Algae Problem

[jayphr99]

my tank is about 4 months old and has been fine upto about 2 weeks ago i seem to be having lots of algae build up on glass and on equipment. i am cleaning my glass every two days. my levels are ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrates 30, ph 8.1, kh 10, calcium 450, 1.025 sg, phosphates 0.14 which i am finding hard to get down from that. tried putting new rowaphos in media bag. tried phosban so dont know why wont come below. lights are on blue for two hours first then two blue two white for 7.5 hours and then just blue again for 1.5 hours at night.

 

[crazyelece]

Its cause it the nitrates and phosphates. You need to find the source to solve. Possobilities include: using tap water, overfeeding, dirty filter material, dead livestock. How long did you leave the phos absorbant in? I have read no matter what the package tells you that you shouldn't leave more than 48 hours or it can leach back into the water. Also do you use tap water or RO/DI? tap water can have phos in it as well as nitrates.

Another good way to deal with algea is by nutrient export with a refugium. You can grow algea (macros are preffered) and then harvest the nutrients like nitrates and phos out when you prune the algea out.

 

[Fish Fingers]

I agree with what crazyelece said. You have very high nitrates and phosphates which will definately be causing the algae problem. You need to find the source of whats causing your nitrates and phosphates and get it out of your tnak quickly! Also how much LR, ahve you added any recently and do you have and do you have any other type of filtration?

P.S Thanks for the info on the phosphate removers elece, My nano has been having a cyano outbreak and I couldn't figure out why but I've guessing now its the phosguard thats doing it. I've taken it out and we will see how it goes.

 

[Clownfish11790]

How many fish do you have? I had a horrible algae problem because I overstocked, but I got rid of most of the fish and now there is no nuisance algae except for on the glass. _CF