help

any pictures of this tank,skimmer,etc?

 

Im not a reef master (yet) like some of the 3 reefers on this site but I can say that I had a terrible algae problem but I knew what the root of the problem was. I started to use ro/di water and a uv sterlizer and for over a week after cleaning the tank of all the gha and scrubbing my live rock (with old water after a water change) it has stayed away. It is not completely gone but it is like night and day. I have a thread I just posted on the algae forum if you want to check before and after pics. I guess the best advice I can give from my experience is to find out what is the main cuase. hope it all works out

 

How long do you keep your lights on and what type of lights do you have?

I made the mistake of using tap water when I first set up my tank with absolutely no knowledge of what it would do. After a few weeks of doing 25% water change with RO/DI water hair algae went away. I also put a media bag with some seachem phosphate removing formula and replaced it every 4 days or mostly when material turned yellow and was exhausted.

 

how old is the tank?
what did you scrub the lr with? your tank had to have recycled after the scrub of the rock. What is your ammonia and nitrate levels.
older light bulbs will increase the amt of algea, depending on the type of lights they need to be changed between every 6 months (MH) to a year or two (t5)
what is the skimmer doing? is water not flowing into the skimmer, is it not bubbling? what type of skimmer is it....need to know this info before help the skimmer.
wht is the SG?
how much are you feeding? what type of fish do you have? many think we are not feeding too much but in reality we are feeding a ton! In the begining I cut my feedings down by half the amount two times and then started feeding that amount every 2 to 3 days...no more.
how long is your lights on? I would turn the lights off all together for the next 5-7 days. No lights what so ever.
need to run phosban reactor and I would also run carbon and purigen

where are you getting your ro/di water? have it tested for TDS. I learned from working at a LFS that filters and membranes are not changed and depending on the store you basically just buying tap!

 

scrubbing live rock can spread the algae and also damage coraline grow allowing it to spread ot area it previously couldnt grow on from what ive read. I still think you need a reactor but also research a turf scrubber.

 

what do i do instead of scrubbing the lr?

 

if its a super soft brush and you rinse well it may be ok, but other than that use your pinching fingers or CuC lol Chitons and emerald crabs eat GHA fast, i also picked up an ember blenny