New to RC and Salt Water Tanks

yehchien

New member
Hello, I set up a new reef tank about 3 months ago and finally it seems like its cycled and I'm not losing any livestock. I upgraded to 250w MH and an abundance of green algae appeared. I have various tank cleaners and within the last two weeks started RoPhos. I am using RO water and my Nitrate levels are undetectable. How soon after I start the RoPhos should I see an improvement on the algae problem? I want to stock more coral, but I am hesitant to do so until I have it under control.
 
you probably do have high nitrates but the algae is eating it up so the test is showing nothing. Lights out and cut feeding to a mimimum.
 
Very well could be the lighting upgrade. What's your nitrates and phosphates? And what is your water source, tap or ro/di?
 
I think you should at least cut the photoperiod to a few hours a day, and gradually increase (add 1 hour after a week). This will give your corals a chance to get acclimated to the new lights. I don't know what you upgraded from, but 250 MH is pretty strong. You said you use RO, is that just RO or is it RO/DI?
 
biggest fuel for algae is phosphates and nitrates. Reduce the photoperiod by a couple of hours and wait it out. Are you feeding from the sump---this can reduce the amt of unused food that the algae like.
By checking the food sources for the algae eventually they eat themselves out of house and home. If the algae bloom is facilitated by food then turning out the lights only leaves the tank open for light reduced algae to grow(brown)
 
forgot to mention---you can use a turkey baster to clean off detrius or unused nutriants from the live rock. It gets into small crevices etc ---this will also reduce phosphates and nitrates from the tank.
 
you mentioned the berlin method---I assume that is a protein skimmer and trickle filter/sump? Please let me know the details of your mechanical filtration---for eg if you are using bioballs that can be a real contributor to your algae problem
 
the corals are doing fine and in fact are growing pretty rapidly. With my sump, I'm using the Platinum Series Acrylic sump and the only form of mechanical filtration is a filter sock which I clean in the washing machine weekly.
 
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