Problems

[cowboy87]

I have a 29 gallon reef tank with mostly zoos and other soft corals. I started off with crushed coral as the substrate but then put sand over it. I've tested for all the major things, pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, SG, etc. I have a major problem with algae. All kinds, hair, bubble...and diff. colors, red, green, brown...also some of my corals will not open and I don't know why. I have a skimmer also along with carborn and mechanical filtration. I've tried getting sea stars to clean the bottom but they never last more than a day. When I do water changes I siphon out the bottom, but there's so much rock covering the substrate I can't really clean enough to make much difference. Any suggestions or questions?

[Travis L. Stevens]

What are your parameters?

Temp
SG
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
Phosphate
pH
Alkalinity
Calcium
Magnesium

What type of lighting do you have and how old are the bulbs. How much flow do you have and what type is it?

[justinm0424]

are you using ro/di water? if not you really should get one.

[cowboy87]

Temp 80

SG 1.024

Ammonia 0

Nitrite 0

Nitrate 0

Phosphate 0

pH 8.0

Alkalinity

Calcium

Magnesium

I've never measured for the last 3. My lighting is 2 VHO's with a 150 watt metal halide. The halide has not been turned on in a while due to the algae. I have a 1300 and 2600 model viaqua water pumps for water flow. I am not using ro/di water.