Algae on glass

[bob`_your_dog]

I've been looking at tons of photos of reef tanks and they all seem to have huge amounts of algae on the back and side walls. I have been wanting this to happen to my tank ever since i set it up and still no sign of it what so ever! Maybe this has to do with the fact that me tanks only been running about 6 months or so now. So now i'm stuck with a crappy piece of cardboard that i painted blue.

But i also just realised, i have a powerhead that pumps water directly onto the back wall and runs the entire length of my tank, it creates a great wall of water movement, but this means that there is allways allot of movement over the glass, will this stop algae from growing over it or not?

 

[superman]

I assume you are talking about corraline algae? If so you have to make sure that you have some already in your tank, this will seed the tank. I would put the piece of rock that has corraline on it in some high flow, and even scrape off a bit of the corraline with a razor blade. Your alkalinity and calcium levels have to be stable and then you wait. I wouldn't direct the flow in an area that you want it to grow (at first at least) because you are trying to let the algae get a foothold onto the glass, and the swift current may inhibit the algae getting a hold of the glass when first starting out. Once it gets started on the glass you can redirect the current back onto the glass.