship or brine plus a sup of green for the tangs once a week the anemones once every 2 weeks (small squid piece) and no tank is not in the sun.

 

[fishieness]

how old is it?
are you using RO or DI water? are ;you filtering yoru own or getting it form a store? sometimes you get a lot of phosphates in those bottled ones
and are the lights new?

 

[firstallie]

No RO or DI water. Buying from LFS Lights are less that 2 months old PH = 8.2, Phosphates and Nitrates are 0

 

[fishieness]

you definatly have nutrients in your tank even though your levels are at 0. without nutrients, you wouldnt be having a problem. it jsut means that they are mostly getting used up by the algae that is growing.
did you mean you buy the water form your LFS? or your lights?
because tap water, even treated, is a very bad thing for the SW tank, esspecialy a reef.

 

[murph]

Switch to RO/DI water as soon as you can. You can get a home unit that will produce 30 gallons a day for around 250 and in the mean time try to find bottled water that is RO filtered. Filter method should be on the bottles label. Us this for both top off water and change water.
Sounds like you have a nice setup especially the lights. Some algae is always going to be present in your tank and is a good food source for your cleanup crew tangs angels etc and is part of the natural cycle of things. There's probably on one here that does not use a mag float to scrape algae off the front pain of the tank as necessary. If it become nascence level growing noticeably on rock or choking off corals etc. You may have to address above normal nutrient sources in your tank. Usually an efficient skimmer and water changes accompanied by a sufficient cleanup crew does the trick.
Sounds like your feeding a tad heavy also which can be a nutrient source for the algae even if it appears the fish are consuming it all quickly. I think you could easily cut your feeding routine in half or more. You'll get it figured out.

 

[firstallie]

Thanks MURPH I already have purchased a R/O D/I unit but do not have it installed yet. I was mostly trying to rule out either to much light or not the right spectrum. Thankks for your input. Just one more lesson to learn which is why I Love it so much THANKS AGAIN
JEFF :joy: