I have a 55 gallon reef. Everything is thriving (including the anemone that I moved very close to the T5 light).
I have a skimmer, 3 powerheads, UV sterilizer, and a huge filter.
Livestock- 2 perc clowns, 1 yellow eye kole tang, 1 blue spotted tang, 1 firefish goby, 3 chromis, 2 peppermint shrimp, a couple corals, and a few hermit crabs.
40 lbs LR.
20 lbs small grain LS.
The only problem I have is that the algae is out of control. There's about 5 kinds- brown algae/ possibly diatoms, green algae, green hair algae, coralline algae, and some wierd blood-red slimy algae.
The green hair algae and brown algae/diatoms are my main concern because they are growing very fast. So is the coralline, but it's not a nuisance algae.
I scrub the tank walls off every day but the algae just forms back. I am adding algae-fix to the tank but it does't seem to help.
Another place where there is a ton of algae is on the sand bed. I can't tell weather its brown algae/diatoms or coralline algae, or both, that's forming on the small-grain LS, but it traps bubbles onto the sand. I sift the sand every day and turn it over so that the algae will die. It grows back in 1-2 days.
I don't know if this is normal to have this much algae...I will try to get pictures up tomorrow.
I checked the water parameters-I thought maybe the phosphate or nitrate was too high and caused the algae boom- but the phosphate was 0.5 mg/L and nitrate was 10 mg/L. Ammonia and nitrite are 0. Ca is 460 mg/L. pH is 8.2
Everything is normal. So why is the algae out of control? Any help on how to rid of it?
I have a skimmer, 3 powerheads, UV sterilizer, and a huge filter.
Livestock- 2 perc clowns, 1 yellow eye kole tang, 1 blue spotted tang, 1 firefish goby, 3 chromis, 2 peppermint shrimp, a couple corals, and a few hermit crabs.
40 lbs LR.
20 lbs small grain LS.
The only problem I have is that the algae is out of control. There's about 5 kinds- brown algae/ possibly diatoms, green algae, green hair algae, coralline algae, and some wierd blood-red slimy algae.
The green hair algae and brown algae/diatoms are my main concern because they are growing very fast. So is the coralline, but it's not a nuisance algae.
I scrub the tank walls off every day but the algae just forms back. I am adding algae-fix to the tank but it does't seem to help.
Another place where there is a ton of algae is on the sand bed. I can't tell weather its brown algae/diatoms or coralline algae, or both, that's forming on the small-grain LS, but it traps bubbles onto the sand. I sift the sand every day and turn it over so that the algae will die. It grows back in 1-2 days.
I don't know if this is normal to have this much algae...I will try to get pictures up tomorrow.
I checked the water parameters-I thought maybe the phosphate or nitrate was too high and caused the algae boom- but the phosphate was 0.5 mg/L and nitrate was 10 mg/L. Ammonia and nitrite are 0. Ca is 460 mg/L. pH is 8.2
Everything is normal. So why is the algae out of control? Any help on how to rid of it?