Green non hair algae and Nitrate issues

[Daenion]

Friends,

I posted about this before but here it goes again. The tank is 5+ months old now. Total water volume is 164 advertised. I presume with all the rock and everything else it has about 120-130G actual water.

Livestock is 3 wrasses, 2 clowns, blue hippo, yellow tang and a fox face.

Parameters are as follows:

SG: 1.025
Alkalinity: 10
Calcium: 445
Mg: 1370
Nitrates: 1.5 (temporary)
Phosphates: Fluctuate between 0.06-0.12

I got green algae covering my rocks. It is not the hair variety not sure if it is turf. It just covers the rock then gets on the sand/glass. Some rocks are clean since my CUC likes to work together on one spot extensively. I do dose peroxide almost every night 1ml/10g. The fish are fine and so are the hammers and zoas however if i do not intervene the algae basically consumes the entire nitrate in 3-4 days. I tried to feed heavy but that did not really yielded results so I started to dose. The phosphates are highish because of reef roids. I am pretty sure if I cut roids they will bottom out immediately.

I do put in the microbacter clean one day a week at the suggested dose. I put in microbacter 7 every night as well about 10ml.

Today i gave up and reverted all lights to blue. I was running 100% blue 25% white on REEFLED 160s before.

I am obviously doing something wrong but I cannot figure out what.

Any suggestions?

 

[Dan_P]

Friends,

I posted about this before but here it goes again. The tank is 5+ months old now. Total water volume is 164 advertised. I presume with all the rock and everything else it has about 120-130G actual water.

Livestock is 3 wrasses, 2 clowns, blue hippo, yellow tang and a fox face.

Parameters are as follows:

SG: 1.025
Alkalinity: 10
Calcium: 445
Mg: 1370
Nitrates: 1.5 (temporary)
Phosphates: Fluctuate between 0.06-0.12

I got green algae covering my rocks. It is not the hair variety not sure if it is turf. It just covers the rock then gets on the sand/glass. Some rocks are clean since my CUC likes to work together on one spot extensively. I do dose peroxide almost every night 1ml/10g. The fish are fine and so are the hammers and zoas however if i do not intervene the algae basically consumes the entire nitrate in 3-4 days. I tried to feed heavy but that did not really yielded results so I started to dose. The phosphates are highish because of reef roids. I am pretty sure if I cut roids they will bottom out immediately.

I do put in the microbacter clean one day a week at the suggested dose. I put in microbacter 7 every night as well about 10ml.

Today i gave up and reverted all lights to blue. I was running 100% blue 25% white on REEFLED 160s before.

I am obviously doing something wrong but I cannot figure out what.

Any suggestions?

Being infested with algae is normal. The best kept secret in the hobby is that the conditions that are good for coral, are good for algae.

 

[Fish Think Pink]

I went to build thread to see photos of how bad algae problem actually is and last post in August is bare algae free tank (went up in July).

It could just be a case of add a few more CUC, but can't tell and quantity doesn't seem defined (or I overlooked details).

 

[Daenion]

Got these under whites. My happy little meadow.

 

[MrGisonni]

Shorten your photoperiod and adjust your spectrum. After that get some turbo snails like 1 per gallon. I am a fan of fighting undesirable algae with a bit of macroalgae. Gracilaria, Halimeda or caulerpa prolifera. Keep track of your nitrates so they don't bottom out.

 

[Daenion]

Shorten your photoperiod and adjust your spectrum. After that get some turbo snails like 1 per gallon. I am a fan of fighting undesirable algae with a bit of macroalgae. Gracilaria, Halimeda or caulerpa prolifera. Keep track of your nitrates so they don't bottom out.

Hey there,

Thank you very much. I appreciate the reply.

I was running 100% blue 25% white from 8am till 7pm.

I am adjusting that to all blue from 8 till 6. There is also a 3 hour moon period. Should I lower that too?

i am in the process of getting some more snails. Would you recommend anything else?

 

[MrGisonni]

Maybe. That moon phase might be part of the problem.

 

[Daenion]

Esteemed reefers,

I reduced the photo period from 11 hours to 9 and reduced moon phase by an hour.

It did slow down the nutrient uptake but not by much. Definitely not around 20%.

What else can I do? How much more can I cut down the light period?

As a side note. Even though the aquarium is 5-6months the lights have only been on for about 3. Since the start of October.