I have great algae growth on the back of my glass that almost makes it look like a great rock backdrop (using some imagination). I used to clean it weekly, but wanted to see what it would grow into. Now I have it on the back and on a bunch of my live rock. I have tested on my own both the PH and phosphor and they both are great – PH of 8.4 and Phosphor of .01. However, the algae continues to grow.
What other factors contribute to algae growth besides light?
I do feed my tank with Kent’s Phytoplankton and the alga definitely gets greener and thicker when I do this, but I stopped feeding for two months and still had considerable growth.
I have made a concerted effort to clear up the algae problem in the last two weeks by doing 4-5 gallon water changes every 4 days, so I have changed out 18 gallons in the last two weeks – a little more than typical but I was doing this on the recommendation of the LFS. My tank usually receives once a month water changes of 6 gallons.
Some Short History:
Up until two weeks ago I have always used Rain Fresh bottled drinking water with Oceanic Salt Mix. Rain Fresh goes through a 24 step filtration processes including Carbon filtration, KDF media, micro filtration, ozonation, reverse osmosis, magnetic treatment (?), ultraviolet & ozone lattices and then pumped up with oxygen to 45 ppm. I’ve used this $2.00 a gallon water for the last two years and have always had an algae problem ever since I bought my Power Compacts a little over a year ago. On the advice of a LFS I started buying their water (I had no idea their water was so cheap, $1 a gallon premixed at 1.021sg), as it is verified phosphate free. I have tested both with the Seachem Multitest Phosphate test kit and they both show Zero. In fact I tested both before and after mixing salt for Ammonia, PH, Alk, Phosphate and they were both perfect.
My power compacts – a conversion kit into my original light that is 65Watts 10K, and a power compact with two 65W one with actinic blue and another with 10K Kelvin - for a total of 185 Watts on 30 Gallons or 6 Watts a gallon. I have my actinic come on at 3pm, then at 3:30 my first 10K, then at 6 my second 10K and they all go off at midnight. The only way I have ever been able to reduce the amount of cleaning and algae growth is to reduce the light time to 3-4 hours. But as of two weeks ago I am making it into a reef tank and I hear that is not enough light.
Tank Description:
30 Gallon – Two year old
Live Rock – about 20-25 lbs, anywhere from 1.5-2 years old.
Live Sand – 40 lbs, about 3” deep
Two clowns, one damsel
Lot of live rock life, including copepodes and many types of worms – LFS says their good.
To view pics of my tank go to www.nietert.org click on photos, click on reef tank then click on the most recent day. Why pics each day? I want to see visual evidence of my coral as to health. I notice I don’t have the best memory and I want to note with visuals along with my data collection of water quality test and additions I am making how the coral fair.
The Web Cam only works when I turn it on remotely – so ignore the times when it is normally on – I use it now only when I travel to make sure my wife is keeping up with the needs of the reef.
Thanks for any hints.
What other factors contribute to algae growth besides light?
I do feed my tank with Kent’s Phytoplankton and the alga definitely gets greener and thicker when I do this, but I stopped feeding for two months and still had considerable growth.
I have made a concerted effort to clear up the algae problem in the last two weeks by doing 4-5 gallon water changes every 4 days, so I have changed out 18 gallons in the last two weeks – a little more than typical but I was doing this on the recommendation of the LFS. My tank usually receives once a month water changes of 6 gallons.
Some Short History:
Up until two weeks ago I have always used Rain Fresh bottled drinking water with Oceanic Salt Mix. Rain Fresh goes through a 24 step filtration processes including Carbon filtration, KDF media, micro filtration, ozonation, reverse osmosis, magnetic treatment (?), ultraviolet & ozone lattices and then pumped up with oxygen to 45 ppm. I’ve used this $2.00 a gallon water for the last two years and have always had an algae problem ever since I bought my Power Compacts a little over a year ago. On the advice of a LFS I started buying their water (I had no idea their water was so cheap, $1 a gallon premixed at 1.021sg), as it is verified phosphate free. I have tested both with the Seachem Multitest Phosphate test kit and they both show Zero. In fact I tested both before and after mixing salt for Ammonia, PH, Alk, Phosphate and they were both perfect.
My power compacts – a conversion kit into my original light that is 65Watts 10K, and a power compact with two 65W one with actinic blue and another with 10K Kelvin - for a total of 185 Watts on 30 Gallons or 6 Watts a gallon. I have my actinic come on at 3pm, then at 3:30 my first 10K, then at 6 my second 10K and they all go off at midnight. The only way I have ever been able to reduce the amount of cleaning and algae growth is to reduce the light time to 3-4 hours. But as of two weeks ago I am making it into a reef tank and I hear that is not enough light.
Tank Description:
30 Gallon – Two year old
Live Rock – about 20-25 lbs, anywhere from 1.5-2 years old.
Live Sand – 40 lbs, about 3” deep
Two clowns, one damsel
Lot of live rock life, including copepodes and many types of worms – LFS says their good.
To view pics of my tank go to www.nietert.org click on photos, click on reef tank then click on the most recent day. Why pics each day? I want to see visual evidence of my coral as to health. I notice I don’t have the best memory and I want to note with visuals along with my data collection of water quality test and additions I am making how the coral fair.
The Web Cam only works when I turn it on remotely – so ignore the times when it is normally on – I use it now only when I travel to make sure my wife is keeping up with the needs of the reef.
Thanks for any hints.
Ok first hand experience here 8O 
