Not Your Normal Alge Question

[tgolbus]

I am having a big algie outbreak (looks like Diatom bloom, and red slime).
Here is what happened....
We were going out of town so I did a water change and then fed the tank very well (over fed). The tank is a 26g Bow, with a hang on prizm skimer and a hang on filter.
When we got back the skimmer wasn't skimming (the syphon had been interupted) and the tank was full of alge.
I did a big water change (25-30%). I am still having the problems.
I use RO water and I turned back the lighting 2 hours (compact flo). This was about 4 days ago. Still have the problem (even coats the live sand on the bottom).
I have never had a problem with Alge before this (I have many alge eating things).
I tested the water again today and added a test for Phosphates. My LFS said I need to test with water from the bottom of the tank (never hear that before).
Here are the results
1.028 salinity (working on bringing it down)
81 degrees
8.2 PH
0 Amonia
0 Nitrite
1 Nitrate
430 Calcium
.5 Phospate (not sure wha the acceptable levels are).
The steps I am thinking about taking.....
REmoving the Compact Flo lighting back to just Flo, replacing my RO filters.
Any ideas? Please respond.

 

[bbuck_camelback]

Replacing the RO filters should help, i would also add more snails to get the algae on the sandbed. After awhile the RO filters stop working and all the water you are adding will do more harm than good.

 

[broomer5]

TGolbus
Try to lower the phosphates.
Increase water circulation with powerheads.
0.5 mg/L of phosphate is very high.
People try to keep it down below .05
Phosphate along with nitrate will allow algaes to grow like crazy.
Mix up some new saltwater - let it aerate overnight with powerhead and heater.
Test this new batch for phosphates - and see what you get.
You can try testing RO/DI for phosphates as well.
Your 0.5 mg/L phosphates could have been the result of overfeeding.
You could have had a slow rising level to begin with too.
Could be a combination of both.
Cutting back on the lighting is a short term solution.
Some folks will do this while doing water changes, running phosphate removing media/sponge, and dripping kalkwasser.
Kalkwasser has a tendency to lower phosphates too - over time.
Increasing water circulation in the tank is always a good thing to do - whenever you experience excess algae blooms.
HTH