Help with 20 Gallon Reef

[wannabeReef]

Hey guys, this is my first post, i've been browsing ReefCentral for a while now, and i've decided that it's probably the best place to ask this question, considering this website seems to have the most knowledgeable people when it comes to nano reefs.

Anyway, I started my 20 gallon long reef about 4 months ago at the end of September, my equipment is as follows:

Penguin 150
Coralife Lunar Aqualight HPO 4 bulb 124W (31Wx4) fixture
Maxi Jet 1500 Circulation mode powerhead
Aqeuon 100 watt heater
20 lbs live sand
17 lbs live rock

Livestock:
Maxi mini anemone
Condy Anemone
Green Star polyps
Red Mushroom
Pulsing Xenia
3 Peppermint Shrimp
5 Banded Trochus Snails
Tons of little starfish and brittle stars
Tons of Bristle worms
Glass covered in copepods

All parameters are ideal:
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: >5ppm
PH: 8.3
Salinity PPT: 32 / SG: 1.024

My question was, and excuse me if its stupid, why haven't I had any purple algae explosions? I have been using Seachem purple up every day for the last 2 months and the absolute only alga I have seen have been diatoms... All the coralline algae you see on the rock to the right were on it when I purchased it. The only thing I can think that may be the cause would be that I haven't been using R/O water. I have simply been mixing saltwater myself by using prime with tap water and reef buffer and reef trace. This doesn't make sense though, because a friend of mine, who lives not too far away, has just started a 55 gallon system with the same methods as me, with the same water company, and hes having extreme coralline algae explosions. I'm so jealous and disappointed its not even funny. If someone could enlighten me on the reason for this i would be extremely appreciative and thankful. :hmm5:

 

[wannabeReef]

bump

 

[TjwBlake]

You can try scraping a little bit of coraline off one of the rocks and letting it blow around the tank so that it sticks to other areas.

Just because you are using purple up doesn't mean you'll get the growth. Also be careful using every day.. that is adding a lot of excess elements to the tank and you could end up overdosing.

What is your Cal? Mag? you need calcium to aid the coraline growth
Also your lighting affects it, just like any other algae.

I'm not gonna get into the using tap water part, this could lead to problems in the future but for now, I'll leave it as is.

 

[resplendantreef]

You should use distilled water if you don't want to use RO. I wouldn't use tap water no matter what. It will always cause nuisance algae outbreaks no matter what you mix in it. A small weekly water change is all you need to get the corraline algae going.