codyslarks
New member
I have a 15 gallon nano reef aquarium that's been running for about 6 months now. It cycled quickly and had no problems for about 4 months, but in the past 2 months I've been battling a major green hair algae problem! Until about 2 weeks ago I also had a problem with red slime covering my sand, but now the sand is clear and the hair algae keeps growing.
Here's a little about my tank setup. The tank is 15 gallons with the rough dimensions of 13in x 13in x 18in (tall). It has a 2" sand bed with about 20 pounds of live rock. For flow I have two koralia nano power heads rated at 425gph each. For lighting I have two panorama pro led modules. One is a 50/50 white an blue and the other is a blue/magenta. The tank never receives direct sunlight either. My filtration is a hang on back Fluval c-2 filter. This filter has its "5 stage filtration" but I took out the carbon and replaced it with purigen about a month and a half after the tank was set up. About a month ago I also adds some phosguard to help with any phosphates. The only fish in the tank are two small ocellaris clowns about 1-1/4 inch each. My clean up crew initially consisted of 6 red leg hermits, 6 naussarius snails, and a cleaner shrimp. With the hope of a quick cure i recently added an emerald crab and a turbo snail. They have helped some, but there's too much hair algae.
My LFS tests my parameters at: ph 8.2, salinity 1.025 , nitrites 0, nitrates 0, and calcium 460. I keep the temperature around 79 degrees.
I have manually removed all that I could a couple of times, but at best it helps temporarily and spreads it around the tank more with the small floating debris. The tank is full of corals ( softies and SPS) so removing the rock to scrub is a little difficult. I used to keep the lights on about 9 hours a day, however for the last month I've went down to about 6-7 hours because I'm stuck at work for this time. I've already tried a 3-day blackout which only paused the growth.
So what do you guys suggest? I'm losing hope with this battle, but I'm not taking down the tank! I can post pictures later tonight when I get home.
Here's a little about my tank setup. The tank is 15 gallons with the rough dimensions of 13in x 13in x 18in (tall). It has a 2" sand bed with about 20 pounds of live rock. For flow I have two koralia nano power heads rated at 425gph each. For lighting I have two panorama pro led modules. One is a 50/50 white an blue and the other is a blue/magenta. The tank never receives direct sunlight either. My filtration is a hang on back Fluval c-2 filter. This filter has its "5 stage filtration" but I took out the carbon and replaced it with purigen about a month and a half after the tank was set up. About a month ago I also adds some phosguard to help with any phosphates. The only fish in the tank are two small ocellaris clowns about 1-1/4 inch each. My clean up crew initially consisted of 6 red leg hermits, 6 naussarius snails, and a cleaner shrimp. With the hope of a quick cure i recently added an emerald crab and a turbo snail. They have helped some, but there's too much hair algae.
My LFS tests my parameters at: ph 8.2, salinity 1.025 , nitrites 0, nitrates 0, and calcium 460. I keep the temperature around 79 degrees.
I have manually removed all that I could a couple of times, but at best it helps temporarily and spreads it around the tank more with the small floating debris. The tank is full of corals ( softies and SPS) so removing the rock to scrub is a little difficult. I used to keep the lights on about 9 hours a day, however for the last month I've went down to about 6-7 hours because I'm stuck at work for this time. I've already tried a 3-day blackout which only paused the growth.
So what do you guys suggest? I'm losing hope with this battle, but I'm not taking down the tank! I can post pictures later tonight when I get home.
