babynapoleon
New member
Hi fellow fisher keeper,
Please can I get some advice as this is really doing my head in; my tank is well established (20 months) but I keep getting brown algae blooms on my live sand. Everything in the tank and sump is doing well - below are the latest test results from earlier today:
Phosphates =0
Nitrite =0
Nitrate =0
Ammonia=0
PH=8.11
The tank temp is always around 25.5 degrees - give or take 0.5 of a degree.
I have set the lights so they come on at 09:00 and the white spectrum peaks at 50% at 13:00 and then heads down to zero at 16:00 - the blues stay on for a while longer but are both at 5% by 19:00 and then moonlight at 22:00 until dawn. I get next to zero green algae on the glass or anywhere else - zero hair algae too. I am considering removing the sand into the sump as it is an eyesore :mad2: Only problem is I don't think my starfish or some of the critters would like that very much :twitch:
I even changed the food - I was feeding them frozen food; I took to draining out the frozen cube food (as I thought it might be the water in the cubes causing it) - that did nothing so I have changed to flake food for 2 weeks now - there is never any food left over - and still the algae persists aagghhhhhh!
There are 3 wave makers in the tank and those puppies really shift so there is plenty of water movement; I can't aim the wave makers directly at the sand though :uhoh2:
I've tested the RO water from the shop to make sure it isn't poor RO water but it is fine :wildone: I do a 20% water change every 2 weeks.
Could the live sand be "bad" somehow?
Please can you help me? I've run out of ideas......
I've attached some pix - do you know exactly what this brown algae is?
Thank you so much for reading,
BN.
Please can I get some advice as this is really doing my head in; my tank is well established (20 months) but I keep getting brown algae blooms on my live sand. Everything in the tank and sump is doing well - below are the latest test results from earlier today:
Phosphates =0
Nitrite =0
Nitrate =0
Ammonia=0
PH=8.11
The tank temp is always around 25.5 degrees - give or take 0.5 of a degree.
I have set the lights so they come on at 09:00 and the white spectrum peaks at 50% at 13:00 and then heads down to zero at 16:00 - the blues stay on for a while longer but are both at 5% by 19:00 and then moonlight at 22:00 until dawn. I get next to zero green algae on the glass or anywhere else - zero hair algae too. I am considering removing the sand into the sump as it is an eyesore :mad2: Only problem is I don't think my starfish or some of the critters would like that very much :twitch:
I even changed the food - I was feeding them frozen food; I took to draining out the frozen cube food (as I thought it might be the water in the cubes causing it) - that did nothing so I have changed to flake food for 2 weeks now - there is never any food left over - and still the algae persists aagghhhhhh!
There are 3 wave makers in the tank and those puppies really shift so there is plenty of water movement; I can't aim the wave makers directly at the sand though :uhoh2:
I've tested the RO water from the shop to make sure it isn't poor RO water but it is fine :wildone: I do a 20% water change every 2 weeks.
Could the live sand be "bad" somehow?
Please can you help me? I've run out of ideas......
I've attached some pix - do you know exactly what this brown algae is?
Thank you so much for reading,
BN.