Having to clean glass daily

[Kyleovski]

My tank is only about 5 months old now, however it’s my 3rd go at reef tank, last recent was due to an unmanageable aiptasia outbreak.

I reset the tank with new dry marco rock and ocean direct reef sand and have been dosing AF life source Fiji mud to boost beneficial bacteria, I went through some uglies about 2 months ago where cyano and green slime algae were all over the sand-bed and rock work however that’s cleared up and I can see the sand and rock is completely clear of all cyano and diatoms etc, the rock seems to be maturing nicely as well,

however I cannot for the life of me get this green dust algae to stop appearing all over my glass daily, I can clean it in the evening and by the next day after peak light intensity it is back just as strong.

My nutrients seem to be okay, nitrate is 10ppm and phos is 0.025 both tested with nyos kits

I dosed nitrate to get that up along with phos because I’ve been struggling with low nutrients and the phosphate drops most likely due to the rock and sand soaking it up but nitrate is mostly stable.

Weekly water changes of around 12%
I run fleece filter socks to try catch all the algae I scrape off but nope no winning

Been like this for about 3 months now

Any ideas?

Pic is the glass on the side I didn’t clean to show, greenish brown in colour.

 

[Kyleovski]

My tank is only about 5 months old now, however it’s my 3rd go at reef tank, last recent was due to an unmanageable aiptasia outbreak.

I reset the tank with new dry marco rock and ocean direct reef sand and have been dosing AF life source Fiji mud to boost beneficial bacteria, I went through some uglies about 2 months ago where cyano and green slime algae were all over the sand-bed and rock work however that’s cleared up and I can see the sand and rock is completely clear of all cyano and diatoms etc, the rock seems to be maturing nicely as well,

however I cannot for the life of me get this green dust algae to stop appearing all over my glass daily, I can clean it in the evening and by the next day after peak light intensity it is back just as strong.

My nutrients seem to be okay, nitrate is 10ppm and phos is 0.025 both tested with nyos kits

I dosed nitrate to get that up along with phos because I’ve been struggling with low nutrients and the phosphate drops most likely due to the rock and sand soaking it up but nitrate is mostly stable.

Weekly water changes of around 12%
I run fleece filter socks to try catch all the algae I scrape off but nope no winning

Been like this for about 3 months now

Any ideas?

Pic is the glass on the side I didn’t clean to show, greenish brown in colour.

Forgot to add, I have spots of coralline algae starting to grow in on back walls and rock work even.

 

[Paul B]

My reef is over 50 years old and I still have to clean the glass every other day. Don't worry about it. It will settle down and you will only have to clean the glass every 3 or 4 days.

That algae that is growing on your glass is also growing on everything in the tank, it is normal, natural and actually good, if not annoying.

 

[CHSUB]

I dosed nitrate to get that up along with phos

I eat donuts and get fat, feed algae and you get more…

 

[Kyleovski]

My reef is over 50 years old and I still have to clean the glass every other day. Don't worry about it. It will settle down and you will only have to clean the glass every 3 or 4 days.

That algae that is growing on your glass is also growing on everything in the tank, it is normal, natural and actually good, if not annoying.

I do agree with you, my old tank was well over 3 years old itself and I had to clean the glass ever few days but not to this extent. Hopefully it calms down

 

[Kyleovski]

I dosed nitrate to get that up along with phos

I eat donuts and get fat, feed algae and you get more…

Agreed except this was an issue before I had even started dosing nutrients so it hasn’t really done anything to make it worse from what I’ve seen but has at least kept my corals happy. Before dosing my nutrients were bottoming out due to low bioload and dry rock sucking up phosphate

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I had algae that would build up on my tank every day or so. A lot of people's daily tank maintenance is to clean the tank glass daily

 

[ColorMeGone]

I clean my glass everyday as part of my routine

 

[Mrod]

All I can add is as my tank matured the algae on my glass has gotten better. Right now I run closer to 10-20 no3 and 0.03-0.06 po4 and I have noticed considerably less algae on the glass and a lot less cleaning since that occurred. Every tank is different but my experience has been as no3 and po4 lowered my maintenance has gotten much better and easier for glass cleaning

 

[exnisstech]

One of my tanks has NO3 35 PO4 0.65 another NO3 3.5 PO4 0.04 and I have to clean them both the same which is every other day if I want the glass clear. Whatever the cause is I don't think it's directly related to N and P levels.
I'm leaning towards @Paul B explanation that the same algae is everywhere especially if I turn the blue lights off.

This is the tank with lower N and P

 

[backbayreef]

Perhaps it’s the type of glass? On my 450gal, algae and now coralline algae grew fast on the bracing glass piece but the side & bottom are free of algae. I can go thru 3 days without cleaning the glass and still look good. Difference is that I run UV, Carbon, and Ozone on this tank.

As for my other tank (150gal cube), I have to clean everyday and that gets old. I might install a UV and cut down the light intensity / photo period.

 

[Kyleovski]

Fair enough, I guess I was just super lucky with last tank only needing to do it once every 3-4 days

 

[Euphyllia97]

Add some trochus and give the tank some time. I have owned a tank where I didn’t have to clean the glass in weeks as my snails where keeping it crystal clear. For me personally I never clean the back panel/glass of my tank as it gives me the feeling that by leaving algae there, it keeps it from growing at other places (don’t know if this is scientifically proven)… AND it’s a great place for my herbivores to get some algae

I would however stop dosing nitrate, maybe your reading is low because the algae and stuff in your tank are consuming them rapidly. See how that changes things. Have you ever encountered any problems with your coral or cyano when you were having 0 nitrate readings?