Algae is pissing me off!

[Joshsmit56001]

My tank has been setup for over a year and a half now and I am having big algae problems.

Stats:
ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
P04 - 0
SG - 1.023-24
Temp - 79-81
PH - 7.8-8.4
Alk - 200
Calcium - 500
Lights on from 11 am - 9 pm

I think that my water is pretty good and I am having some string algae problems and some hair algae problems. I also have some sort of red hair algae also which I thought was cyano but I used Chemi-clean and it didn't kill it at all. Right now I am using Marine SAT which has been in use for over 2 weeks now but I don't really see any change. It doesn't really look like the algae is growing that fast but it is really ugly looking and I want it gone. I have some cerith snails and nassarioous snails in my tank that help clean alone with 2 lettuce nudibranch, 2 emerald crabs, a sea cucumber, rock boring urchin ( I think), a brittle star, and a serpent star. I am a loss for what to do, I have tried a lot of different stuff to help with this but nothing sems to work. I thought that algae could only live with P04 and nitrates but mine are both at 0. For awhile I had a low PH and alk which is the only thing that I thought could make a difference. Someone please help, I REALLY need it.

Here is a post of soem of the red algae that is in my tank:
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=3646&password=&sort=1&cat=500&page=1

TIA,
Josh

 

[saltcreep1025]

are you using ro/di water? How much/often do you feed?

 

[nguyen27]

Light from 11AM to 9:00PM?? Could you just cut the light to like from 5:00PM to 10:00PM and see if that help?

 

[Joshsmit56001]

I use RO/DI water and I feed a quarter of a cube every 2-3 days being I have only 2 fish. I can't really see a problem with my light cycle, it is actually a lot lower than most peoples on here. I guess I could try and cut down on the lighting. Anyone else got any ideas??

 

[jackdp]

Do you run a skimmer? What is your filtration? Also, what is your lighitng setup and when was the last time you replaced your lamps. Over time the output spectrum of some lamps shifts towards the red side and this can also fuel some algaes...just a thought. If worse comes to worse, you could try setting up a refugium and growing and harvesting macroalgaes.

 

[Joshsmit56001]

I have a skimmer and I have 2X96 watt PC's. The last time I changed the bulbs was around x-mas time. I had macroalgaes before and I didn't like it at all.

 

[Joshsmit56001]

bump

 

[XXFirefighter]

how old are your bulbs?
Should be replaced about once a year...
They lose the color temp and alge goes WHACK !

 

[Joshsmit56001]

They are only 6 months old

 

[jackdp]

Something is feeding that algae, you must have excess nutrients getting into the system from somewhere. Phosphates can exist in different forms that some test kits can't pick up on. Try cutting back on feeding, maybe cut back on lighting cycle, be sure your' RO/DI water is not contaminated with nitrate or phosphate. Do you run GAC? If so, change it more often, it can leach phosphates and nitrates back into the system if not changed frequently, I change mine weekly. What brand salt do you use, some salts can have some phosphate in it or maybe you've got a crappy batch. Get some more snails of some different species than you already have, a diverse selection of snails and hermits may eat different algaes. Off the top of my head, this is all I can think of, I don't see anything from your posts jumping out at me that's wrong.

 

[Bearfan]

Did something on the LR die, or otherwise go undetected?

 

[Joshsmit56001]

Not really sure