well a friend has a 180 gallon tank with a major algae issue. Not sure of parameters as it is not my tank but we cleaned and vaccumed all the sand today scraped all the glass and did a 40 gallon water change as well. and within 3 hours there was algae on the front glass. It has a dual sump system for filtration as well as a 24w UV sterilizer which just had the bulb replaced. Other recent issue was lighting. Had a 4 foot light with dual 250wMH and 4 r5 lights on it. Just changed to a 6 foot light with 3 150w MH and 2 actinic blue t5 lights as well. He was losing corals before the light change and the tank was not very bright but the new light makes the tank shine now. Cant get rid of the algae though. Glass turns green on matter of hours. The stuff we cleaned out of the sand was dark reddish brown. Any advice?????
Major algae issues
- Thread starter fncracing
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also he has a external refugium plumbed into the sump of the main tank and it has no algae issues and he transfered the corals remaining in there and they are thriving in the refugium. It is running water from the main system. The main tank also has 2 powerheads in it and it appeared to me that the tank would build algae more where the powerheads were aimed at on the glass
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Ok, well stirring up the sand is generally a bad idea.
A 24w sterilizer is likely doing nothing on a tank that large.
How old are the light bulbs?
How big is the skimmer?
How often are water changes being done? One won't do it, it takes regularly scheduled maintenance to keep nitrates and phosphates at bay.
The reddish algae is cyano and likely comes from a combination of low flow and high trates/phates.
A 24w sterilizer is likely doing nothing on a tank that large.
How old are the light bulbs?
How big is the skimmer?
How often are water changes being done? One won't do it, it takes regularly scheduled maintenance to keep nitrates and phosphates at bay.
The reddish algae is cyano and likely comes from a combination of low flow and high trates/phates.
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I vacuum my sand, but I have always done so since the setup was new. Sounds like maybe poor quality bulbs? I know cheap bulbs are like steroids for algea.
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Skimer, water flow, lawn mower blenny, blue legs.
I agree that the flow is an issue. I would also look into the water source... are you suing an RO/DI unit and if so, how old are the filters?
For my RO/DI unit, it is recommended that I replace the filters ever 6-12 months. I took that with a grain of sand and let the system pump out water for a full 15 months.... a little while back I started to notice diatom algae was spreading everywhere and green algae was showing up on the glass about 24-48 hours after a cleaning. It taught me a lesson that a good water source (good RO/DI) was the key to keeping the algae under control.
I changed out the filters and started using a phosphate media in the sump... algae is gone!
For my RO/DI unit, it is recommended that I replace the filters ever 6-12 months. I took that with a grain of sand and let the system pump out water for a full 15 months.... a little while back I started to notice diatom algae was spreading everywhere and green algae was showing up on the glass about 24-48 hours after a cleaning. It taught me a lesson that a good water source (good RO/DI) was the key to keeping the algae under control.
I changed out the filters and started using a phosphate media in the sump... algae is gone!
What are the nitrate and phosphate numbers? Even if they test "good", that can sometimes be deceptive as the algae may be utilizing them rapidly and taking them out of the water column as they fuel their growth. What type and how often is the tank fed? The bulbs seem to be new. The UV sterilizer is way underpowered for that size tank, but it will do some good......make sure the flow thru the UV is slow....like no more than 50 gallons an hour to increase contact time with the UV radiation. Phosphate remover.....especially ROWAphos would be a great addition if not already there.
