Dust algea on glass

[Zoa_Fanatic]

I keep getting this light dusting of algea on the glass. Tank is a biocube 32 led. Not new, changed from an old 29 used the same water, rock, and new filter media. I have phosphate and nitrate reducing filter pads in my system and activated carbon. I have new sand. Lights are run white from 9:00-7:00, blue from 7:00-11:00, color enhancing led from 9:00-6:00. After the blues and begore rhe whites it’s lights out. I had some red slime outbreak for a bit which has died off and my green hair algea has completely died off. All I have left is this nonsense and coralline. I scrub the glass daily. Any idea how to get rid of this. Parameters are pH 8.2, nitrate 10-20ppm; nitrite-0, ammonia-0. I have no way to yest other parameters. Temp is 78F. How do I get rid of this algea? I do a 7 Gal water change every two weeks

 

[Crustaceon]

I get the same thing every three days or so. IMO it’s normal. You could test phosphates and keep them under .1ppm. That’ll prolong having clean panels, but a reef tank is never going to be healthy and algae-free at the same time.

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

I get the same thing every three days or so. IMO it’s normal. You could test phosphates and keep them under .1ppm. That’ll prolong having clean panels, but a reef tank is never going to be healthy and algae-free at the same time.

I know I just know I have Dino’s too and wonder if me running carbon is killing my nutrients causing the Dino’s and the dust algea

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

I get the same thing every three days or so. IMO it’s normal. You could test phosphates and keep them under .1ppm. That’ll prolong having clean panels, but a reef tank is never going to be healthy and algae-free at the same time.

Anything I can do to stop phosphates? I appreciate the help btw. I removed my carbon because o saw on another post it can cause Dino’s. Should I put it back in?

 

[Crustaceon]

Anything I can do to stop phosphates? I appreciate the help btw. I removed my carbon because o saw on another post it can cause Dino’s. Should I put it back in?

Personally, I would take out carbon and phosphate removers. This type of thing happens when nitrates or phosphate gets too low. You’ll get a lot of algae dusting but no real substantial algae growing on your rocks or back panel to compete with dinos. For reference my nitrates are at 10ppm and phosphates are at .08ppm. I have to wipe down my panels once every 3-4 days and even then they’re not terrible. When my nitrates were at 2ppm and phosphates were bottomed out, I had that same panel dusting issue each time I dosed a small amount of phosphate to raise it above zero. I’d retest each morning and phosphate would again be zero. Same panel algae dusting. It took me a week to permanently raise phosphate levels to where they are now and the panels started staying noticeably cleaner. I also noticed a very tough green dot algae has started growing across my back panel, so maybe that acted as competition.

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

Personally, I would take out carbon and phosphate removers. This type of thing happens when nitrates or phosphate gets too low. You’ll get a lot of algae dusting but no real substantial algae growing on your rocks or back panel to compete with dinos. For reference my nitrates are at 10ppm and phosphates are at .08ppm. I have to wipe down my panels once every 3-4 days and even then they’re not terrible. When my nitrates were at 2ppm and phosphates were bottomed out, I had that same panel dusting issue each time I dosed a small amount of phosphate to raise it above zero. I’d retest each morning and phosphate would again be zero. Same panel algae dusting. It took me a week to permanently raise phosphate levels to where they are now and the panels started staying noticeably cleaner. I also noticed a very tough green dot algae has started growing across my back panel, so maybe that acted as competition.

I’ve taken out the carbon and phosphate pads. I believe you’re right because I was having nussance algea issues before adding them and now I only have a small Cyano problem. I don’t mind the algea because the snails will take care of it but the dusting is a pain in the butt. Photo of my tank taken so you can see what I’m dealing with and give me some pointers. I have 20ppm nitrates even with the nitrate reducing pad so I left it in. I can’t seem to get them down even with weekly water changes so that filter pads probability gonna stay in there. All corals and fish doing fine just tired of cleaning daily

 

[Crustaceon]

It looks like your system is phosphate-limited, which would explain why you haven’t seen s drop in nitrates even with a nitrate removing pad. Those pads are designed to have denitrifying bacteria grow in them and bacteria needs both nitrates and phosphates to propagate. Take away too much phosphate from the system and bacterial growth stalls and you start getting things like dinos and cyano. What you can do to resolve this is start feeding a little more heavily each day and cut back on water changes. Your nitrates might rise a bit at first but once the bacteria population has access to its building blocks and has a chance to grow on that pad, those nitrates will likely drop. The second option is to dose a very small amount of phosphate solution, such as seachem phosphorus each day, along with a healthy dose of beneficial bacteria. Invest in a hanna phosphate checker and try to keep it over .04ppm. When you start dosing phosphate, test at the same time each day and expect it to drop to zero back to zero every 24 hours at first. Eventually you’ll get a stable phosphate reading and can go to monthly adjustments if needed.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

I keep getting this light dusting of algea on the glass. Tank is a biocube 32 led. Not new, changed from an old 29 used the same water, rock, and new filter media. I have phosphate and nitrate reducing filter pads in my system and activated carbon. I have new sand. Lights are run white from 9:00-7:00, blue from 7:00-11:00, color enhancing led from 9:00-6:00. After the blues and begore rhe whites it’s lights out. I had some red slime outbreak for a bit which has died off and my green hair algea has completely died off. All I have left is this nonsense and coralline. I scrub the glass daily. Any idea how to get rid of this. Parameters are pH 8.2, nitrate 10-20ppm; nitrite-0, ammonia-0. I have no way to yest other parameters. Temp is 78F. How do I get rid of this algea? I do a 7 Gal water change every two weeks

Is the tank by a window? If so, it's probably getting light and dusting algae..I get the same every day or 2, I have a beam that shines through a slit 2 inches wide for an hour a day...the light passes through both sides of my tank...just gotta keep cleaning it off...it's good for bugs I say.. lol