Algea and substrate problems

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SH4N

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Nov 24, 2010
Messages
98
Location
Australia
I need some serious help. I always ask questions and never really receive the answer I'm looking for. I'm a very big saltwater noob but im trying to learn as much as I can. I do research, I ask questions, Look through other threads just to gain some more knowledge, I started off listening to my LFS, not doing ANY research of any kind before he talked me into begining a salt water tank. My mistake!

I have a 50 gallon tank with Live rock and corals, nearly 1 year old now. My fish include 2 Black clown fish, Red Corris Wrasse, Blue Tang. I also have 10+ Hermit Crabs/Snails running around, Blue Starfish and a Sea Abalone.

I have bad diatoms for months just after I started my tank and it cleared up in February, my tank was crystal clear, barely got any algae growing on the glass. Now i'm stuggling to maintain my tank after my 12 hour shifts each day, the algae is so stubborn on my glass It hurts my hands to get it off. Thats not all, my Substrate is not white anymore, its going between red (cyano?) and brown (diatoms?), im also daily using a "aqua vacume". My tank is by a window but it's always got a blind on it (no visible light). Now there is growing red and green algae on some of my corals, and they are doing very poor now. I have t5's 4x 39 watt. I have 1x wave maker, Marisys protein skimmer/filter. had a uv steralizer but it just broke... I really dont want to lose any corals, im not sure what to do anymore.

My sea fan (Gorgonian i think) is starting to turn red and green, the bottom of it is starting to turn black and some "coral" is missing, making the skeleton visible.



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This leather coral has green hard algae all over it, could only get it off by scraping it with my finger nail (not to hard..) wasnt sure if it was the right thing to do. It hasnt been outsince



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This is some weird hair green algae ive noticed growing


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all my other corals/anemone look normal and healthy


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feeding marine snow.
My phosphate is 0.25 (I have phosphate removal media)
Calcium - 440
Ammonia/Nitrate/Nitrite is 0
PH 8.4
temp -79 farenheit
Salinity - 1.028

can someone pleaseee help me! i will appreciate any advice at all, anything is welcome!!
 
You might need to cut down the hours of your lighting cycle do an 8 hour.
 
My lights arent on the full 12 hours im away, they are on for 10 hours each day but I will cut it down
 
Ok, first things first, what are your parameters? Specifically, what are your nitrate and phosphate readings, as they are the main source of fuel for algae.

For the cyano, you can use Boyd's chemi-clean to kill it off, but you need to get a handle on the excess nutrients or it will just come back.

As for the green algae, you could get an army of snails to clean the glass for you. They'll help keep it manageable so scrapping won't be too difficult. If your corals are mounted securely, I'd go with some Turbo snails. They are the algae bulldozers.
 
I only run my white for four hours a day and ten hours on week end.
 
i wrote my parameters in my post above
My phosphate is 0.25 (I have phosphate removal media)
Calcium - 440
Ammonia/Nitrate/Nitrite is 0
PH 8.4
temp -79 farenheit
Salinity - 1.028
 
Ahh, didn't see them at the bottom. If your running media for phosphates and your still reading 0.25 then it may be time to change out the media. Another thing is the Marine Snow, that stuff can foul your water up real fast if you over feed.

What is your water change schedule?
 
quess you have never owned a pool. Rain water is horrible better off using treated tap water.
 
That's going to make recovery difficult. Normally I would recommend using the chemi-clean, then after 48 hours doing a huge water change to export the nutrients. But in your case, I don't know if that would be a good idea. Rain water contains whatever is in the atmosphere at the time so there's really no telling what is in the water. Any chance you could get to a local walmart or something and buy some RO water to do your change with?
 
Try to cut back on your light cycle, increase your PWC's and get a CUC i went through same thing when i upgraded to a 90g. If you go with the Cemi-clean Be shure to do at least a 50% PWC . I had to up my PWC's to twice a week for a month. use a 'soft' toothbrush to clean corals
 
I live in Australia we dont have walmart here, i've tried calling plumbing stores, fish stores, kmart, cant get a hold of one!, i dont trust buying online
 
I can pm you the seller I used on eBay to get mine if you like. Controlling what is in your water is the foundation of a happy reef.
 
yes please pm me it krypt.

Will Algaefix by API be any use?
I will get another water change done tomorrow
 
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