Stupid Algae

[Ksturg]

I have been fighting algae from day one no matter what I try it won’t go away. Back story tank is about 2 years old I have 2 165 w leds that are on a 8 hour white timer and 10 hour blue timer 2 sw4’s 2 regular power heads and return. Sump has coralife 65 skimmer filter sock and an ato. Been using brs 4 stage rodi unit. Any suggestions on what I can do to help me rid this algae I’m getting frustrated and am about to throw in the towel. I’ve had diatoms, dinos, cyan both red and green only thing I haven’t had is hair algae yet anyway.

 

[cracker]

Don't give up Man ! They will need more info. Also They certainly helped me ewith My algae issues .

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Pictures and your parameters will help.
Fish load and foods would also help.

 

[Ksturg]

Salinity is 1.025 ph 8.3 0 nitrate 0 phos temp 78.5 alk is 11 cal 420 don’t know what mag is 4 fish tang 2 clowns mandarin and basslet have some snails and shrimp. I feed a mixture of my sis and brine every 2 days.

 

[Jeepguy242]

Get a test kit and measure calcium and mag

I have always had algae problems when my mag was low and not in balance with calcium

 

[Ksturg]

I just measured my cal it’s 420 don’t have a mag test kit but every time I have my water tested my mag test around 1400 last tested 3 weeks ago

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Is the tank sumpless? (Not that it’s bad)

How’s the flow?

What test kit?

Maybe it’s just the picture , but my gut says something about the source water.
Really just looks like cyanos or a slime algae.
Yea maybe could be a dino too.

No coral foods or aminos ?

True zeros on no3 and Po4 can cause some weird things.

Any snail death ?

 

[Ksturg]

No snail death lately water is rodi with 0 tds I stopped dosing aquavitro fuel a month ago the 0 on no3 and p04 could be from the algae soaking it up. I have cyano now from dosing vibrant for reef to get rid of the dinos. Tank has a sump and I have a lot of flow. The cal test kit is salifert and the other is api

 

[Ksturg]

Should I try to raise my n03 and p04? And how do I do that if that’s the route I should go.

 

[Triggreef]

So 10 hours... that will grow algae. Cut back to 7 hrs a day total and within a month you'll have no algae. Especially if you have a refugium to grow it in. Also heavier blue and less whites on those fixtures will be much better anyway.

 

[Ksturg]

Ok I will cut the lights back tonight...I have my blues at 75 and whites at 25 should I turn blues to 100% and whites to just clicked on?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I think you have a perfect storm.
Vibrant, aminos.

Personally, between stopping those , a turkey baster and water changes, I’d wait and see in anything else for a few weeks if not a month.

I use api too. It’s between some and none really. I wouldn’t dose no3 or Po4 with them.

I’m a 50/50 on lights. I’ve never touched em when dealing with stuff. (HATE programming lol), but a lot of folks do swear by it.

I wouldn’t compensate the whites for blues.

So 10 hours... that will grow algae. Cut back to 7 hrs a day total and within a month you'll have no algae. Especially if you have a refugium to grow it in. Also heavier blue and less whites on those fixtures will be much better anyway.

I run a 1:1 with SB’s on two tanks fwiw.

 

[Triggreef]

I think you have a perfect storm.
Vibrant, aminos.

Personally, between stopping those , a turkey baster and water changes, I’d wait and see in anything else for a few weeks if not a month.

I use api too. It’s between some and none really. I wouldn’t dose no3 or Po4 with them.

I’m a 50/50 on lights. I’ve never touched em when dealing with stuff. (HATE programming lol), but a lot of folks do swear by it.

I wouldn’t compensate the whites for blues.



I run a 1:1 with SB’s on two tanks fwiw.

It's somewhat off topic but I've been going to much blue-er spectrum with really good results on everything. I've always been pretty big on keeping whiter than most as I prefer to see the colors this way. But, I started (going blue mostly) in my frag tank with mostly zoas and encrusting corals and the difference was noticeable within one week. Especially on the zoas, problem zoas opened right up. Moving blue-er in my main tank with kessils has also improved quite a bit with acros on top of everything else. His biggest problem is the time length that he is running lights for, its just overkill.

 

[Triggreef]

Ok I will cut the lights back tonight...I have my blues at 75 and whites at 25 should I turn blues to 100% and whites to just clicked on?

I'm not talking about intensity, I'm talking about your length of time. 6 hours will keep your corals happy. More than that will grow algae.