sps tank- need advice please

[nate150dd]

I have a 150 cube, 98% sps. Its been running for 10 months. ATI 8 bulb. Vertex alpha cone 250, 2 vortech mp40s. 1 tunze stream. about 15 fish( anthias, 2 tangs, etc) In the past 2 months or so I have developed a bit of an algae issue(GHA). I don't really get it, nitrates are undetectable, phosphates are 0 ( lab grade digital kit). The kicker is that my sps color are light, almost pastel. I added a refugium very recently so any benefit has not been seen. Bulbs are approx. 7 months old. Weekly 10 -15 gallon water changes. Good flow, good light, good skimmer, good water- why am I getting algae? any thoughts or recommendations would be greatly appreciated?

Very limited Clean up crew at the moment

 

[LazRodriguez]

From what I've read, algae can cause low readings on po4 and no3 due to it sucking up the organics. How much algae do you have?
Otherwise I'll tag along for others inputs to learn more.

 

[nate150dd]

not a ton, but enough to ruin the look of a clean tank. In total approx. a softball size rock covered( spread out in patches throughout the bottom half of the tank)

 

[nate150dd]

even before the algae began my readings for nitrate and phosphate were 0

 

[LazRodriguez]

Any algae in the overflow?

 

[nate150dd]

there is absolutely none in the overflow.... my tank seems to have all the signs of being nutrient deficient, but this algae continues to grow. A real eye sore

 

[LazRodriguez]

Well I hope you figure it out, I'm following for sure.

 

[LazRodriguez]

Just thought maybe test sump tank water.

 

[nate150dd]

already did, same as display

 

[LazRodriguez]

Maybe the bulbs, have lost some of their spectrum?

 

[nate150dd]

I thought of that, its a good point. I just did a water test. Phosphates came out .02. Im going to cut the intensity of the lights for a couple of weeks and see what happens. Sps are pale. bulb change may be in order but I cant be sure. this is the first tank I have ever had algae in. Im religious with water changes and maintenance.

 

[ERIKATHORNBURG]

What kind of lights are you running? I have to replace my halides after 6 months. If I push 7 months the spectrum changes significantly and I see a huge difference.

 

[nate150dd]

ati 8 bulb t5 fixture

 

[ERIKATHORNBURG]

I didn't think t5's were powerful enough for sps, but I may be wrong.

 

[acabgd]

I didn't think t5's were powerful enough for sps, but I may be wrong.

There's probably more TOTM tanks lit with T5 than any other lights.

 

[jimrawr]

There's probably more TOTM tanks lit with T5 than any other lights.

/\

 

[ERIKATHORNBURG]

I've never run T5's with sps so i guess I was wrong. I was told that the color would be pale under T5's, but I've also heard negative opinions about certain LED's and sps color. Lots of opinions out there...ha ha.

 

[greg1786]

The age of your light bulbs could definitely be an issue. I also run an 8 bulb t5 fixture ( aquaticlife) and am in the process of changing all the tubes. My bulbs are about 11 months old and I noticed some algae beginning to grow about a month and half ago. No hair algae but some regular green algae on the rocks. My sps colors were beginning to wash out a bit as well. I started changing my bulbs 4 weeks ago and have changed one every seven days. So far I have changed four bulbs and have noticed a significant increase in both color and growth of my sps. The algae is slowly being covered by coraline as well which leads me to believe it is dying. My system is a couple years old and I run very low nutrients as well. Try changing the bulbs out slowly so you dont burn your coral and see if that does the trick. Good luck

 

[Peter Eichler]

How long is your photo period? I've found that much more than 8 hours as a total photo period will start to lighten up corals if you're using a good T5 fixture.

 

[nate150dd]

my photoperiod was 10 hours, I dropped it yesterday to 7. I was running 6 bulbs from 1-6 pm, 8 bulbs from 6-8, 2 bulbs 8-10 pm. I cut down the 6 bulb length by a few hours. Im also planning on running a small amount of GFO. Even though my phosphate and nitrate levels are low(0.02 and 0). I will also change bulbs asap, slowly of course, 2 bulbs every week until all 8 are new. Will anything eat this hair algae? I wont do a seahare because it will get chopped up by powerheads. On a side note, I am currently removing sand bed because I was getting algae growing on it. One last thing, the algae seems to be primarily in the lower 1/3 of the tank? IDK if that means anything

Thanks for all the responses. It gets the wheels turning in my head