Algae in tank, water parameters

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xxnonamexx

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I also tested water and have .5 Phos, 10Nitrate, 8.2 PH, and .00020 salt. Water was changed 2 weeks ago 60 gals. So if all the crap out of my tank is out as well as skimmed and I checked the food no Phos. What is causing this algae mess? I am trying to find out what it is so when I move it and resetup the tank I can prevent it. thanks
Please see my thread Fowlr phosphate removal for photos until I post them here
 
I think there is more to algae than meets the eye. I am also having a lot of growth in my display tank of some crazy looking algaes. My water readings seem to show nothing in there for the algae to be feeding off of at the rate its growing. I also have a huge ball of Chaetto that I have been going from softball to baskball size every two weeks in my fuge.

I am going to assume the Chaetto is keeping the water clear of stuff but the bubble/brown/green/plant like algaes must be feeding off something in the rocks. This really went crazy when I replaced all my bulbs in the display tank.

I am going to try and limit my lights in the display to beat back the algaes without messing with the coralline.

Good luck and I am sure we can beat this!!!
 
Here are the photos
 

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you will end up fighting this til it drives you nuts. a lot of light hours, daily, will do it.

when i had a smaller tank, i got fed up and just removed all the rock, bleached and cleaned it and started over.
 
And some things that will help...

Increase flow. A lot. You look like you have one Koralia in there and that's it. I'd run two or three. Definitely increase flow, that will make a huge difference in cyano. It's cant/wont grow in high flow areas.

Is your lighting old? Or really tilted towards the actinic side of things? Both old lighting and lots of actinic lighting area known to increase cyano growth. With my old LED light, I had every third light in each row being blue and directly under those (10 degree field of output so it was pretty straight down shining) I would get a small circle of cyano growing but no where else in the tank. It was actually kind of funny, I had 7 or 8 little circles of cyano, people who didnt know saltwater tanks actually thought it looked good. "What did you do to get the rock all purple there?"

And yep, over feeding also can cause cyano but in your case that doesnt seem to be the issue.
 
Thanks I was thinking the same and think I'll wait until the move are there any power heads that you recommend? I like the Koralia but this is the third one the company gave me due to performance issues.
 
I've actually always liked Koralia's. I've never had a problem with them and my last tank had 8 running.
 
Recty said:
That looks like green cyanobacteria, btw, not algae.
Click to expand...

i think so also.

How old is the tank and do you have a skimmer and gfo? What are you checking your phosphates with? .5 is really high. Your test kit might not be super accurate.

Also, I don't agree with flow and cyano... had had a huge outbreak in a tank that had tons and tons of flow... it comes down to a nutrient issue. Your rocks act as a sponge and can release these organics and feed the algae. Although low flow spots to tend to accumulate detritus which the cyano would feed from.
 
Don't get me wrong flow is important, and those koralias may help get the nasties suspended and into your filters instead of accumulating in your display. Good luck.

Try the ligths out approach for 3 days, cover the sides and everything. That sometimes works well. If you have the high nutrients tho it will eventually come back.
 
What is that one now? I would say 2 more Koralia 2 or 3's... not much bigger than that they would look out of place. two in one corner facing up and down and another in the other corner. Point them towards the middle front glass. Something like that anyway.
 
All I know is I've never had cyano in my spots where flow is highest. Whether thats from not allowing nutrients to build up there or what, it's never grown where I've got lots of flow.

And they do make the smaller Koralias still, xxnonamexx... they are listed under the controllable ones, you can still buy the 1 through 4.
 
Thanks I checked Marinedepot and they stated product discontinued on the Koralia 4. I found them as you mentioned under controlable but it states Requires wavemaker. Did they redesign it so that you need a wavemaker now? Should I just get 2 Koralia 5's? Thanks
 
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