mrpope said:
If I reduce feeding to every three days, do I keep that up forever or just until the algae subsides?
PC: what happened to you is exactly what is going on. My test kits are good though.
As sottm said, that feeding schedule is kept and adjusted as needed. I did find that my tang was starting to lose weight which in turn revealed that I was not properly feeding him to begin with. I started clipping algae (Purple, green, etc) for him to graze on and removing uneaten portions after 24 hours. I gave in to the 'begging' of the fish too often as well. (And found out my wife was also!) So sometimes they would be fed multiple times a day with out my knowing. I had a *bad* habit of dosing invert (filter feeder) food with out thinking about the consequences on the closed system. Remember the trash that does get in a tank has *nowhere* to go. So, it just sits in your tank and decays.
I don't question your test kits may show good, but I seriously think you should get another opinion. Take a sample to the
LFS and see if they will test and compare the results, ask a friend to come test with their kit, whatever it takes to get to the source of the problem. Heck, if you live near the Memphis Tn area I will test it for you..Kinda curious now myself..Hair algae is a dead give away for elevated
po4 and/or po3. Its been proven time and time again on this message board and many others. Even if you have corrected the issue and the test is dead on accurate, it will take manual intervention to get the trash scraped off the
lr, sucked off the substrate and cleaned off the glass. I mean, I could have made my family algae wrapped sushi every week for a month while I was cleaning it up. It was soo bad (How bad was it??..jk) I actually removed
LR from my tank and scrubbed it with a toothbrush (medium of course, ADA recommnded!!) to try and get the fine hairs off. And to no avail a week or so later the growth would start again. I finally had to set aside what my test kit was telling me and go with the evidence that was right in my face.
Again, with out completely definitive water params and some insight into your feeding, lights, filtration, skimming, tank details, husbandry, we can only provide a good guess and some generalizations. For your sanity, I hope it turns around for you!
Peace.