Algae mystery?

[allof fish]

Hey all so last few months I’ve been struggling with algae on my rocks, glass sanded ect. Mainly a mix of hair algae and ulva. The hair algae was all on back glass forever and was growing like grass in sand in certain spots. I always siphon it out when doing a water change but yesterday I finally scraped the whole back glass and got it all out, way over do. Question is how can I get rid of the algae on rocks natural way. Tangs aren’t the best job. I could add more cleanup crew. But also last icp silicates were high. Could this be it? Tank is 8 months old so still sorta in ugly phase. I bought a tds meter to help give insight on my rodi water. Thanks for help!

 

[Crabs McJones]

What were nitrates and phosphates at?
How often are you doing water changes?
I'm guessing nitrates and phosphates were reading at or near zero. Likely because the algae is eating it up right away.
Water changes and clean up crew are the best way to combat algaes

 

[allof fish]

What were nitrates and phosphates at?
How often are you doing water changes?
I'm guessing nitrates and phosphates were reading at or near zero. Likely because the algae is eating it up right away.
Water changes and clean up crew are the best way to combat algaes

Nutrients are low. Nitrates around 5 phosphate.03-.05 I constantly have to dose nitrates or they get too low. I also would think that too but my silicates being high make me wonder if that’s an issue too. Water changes every 2 weeks

 

[Freenow54]

If there are no Corals on the rocks take them out and scrub them. I will bet it will reappear on the glass ect. It took me six months before it quit and ran away

 

[Crabs McJones]

I would slow down or stop dosing nitrates. It's feeding your algae, bump water changes up to once a week and see what happens.
Or you could try adding a refugium or algae scrubber

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

algae consumes nutrients much faster than corals do, so increasing nitrates/phosphates when you have a hair algae problem is really just feeding the algae, not the corals. You should be trying to strip nutrients to starve out the algae, not feeding it IMO

 

[allof fish]

algae consumes nutrients much faster than corals do, so increasing nitrates/phosphates when you have a hair algae problem is really just feeding the algae, not the corals. You should be trying to strip nutrients to starve out the algae, not feeding it IMO

I agree I just don’t want to starve my corals if nutrients get so low especially with my sps. Would silicates cause an increase in alage too? I could add more clean up crew but want to limit how bad it gets again

 

[Freenow54]

Cannot speak from experience but an algae scrubber is supposed to control algae in the main display . One of my future DIY projects , but as I have said neither for my 100 just for my new build, as My tang eats the algae as I scrub it off the glass and no Tang going into my new one so except that it is hair algae which I would really like to know for myself why different algae grow in some tanks but not others . I would listen to mentioned advice , and if it works you can always shut it off or do what I have read ask those before me they add it to the display I don't know if its a straight up dump in or not. Curious about that too. Not mentioned is overfeeding maybe ?