Lots of green algae

Tank has been set up for about 6 months now and the last week the green algae bloom has gone through the roof. Requires major cleaning daily to keep it off the glass. Have a very hefty CUC starfish, tons of snails, Fire shrimp,

current fish are Blue tang, Yellow Tang, Maroon Clown, Sand Sifter Goby Flame Angel and 6 line wrasse

Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 0 ppm
Phospate 1.0 ppm
PH 8.2
Calcium 800-900
Carbonite Hardness 18dkh

would love to lower the calcium but nothing in there to take it out as of yet. seems like the coraline is blooming but water changes dont do anything for it stays right around there. Also phosphate stays around the same level. The water is kinda cloudy and has been that way for a few weeks. Might just be the sand getting kicked up from me constantly cleaning the tank. just wondering what more i can do. have some zoo frags in there they are doing great growing like weeds. also frogspawn in huge now just got him about a month ago. Dont feed all that much due to this problem. Is there something im missing here. Everything i read says that its a phos problem or you feed to much and i just dont see these being my case.

the tank is a 90 gallon bow front with a 250 watt 10k halide 4 24inch actinics. refugium ect.

please if you can shed some light on this that would be great has me really stumped

 

Hello and Welcome to 3reef.

It is the phosphate level. Ideally you should have a phosphate level of 0.05 ppm or lower. A level of 1.0 is going to just feed any algae you have.

Introduction of phosphates may be from the foods you are using to feed the fish or your water source.

Either way you need to get that phosphate level down. You can try some GFO, phosban or equiv. Maybe consider some cheatomorpha to compete with the other algaes.

Long story short you have to cut back on the introduction of it into the system and manage the level in the system.

 

+1

Phosphates are high and any algae in there will thrive like crazy. Chaetomorpha is a good macro to eat nitrates, and mangroves would help with the phosphates too, but I would get a GFO (Granular Ferric Oxide) reactor and use that.

Your Calcium isn't a problem, but your alkalinity is very high. If you are dosing anything for alkalinity, or adding ph buffers it will keep that alk going up and you're risking a tank crash.

Where are you getting water?
What salt mix are you using?
Are you putting any additives?

- Mag.

 

I've had luck with Purigen keeping phosphates down.

 

kk gonna try and get something to remove them better the media i have must not be doing the job. On another note I have chato in there and its growning like crazy I dont trim it but i do pull it apart.

Now another question can i feed that to my fish when i get too much of it ?

as of right now I am not adding any buffers I did get a kent product that kept the ph up and i think it shot my alk up too so will not be adding quite as much of that next time. recomended dose was a bit too much and I noticed that today myself. also using oceanic brand salt cuz its what my LFS stocks.

What should the alk be at ?

 

Fish only 7-9, mixed reef 8-10. If you are going to dose for the purpose of raising the ca or alk or pH you might look into a parts A/B type product and test first before dosing it.

 

cool cool was looking at that stuff tonite. ordered phospate reactor too hopefully it will come in quick. im sure the tangs will be upset with me ;D they seem to like it

 

Like Corailline said....... my tangs will eat chaeto as long as it is the only macro in there. if i add caulerpa at the same time, they will finish off the caulerpa before touching the chaeto.

 

One more noob question. How do I bring my alk and calcium down is there an easy way or will this fix it self through water changes. cuz I dont quite get why my calcium is really high like that. It has always been like that could it be from my ro/di water or is there something in the tank boosting it? I know how my alk got so high and will get that fixed with the 2 part stuff but should I try and bring it down or should I just leave it and let water changes sort it out?

Im using oceanic salt mix think that might be the calcium problem? And if so what is the best way to switch from one salt to another and or what salt would you suggest?

 

Oceanic is high in calcium, but not that high. I don't understand how your Ca and dKh are both so high, kind of crazy high. You should compare your test results with a lfs or fellow reefers. If it is really high, you could lower it with water changes, but test the wc water to see where that is at. Maybe you have a bad batch. I use Red Sea Coral Pro, but look for a salt that has the numbers that you want out of the bucket, that way you don't have to fool around at wc time.