So sick of algae, again!

[kellenr]

My 30gal tank has been experiencing a lot of algae problems recently. It seems no matter what I do I can't get a hold of it. I first put a phosphate sponge in the filter for a few days, looked like it helped but not much. Then I added some Chemi-Clean Cyano Slime Remover, that got rid of the red slime. Then I added an extra powerhead (got 3 of them in there now, 150gph each, along with my filter returns, think its more than enough). I have this mustard-colored algae that covers my LR, top of sandbed and front pane of my glass.
Yesterday I siphoned the sand, turkey baster blasted the LR and cleaned the inside glass, then did a 20% WC. This stuff amazes me; this afternoon I see it's all coming back! There is a light, fine layer forming again on the glass, theres a layer forming ontop of my sandbed and my water is somewhat cloudy.
I am sooooo sick of dealing with this, it's like an 'everyday thing'!

Does anyone have any ideas to what will 'really' cure this?
Like I said, I've done just about everything. I feed very light, like every other day, and no food is wasted. My lights are on a little longer than ideal (maybe 12-14hrs a day) but I don't think that alone can cause it. One thing is that I recently upgraded the lighting and its making everything a lot hotter. My tank water is up to like 81*-82*. I'm in the process of making a custom hood with fans but that should be done within the next week.
Any honest recommendations are much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[sbaumann14]

try cutting down on the lights. go with about 8-10 hrs a day and see if that helps. is the tank getting any light other than the tank lights?

 

[sbaumann14]

also, what do you have for filtration and what kind of clean up grew?

 

[bgbdwlf2500]

id go even less than 8-10 hours...go down to 6 and then work up...also as already said make sure youre not getting sunlight

 

[kellenr]

Originally Posted by sbaumann14
http:///forum/post/2637966
try cutting down on the lights. go with about 8-10 hrs a day and see if that helps. is the tank getting any light other than the tank lights?
Well its in the living room but against the wall that probably receives the least amount of light possible, there's no windows on that wall. It does probably receive a little light but I'm talking like just a tad from whatever the cracked blinds are letting in, nothing like sunshine directly reaching it. I will cutback on the lights though, I'll try like 9hrs.
Originally Posted by sbaumann14
http:///forum/post/2637966
also, what do you have for filtration and what kind of clean up grew?
Theres a carbon filter pad on it in the canopy along with a bio-wheel. I run bio-filtration. About 50lbs of LR and 40lbs of LS (4.5in sandbed).
As far as CUC, I have 4 blue-legged hermits and 2 astrea snails. I'm thinking about beefing it up a bit though with a peppermint shrimp and an emerald crab or two.

 

[bgbdwlf2500]

i would assume your phosphates are through the roof since you said the phosphate pad helped for a little bit. it probably only helped a little because it became "full" of phosphates and didnt help any more. seems as fast as you say it grows lighting is a huge issue, id turn them off for a day or 2 and see what happens...
what are you feeding? i know you said every other day but some foods are "rich"

 

[bang guy]

Can you detail how you cured your live rock? Was it ever exposed to very high ammonia levels?
The stuff on the glass sounds a lot like Diatoms. Are you using tap water or does your sand contain any Silicate?

 

[kellenr]

Originally Posted by bgbdwlf2500
http:///forum/post/2637983
i would assume your phosphates are through the roof since you said the phosphate pad helped for a little bit. it probably only helped a little because it became "full" of phosphates and didnt help any more. seems as fast as you say it grows lighting is a huge issue, id turn them off for a day or 2 and see what happens...
what are you feeding? i know you said every other day but some foods are "rich"
Yeah, no, my phosphates are like 0. Phosphates weren't the problem, thats why "it only helped a little". I did 2 runs with the phosphate sponge, the initial 48hrs to remove phosphates, then a new one to remove any silicates. Like I said, that wasn't the problem though.

I mix up the food. It's either 1 of 3. Prime Reef Flakes, Mysis Shrimp, or Sally's Seaweed Salad (small piece, attached to a rock for a few hours).
Yeah I'm going to experiment with lighting a little and see what happens. I can't keep my lights off for 2 days though because I have various corals, SPS and anemones.

 

[kellenr]

Originally Posted by Bang Guy
http:///forum/post/2637992
Can you detail how you cured your live rock? Was it ever exposed to very high ammonia levels?
The stuff on the glass sounds a lot like Diatoms. Are you using tap water or does your sand contain any Silicate?
I purchased the LR fully cured from my LFS, it was some of the best looking live fiji rock I've ever seen. Full of coralline and all kinds of goodies. I don't know if it was ever exposed to high ammonia or not.
Yeah I thought it was Diatoms thats why I put the phosphate sponge in to remove Silicates (if any were in there). I'm using RO Water only. I originally filled it with tap water 6mos ago when I first started the tank but have done so many WC's since then with RO everytime, I'm sure all that tap is out now.
I checked my sand and salt to make sure I wasn't adding any phosphates or silicates and I think I'm good.
These are the 2 products I use:
Sand
http://www.naturesocean.com/live_sand.htm
Salt
http://www.thehiddenreef.com/istar.a...26810409!THR01

 

[nordy]

I would suggest focusing on your light schedule and reduce them to no more than 8 hours, maybe less, until you get the algae growth under control. As you attack the causes of your algae/diatom issues, physical removal of algae is very important-even though you have been cleaning the algae from your tank, removing it from the water column by using a good canister filter is very important.
The temps you report can also contribute to promoting algae growth-after I installed a chiller in my 55 gal reef tank and got temps down to a rock steady 79 degrees, from 82-84, it really helped.
What are your tank parameters, speciffically Nitrates? They are fertilizer and will help plants (algae) grow.
How about your feeding schedule? How often do you feed? This can be a significant contributer to excess nitrates, even with your numerous water changes.
It sound like your recent lighting upgrade may have triggered your algae issues?
Agree on upgrading your CUC-I have a couple of emerald crabs in my 55 but the guy that really seems to be working the algae is my Sally Lighjtfoot crab; always crawling over the LR and picking whatever it can find to eat. I would also strongly suggest more snails (or as some call them Hermit Crab Food

!). It's never good to see them get eaten, but they are relatively cheap, do a great job on algae, and I just get another order of 10-20 or so every few months. I know some peeps are down on hermits 'cause they will chow down on the snails but IMHO they also do a great job overall cleaning up the tank!

 

[shackaholic]

i'm sort of just thinking out loud here, so if i'm way wrong, don't mind me.
you say that you are using RO water. is this from your water unit or a lfs near you? if it's your RO unit, how old are your membranes?
have you tested the phophate/nitrate of the RO water before putting it into your tank?
also, just because your tank is registering 0 for phosphates, that definitely doesn't necessarily mean that you have none. it could be an instance of your algae utilizing the phosphate quicker than it can register in your water.
a phosphate reactor surely couldn't hurt in this instance, especially since you are running SPS in your tank (unless you already have a phosphate reactor).

 

[bgbdwlf2500]

how old are your bulbs?
i dont know because i dont use one but ive read on here that not replacing the RO units will cause bad algae problems.

 

[kellenr]

Ok, I'm going to try to answer everyones questions at once here. Here we go:
Bulbs are brand new (<1mos), I just upgraded. I get my RO water from a local water machine at the grocery store (it's RO/DI) or from my LFS. Maybe I should test for Nitrates & Phosphates in the RO water. I don't have a phosphate reactor (don't really have room for it). A canister filter would be great by my setup cannot accomodate one right now for numerous reasons. My feeding schedule I stated already above; very light at that. I am going to beef up my CUC a bit. Getting a chiller sounds great but aren't they pretty expensive to purchase just to cool down 3-4degrees? I'm going to finish that new canopy with fans as I stated earlier, the lights will be a little higher off the water too so we'll see if that helps. My hermits don't eat my snails actually, I've read that alot but mine seem to do fine. I think I will definitely focus on my lighting schedule, try to keep it around 8hrs or less for a while and see if there's a difference. I'm thinking maybe the higher lighting, long hours and warmer water temp. may have triggered it. And now it won't back off on its own. I'll give it a shot and see what happens. Thanks.

 

[airandsea]

Originally Posted by KellenR
http:///forum/post/2638203
Ok, I'm going to try to answer everyones questions at once here. Here we go:
Bulbs are brand new (<1mos), I just upgraded. I get my RO water from a local water machine at the grocery store (it's RO/DI) or from my LFS. Maybe I should test for Nitrates & Phosphates in the RO water. I don't have a phosphate reactor (don't really have room for it). A canister filter would be great by my setup cannot accomodate one right now for numerous reasons. My feeding schedule I stated already above; very light at that. I am going to beef up my CUC a bit. Getting a chiller sounds great but aren't they pretty expensive to purchase just to cool down 3-4degrees? I'm going to finish that new canopy with fans as I stated earlier, the lights will be a little higher off the water too so we'll see if that helps. My hermits don't eat my snails actually, I've read that alot but mine seem to do fine. I think I will definitely focus on my lighting schedule, try to keep it around 8hrs or less for a while and see if there's a difference. I'm thinking maybe the higher lighting, long hours and warmer water temp. may have triggered it. And now it won't back off on its own. I'll give it a shot and see what happens. Thanks.
As Shackoholic said, I would test the RO water that you are putting into your tank. I am very new to this hobby and I have been a sponge at the LFS when different subjects and problems are talked about. One of the things that I was made very aware of is the quality of the "RO" water at the local grocery store. A lady that frequents the LFS came in and said she had a crazy alga problem. See stated that she used RO water from the local grocery store dispenser. The fish guy told her to bring in a sample of the water and he would test it. She did and the phosphates were very high. The stores don't care about changing the membranes when they should, they are trying to make money. Good luck!!

 

[nordy]

Sounds like you are definately on the right track to tackle the algae problem in your tank! IMO, you often have to tackle problems like this step by step, learning along the way, and not expecting one "magic bullet" to be the solution, but doing research and tackling each potential problem in turn.