diatoms

[dreamwish3]

have a 30 gal tank.has 2- 175 powerheads,one on each end and a whisper 40 in the middle.the tank has been up for a year.i have two clowns,two starsfish,flame shrimp,and 3 blue crabs,and 6 snails.i have coraline on all my rocks.
i am very conscientious about my maintence.i do water changes every 2 weeks and am always cleaning the glass off every couple of days.on my powerheads i have two aquaclear filters that i change every two weeks in between water changes and change my whisper filter every 2 weeks.i seem to have diatoms i cant get rid of. i even got some phosguard and thought that would help.i have a brita filter on my faucet for water changes and top offs.im at a loss.anything i can do to help this problem.i also have 2 strip lights that add up to 60 watts.i am getting a coralife compact w/2bulbs and nite light.could it be that i dont have enough light and the compact will help. thank you any suggestions would be greatful.

[bertoni]

[welcome]

The Brita filter probably isn't doint much. If you can swing an RO-DI unit, that might help. You could also check the age of the bulbs. Older bulbs can grow dim, etc, and create algae problems. Also, do you have any snails for cleanup?

Reduced feeding and a macroalgae area have helped me beat algae. This article has a lot of ideas to consider:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/august2003/chem.htm