algea question (help)

[reeling reefer]

I have a 180 gallon oceanic tank, 6 weeks old, has completly cycled, nitrite, nitrate readings 0, phosphate 0 , salinity 1.025, PH 8.0, I use ro/di water only, I have alot of algea on the sand and rocks that is brown in color and very stringy, it appears to be dying off and floating up to the top, it also has some bubbles in it. Will this all go away and is it just part of the maturing of the tank? I have 3 small fish in there and alot of snails.I have a 55 gallon sump running a ASM 3 skimmer, also have 5 maxijet 1200 powerheads going, so there is alot of flow. Lights are 3 250 watt MH, and 4 39watt T5'S. Run the lights about 7-8 hours right now.

 

[Guest]

if it has bubbles it is cyano...i would also say you have diatoms. your tank is only 6 weeks old..this is verry common for a new tank. i had the same problem a few months back. just do weekly pwc's(i do a 10% pwc every week). give it some time and leave it alone...it will go away. and dont overfeed.

 

[ddm_aet]

You want to increase your ph to between 8.2 and 8.3 nuisance algae tends to grow better when your ph drops below 8.2

 

[jasno999]

Check on your PO4 levels. An RO/DI can still have somewhat high levels of PO4 coming out of it. IF your levels are above 0.3ppm then try to add some PO4 remover to your filter or get a reactor.

That and the turbo snail will work wonders for algae.

 

[tecwzrd]

An RO/DI can still have somewhat high levels of PO4 coming out of it.

ro only water can sometimes have small quantities of po4. ro/di should have 0 po4 coming out of it. If any is detected then the di part of the filter needs to be replaced.

po4 could be an issue that is causing your algae but is more likely due to it being a new tank. Adding red/blue leg hermits help also along with your snails and it should go away on it’s own as long as you don’t overfeed/excessively light your tank.

 

[reeling reefer]

What would you reccomend for a lighting cycle? I am running it with the actinic (t'5 s) on for 10 hours and the metal halides on for about 8.

 

[Brenden]

What would you reccomend for a lighting cycle? I am running it with the actinic (t'5 s) on for 10 hours and the metal halides on for about 8.

That is about the same schedule as I run. Since you have no corals lighting is really not needed at this time though. Cutting the lights would also help with the algae problem.

 

[jasno999]

Well I have an RO water system. However it had a DI also.

Get this it is a coralife RO 50gpd water purifier with 3 cartriges plus the TFC membrane.

So first water go thru a micron filter cartrige and then into a carbon gartrige. Then it flow into the TFC membrane and out into the DI cartrige. After that it comes out of the tube as purified water. With that setup I still water that has as high as 0.5 to 1.0 ppm readign for PO4. So you should check. At the very leasy you should get a PO4 test kit and test the tank water and the water you are puttign in to see what the levels are.

Food can raise PO4 levels above acceptable limits and cause algae blooms. YO uare right a proper and fully effective RO/DI system should give water that is near perfect and has no PO4. All I am saying is that it is somehting to check on and look into.