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[ReefSparky]

Hey JetEngineMech. I've fought your battle for many years and have lost it until recently. Until I made the changes below, my algae was so thick the colorblind clowns used to beat down my doors thinking I had a cotton candy machine hidden in my aquarium.

I'll tell you everything I did; but out of frustration I approached this as a blitzkreig attack, and did everything within pretty much the same time frame--so I can't tell you what action was most attributable to the cure. But cure it I did. I hardly have a speck of green algae anymore. It's been since Nov. 1st, so I'm pretty confident I've licked it.

Here's what I did:

I've always used tap water, and switched to RO/DI. I got rid of my crushed coral substrate, and replaced it with aragonite sand. I invested in T5 lighting instead of the standard flourescent bulbs I used (and used to let them go over a year b/w changes). I upgraded my no name skimmer to a better brand name model. I removed the bio balls from my wet/dry to reduce nitrates. I made a DIY refugium with a 10 gal. tank, and placed a spiral 67K daylight flourescent bulb on top, running it overnight when tank lights are off. In that refugium I placed a softball-sized piece of chaeto; which competes for the same nutrients the main tank algae does. I bought a phos-reactor, which runs full time, full of seachem phophate remover, and topped off the rest of the way with activated carbon. I religiously change my water in 25% increments once monthly (which I'm considering changing to once each two weeks instead, at half the amount). I invested in a ecotech vortech pump; which moves water well with no dead spots. Finally, I purchased half a dozen each of blue legged hermits and snails (3 nassarius and 3 astrea). They do a decent job, especially on the glass.

That's about it. If I had to guess what's making the most difference, I'd say two main contributing factors are the chaeto and the phos reactor, after that probably the change in lighting; but I can't be sure.

I wish you luck!