Has anyone had algae this bad?

[leafyseadragon]

I've been cycling my 37 gallon tank since Labor Day. It has 40 lbs of aragonite sand, 12 lbs of LR, 32 lbs of base rock in it. There is a 65W PC for light, and it's on about 8 hrs/day.

I made the mistake of using tap water at the beginning, which probably caused a wicked diatom outbreak. I started topping off with RO water last week. It used to be that the diatoms were confined to the rocks and sand. Then it started to cover the glass on the sides.

Now it's even worse! Algae is actually floating on the surface of the water. I can see little brown/green dots the size of micro pellets swirling with the current from the PH.

Has this happened to anyone else? If all levels drop to 0 and this is still a problem, can I still add fish?

algae will not hurt fish.. However what is your phosphate levels at??? High PO4 levels could be the cause.. I would suggest since you just stated using ro water to do a 10-20% water change weekly and your algae problem should clear up eventually.. Get some snails too.. They help alot.. My algae was at one time soo bad i was unable to see into the front of the tank... My phosphate levels dropped to 0 and the algae is slowly going away... Just try to clean the algae manually It will help alot..

HTH,
James

[roblikesfish]

If you are still cycling .. try cutting down on your lights on time as well.

one of the fundamental things algae needs is light .. Rob it of that

[leafyseadragon]

I just looked in the tank this morning. I didn't think it would get worse, but it did. The glass sides are more opaque than before, which I expected. The floating algae blobs are 1/8" in diameter now. And this is after I started to use the RO...

I don't have a phospate test at the moment.

What's the minimum amount of light that I should give the tank? Or does the LR need any at all?

If LR is all that you have in there try having the lights on 4hrs a day.... Also is this tank near a window where it may be getting sunlight??? Sunlight will cause a pretty bad algae problem as well


HTH,
James

[bizzybeas]

I cycled my tank without any lighting and had zero algae. I did not get any until I added lighting. Live rock will stay live without any lighting.