black algae

ok, how much do you feed? how often water changes? waterchanges with 0 tds rodi water?
i think your tank needs more flow. usually a hob wont provide enough random flow for a reef tank. on my old 10g i had a aquaclear 110(rated for 100g) and i still needed a additional powerhead.

 

i feed pellets and frozen food once or twice a day. i only have 2 fish. i do a 5 gallon water change every weekend. the water is ro at 6 tds.

 

you dont need to be feeding that much IMO. i feed my tank every other day.
you should try to find a place to get ro-di with 0 tds but i guess what your using is better than tap.
i still think if you need to add some other type of flow in the tank. that HOB is just not gunna do it.

 

reread my posts and i forgot to say i also have a large hob skimmer that makes a lot of flow.

 

if you feel there is enough flow then buy some GFO and put it in the HOB. try limit your feedings and try to find 0 tds water.

 

how many and what size powerheads should i get?

 

from what i can see it appears you have a large set of two flor lights and oolite or very small grain sand and lots of it, a deep sand bed of small grain sand, if this is correct it maybe some of your problem, i have found that small grain sand is best when use in shallow beds in my opinion. lighting is another factor in algae growth. water changes in my opinion should not be done when algae is growing the iodine and other chemicals in the salt can fuel the algae after it is there and growing, blooming so to say. water changes are to prevent blooms not to stop them. i would drip kalkwasser to raise ph to 8.4 to 8.6 this will also slow the algae, kalkwasser is a very good tool to help end algae blooms just drip it at night very slowly knowing what is causing the bloom is the best fix? until then careful is the way to go.

 

:/ that sucks, looks like diarrhea on your rock looks like you can just take the rock out though and scrub that crap off with a tooth brush --- do a water change first, then rinse and scrub it off in your old water before you throw it out

 

flor lights and oolite ? what did you mean by this?

yes i have taken the rock out and scrubed it but it came back.

 

my ph is 8.2 right now