Major Brown Algae problem

M

markc

Guest
I have a major Diatom problem in my 90 gallon tank. I just cannot get rid of it. It is all over my corals and live sand bed. Thank is over 2 years old. It's been over 1.5 months now and it will no go away.
Water Quality as of last night using API reef master test kit:
Nitrates 5
Phosphate 1
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
ph 8.3
SG 1.027
My tank includes the following:
Lighting 2x250watt MH 15K XM lights (2 weeks old)
4 powerheads 2 koralia 2s, 1 Seio Superflow 1100 gph, 1 maxi jet 1200
30 gallon refuge
Coralife Skimmer
Fish:
snowflake eel
Hamlet
2 clowns
Green Lionfish
yellow tank
hippo tang
flame hawk
Feeding Frozen food everyother day thawing it under fresh water placing into net and placing into tank.
Several types of corals and inverts
What I have been doing to rid the problem:
20 gallon weekly water changes
changed out old MH (9 months old)
reduced lighting to 6 hours a day from 8
tried to raise and lower SG
bush off algae and suck it out
clean all equipment
added Purigen
Kent power phos
tried Rowa phos
added a bag of HydroCarbon 2.
Any suggestions on how I can get rid of this crap, it's even getting into my fuge. thank you.
 
asharp13

asharp13

Member
you can feed less. i had the same problem when i was feeding pellets and realized pieces were falling to the bottom of the tank. i switched to flake food and the problem subsided within weeks. id also try killing your lights for a day or two, followed by a big water change while sucking most of the crap out of the sand bed
 
E

eric b 125

Guest
do you use tap, RO, or RODI water for top offs/ water changes? depending on how bad the problem actually is, your test kits might say that trates and phosphates are low, but the algae could be feeding from it giving you "false" readings.
 
M

markc

Guest
I use tap water I have been using that for over 2 years no problems at all until this last 1.5 months.
 
asharp13

asharp13

Member
gotta use good water dude. once i stopped using tap, my problems really cleared up. also, while your tap water may have been ok, things change, treatment facilities equiptment gets old, and you cant really trust what is comming through your pipes ya kno
 
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