Unbelievable algae growth! Please help

[Lardarse]

Over the last week I seem to be getting a lot of algae growth on my glass I have to clean it every day .the system has been running for about 3-4 months now. I have done my water tests and the results are as follows:

Salinity: 1025
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10 (seems to be creeping up, always used to be around 5, high considering I did pwc 3 days ago?)
phosphate 0
Ph 8

It's 155 ltrs and i have 10 kg's of live rock and a 3" DSB
I run a deltec mce300 HOB skimmer with filter floss on the outlet to stop micro bubbles and fluval 205 canister, I still have the foam pads in the canister, is this and the filter floss the likely cause of the nitrates? And my algae growth?

Any thoughts on this would be great. I hope I've posted this in the right place? I'm new here and this is my first post

 

[Gregcoyote]

It's the nitrate level in my opinion. I would look into effective measures to reduce the nitrates, even if it requires water changes. You are reducing nitrates thru the disposal of algae that grows, but this isn't the way you want to handle it unless you want to set up a algae turf scrubber as a separate filter.

 

[Taco]

What kind of water did you use? Tap water can do this and have a 0 reading for nitrates

 

[melosu58]

FantasyReef Databases-Viewing item "10 Step Plan for Nuisance Algae Control"

A good battle plan for algea.

 

[Lardarse]

Silly me, forgot to mention I use RO water from my LFS. I've taken my sponges out my canister hoping this will stop the nitrates. Will I have any negative side effects without them? As I said I got 10 kg LR and a 3" DSB and still got plenty carbon, ceramic rings and rowaphos in the canister, is this enough filtration?

Gonna check out that link now! Thanks!

 

[Lardarse]

Link won't load? Think I need to be a member

 

[joy13]

The link loads on mine you might want to try it again. Is it hair algae or the hard to get off green algae?

 

[bavass]

The canister filter can be or become a problem. If you dont replace the carbon about every 2-3 weeks they can generate nitrates from what they catch. The rings can also become nitrates factories. I had a canister filter and when I took it out it was much easier to control my nitrates. I run carbon in a phosban reactor and gfo in another its a lot easier to replace than taking a canister filter apart to replace them.

 

[Lardarse]

Unfortunately I'll have to stick with the cannister, I have no room for a sump (and worried about the weight as it's on an upper floor) is there any other media I could run in it instead of ceramic rings? Is the cannister actually achieving anything as I have taken the sponges out and have LR and DSB for bio filtration?

Sorry for all the questions I'm still learning loving it tho!

 

[Lardarse]

The link loads when I don't use my ipad2 . I'm not to up on the algae types, it's definitely green, and it's only on the glass of the aquarium, the rocks are clear! I used a scraper on the back wall of my tank the other day which had untouched growth on it from day 1, I'm wondering if that released it into the water column and now it's settling all over the glass? I'm just speculating here.

 

[joy13]

I have green algae on one of my tanks but if I leave it alone it turns purple. For some reason in my one tank the caroline algae wants to grow on my glass

 

[bavass]

Unfortunately I'll have to stick with the cannister, I have no room for a sump (and worried about the weight as it's on an upper floor) is there any other media I could run in it instead of ceramic rings? Is the cannister actually achieving anything as I have taken the sponges out and have LR and DSB for bio filtration?

Sorry for all the questions I'm still learning loving it tho!

If you have enough rock you dont need the rings. should have 1-1.5lbs of rock per gallon

 

[Lardarse]

That's what I thought, but was wondering what the point of me running my cannister was if I take out the ceramic rings (that's all that's in it other than rowaphos)?

 

[bavass]

the bad thing about running carbon and gfo in a canister filter is they require 2 different flows. GFO you want to barley turnover almost like a slow boil, and carbon you dont want to turnover at all. in a canister filter its all tumbling over to much. Plus in a canister filter the water flows n more around the media rather than threw it like in a reactor

 

[Lardarse]

It's all nice and compact in there

 

[bavass]

GFO requires about 20gph flow no more it can break down and be released into the tank.

 

[Lardarse]

GFO? I'm guessing your talking bout the rowaphos? It's in a filter media sock tightly compact in the cannister? As per the instructions. Is this wrong?

 

[bavass]

its not that its "wrong" its just may not be the most effective way. a slower flow alows more contact time with the rowaphos or gfo and can be more effective in the removal of phosphates. if you have algae you have nitrates and phosphates even though you can't detect them with a test kit. The algae is eating them up faster than the test kit can read them.