green algie everyday

[jbupland]

hi guys i clean my 55 gallon half reef half sand atleast 1 time a day on my reef side in the tank i have a babby zebra shark its only about 3 or 4 inches long a yellow wrase a few green cromies about a dozen or so blue legged hermitcrabs 2 or 3 pepermint shrimp 3 britle stars and 3 general stars 2 anemonies and a rock with a bunch of mushrooms on it a few live rocks about 30 pounds worth on the back i have an aqua tech 70 that i have converted into a hang on the back fuge but my problem is that every day i come home from work and have green algie all over the glass on the reef side i leave my fuge light on all the time my other lighting is a 48 inch t5ho nova extream and a 24 inch t5ho nova extream that i leave on for about 10 hours a day what can i do to stop this algie problem the 24 inch is on the reef side do i have too much light

[Toddrtrex]

Would be nice if you listed your water parms.

What type of water are you using? Tap or RO/DI, and if RO/DI what is the TDS of it.

But, with the info giving, would say that you have too much nutrients in the tank which is fueling your algae problems.

[useskaforevil]

wow, thats a mouth full. you need to use periods, commas, and spellcheck. what do you mean reef side? and a shark in a 55 gallon? how long has this tank been set up?

[down and outman]

You need some way to export nitrates and phosphates. First check your Nitrate and Phosphate levels. Phosphate is the worse culprit/ Use RO/DI water, no tap water. Check your LFS for some and start using it if your not. Here's some suggestions.

1. A good skimmer. This is a must have.
2. A phosban reactor w/ a mag 400 to run it.
3. Good flow, a pair of Koralia 3 powerheads.
4. Chaeto macro algae in the fuge.
5. Watch how much you feed. If you use frozen food, rinse it off before you feed. Makes a world of difference.
6. More critters to eat it. Pincushion urchins eat anything.
7. Patience. Good things happen slowly, bad things happen fast. Once you learn to control algae it won't control you.
8. Another trick to get it under control. Lights out for 3 days. The ocean is not always sunny.

I realize you may not be able to do it all at once. But start taking steps to control the algae with some of these ideas and you should be able to lick it.

[Sokretys]

i had bad algae problem for about a week. and it was the week following topping off my 29 with about a half gallon of tap water. i then got a phosphate sponge. used it for 48 hours and the algae was fine. i then got a phosphate tester just top be sure. phospates exist in the open ocean at around .5 ppm. and exist in the reefs at .1 ppm. phosphates are pretty important to most organisms but like everything else. excess is bad. i tested my tap water...10.0. which was the highest my test kit would do. and its an elos test kit..so i know its accurate..

down and outman had a good point of good things happening slowly and bad things happening quickly. tap water...bad

[down and outman]

On the Phos in tap water, many water utilities add phosphates for corrosion control, to coat the pipes keep them from rusting away. And I get to be up all night making water. FUN WOW!

[Craig Lambert]

Originally posted by down and outman
You need some way to export nitrates and phosphates. First check your Nitrate and Phosphate levels. Phosphate is the worse culprit/ Use RO/DI water, no tap water. Check your LFS for some and start using it if your not. Here's some suggestions.

1. A good skimmer. This is a must have.
2. A phosban reactor w/ a mag 400 to run it.


I realize you may not be able to do it all at once. But start taking steps to control the algae with some of these ideas and you should be able to lick it.

I agree with these two ideas to start. Although you only need a minijet 404 to run a phosban reactor. You want 25-30gph flow through so the top of the media has a very slight tumbling motion. (Other wise the media will pulverize and end up in the tank causing problems).

[down and outman]

Gotta have flow! I finally got over my algae issues when I installed my Koralia 4's.