algae driving me crazy! help! pix!

[collie man]

i have a 55 gallon mixed reef going for about 9 months. ive got a wavepoint 4x39w t5 light with 3 month old bills. my tank param's are stable and have been for months now. nitrate-0 phosphate-0 alk-3.20 calc-450 mag-1350 salifert tests. i know many people say the algea consumes the phosphate but i have a gfo reactor and i dont do a biweekly change i get registering amount of phosphate so i know its not that.

some of the algae is green some is brown and it covers my glass every two days or so. i just scrape and scrape. i only have about two spots of green hair algae on the rocks aswell.
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[bertoni]

Are there any herbivorous snails in the system? They might be able to keep the glass cleaner.

The pest, whatever it is, will require phosphorus from the water column. Unfortunately, phosphate isn't the only source for phosphorus, and our kits (and GFO) are useful only for phosphate itself. In addition, it's possible that the algae can latch onto the phosphate before the GFO can bind it. How long has the reactor been running, and how much media is in it?

Some other measures that have been known to help are better skimming, reduced feeding, and growing and harvesting a macroalga. Some people also dose carbon, although that seems to have some risks.

How much food is going into the system, and how often?

For the time being, I'd try to siphon out (or otherwise remove) as much of the mess on the glass as possible, to get some nutrient out of the system.

[collie man]

ive been skimming wet for the past few weeks to try and eradicate anything. i feed rods food original blend about a pinky nail size with a syringe every day to every other day whenever i get the chance. the reactor has been running for about 5 months. i was having problems getting the phosphates below 1 before aswell.

[collie man]

yes i have snails also and its just on the glass so it gets annoying seeing that instead of my nice corals

[bertoni]

Well, if the snails are eating the pests, adding a few more might be useful. Is that a ml or so of the food? I might feed about a 1/4 to 1/3 of a cube of frozen Formula 1 per day to that size tank, or less, depending on the size and number of fish.

[julie180]

Do you have a magnet scraper? Quick and easy way to keep your glass clean. I know its not a permanent fix, but at least you can enjoy your corals. Just leave it in the corner out of your way until you need it.

[jenwebber3]

i'm having the same issue, having to use my magnet scraper every other day. i have 20+ snails in a 29 biocube, and, like collie man, have low to 0 nutrient levels. Is there some sort of readily available macroalgae that will help utilize the nutrients this nuisance algae is using? i only have 2 fish in the tank right now, so it is hard to not overfeed, and yet half the food ends up getting sucked into the sump before the fish get it, so I worry about starving the fish. I haven't tried shortening the lighting time, but don't want to starve my zoos of light.

[txfatcat]

Collie Man


Check out this thread located on the next page in this forum.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1595003

[collie man]

i do have an algae scraper but im tired of doing it every other day. ill check out the article and get back to you. thanks to all who have helped

cheers:beer:

[allsps40]

What is your water source for mixing salt water?? You may want to stop the rods food for a while as many coral foods can cause blooms. I feed phyto and had blooms if I did not feed very lightly and fed more that one a week. I also have an algae issue not the same as yours, and my phos is 0 ppm. I am trying vodka.

[collie man]

good to know the problem is the rods food is mainly for my fish i only spot feed my lta with krill and large particles of rods food. ill try and feed less but all my fish look like crack heads if they don't get their fix everyday.

[collie man]

i also get my salt water from my lfs. its filtered natural seawater. i have spoken to them and they say they are not having similar products as they use their water in their systems

[mike_cmu04]

you are going to have to scrape your glass. If you do it with a magnet scraper every day you should be good. do you have other algae or is it just whats on the glass?

[psykobowler]

I use turbo snails and vodka. Works well for me.

[collie man]

i have a little patch of gha on one rock but thats it.