algae on glass uncontrollable

Searching for a solution here.

At least every other day I have to use my algae magnet to clean the glass of algae. The algae is like a very thin film over the tanks glass. My magnet cleaner takes it right off. The algae is green.

What can I do to stop this or at least make it so I don't have to do it so often?
I keep my lights on for 11 hours a day, should I shorten that?
I use RO/DI water for everything and I test for phospates and nitrates and I don't have measurable amounts of either in the tank. I'm fairly certain that I have good water movement, especially towards the front of the tank.

Thanks,
Sean

 

I think that is just a reality of having a tank. I have the same situation. My astrea snails knock it down somewhat, but I still always have a little "film" to deal with. As long as you don't have vast amounts of thick algae, hair algae, etc. I think you are in good shape (my non scientific opinion anyway).

 

Yeah, I'd like to hear an experts opinion on this also. lol
If I dont use my magnetic algae scraper every other day it would definitely make it hard to see in the tank. Although I have cut down the time my halides are on. 12 hours of actinics and 6 hours of halides.

Jim

 

How old are the membranes in your r.o. unit? Do you have a tds meter?

 

My ro/di membranes are about 9 months old.

I have an inline TDS meter and it reads 0.

Sean

 

I have little outbreaks of green alge on the glass too.. it seems to grow little patches.. I know there are things like lighting (new unit on the way), clean up crew (started building), and RO/DI watter that I can improve on.. I'm probably going to have to go a copule months using tap water for water changes and top off until I can afford an RO/DI unit.... Salted RO/DI at the LFS is $1.00/gal which in my opinion is pretty high. Ive been running my water through a canister filter with carbon in it prior to putting in the tank.. Hopefully it is helping at least a little.

 

I have the same problem. I collect a thing white film on the tank that makes my tank appear "foggy" when in deed it is not. The best thing that has worked is scraping it off! I keep my lights on for atleast 12 hours, it might be that we leave the lights on a bit too long.

 

stop feeding

 

I also have the same problem with a thin layer of green algae that I have to clean off every other day. I use my own RO/DI water. The MH runs for 8 hours and the Actinic are on for 10 hours. All my levels are in the norm. I'm not sure what the issue is. I never had this problem when I had a 55 gal reef. But every since I went to a 120 gal. this is a daily occurrence. I was thinking that it might be time to change the Actinic bulbs out. Hopefully an expert can chime in on this post.

 

KB Bear has half of the problem -- cut down on the food and it will cut down the waste that converts to nitrates (fertilizer for the algae). The other variable is light. My algae problem started when I improved my lighting (96W T5 on a 45gal).
So, reduce the food and reduce the light to reduce the algae.