A little help needed.

[cjohnson2]

I have had my saltwater tank up and running for about a year. A month ago i dumped the canister filters and purchased a lifereef sump, protein filter and refugium. I am struggling with algae growth. I got the refugium to resolve the issue and its not any better and my cheato is shrinking. I have a kessil h80 refugium light that runs counter to my tank light. On for 12 hours. Why cant i get this under control?!?!?

Tank specs. 120gallon
240 lbs of liverock
120 lbs of live sand.
6 fish
100000000 CUC

Today i tested the water
Phosphates .25
nitrates 40
nitrites 0
Ammonia 0.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Is the chato going brown ?
Is the light too bright.
Is there enough flow in the refugium.

 

[Mal11224]

Sorry for your troubles. The algae growth is likely the result of your high phosphates. Your nitrates are a tad bit high as well. Algae is feeding off of the high nutrients and probably outcompeting you macro algae. I have an H80 as well and have decent growth in my fuge. Are you using a skimmer, sock, GFO reactor? How often are you feeding?

 

[cjohnson2]

Very little of it is brown. More brittle than anything.
Its a 15gallon refugium. I added a 240gph pump to it hoping that would help. Still nothing is helping. I had to clean algae off the walls of the refugium today when doing the H2O change.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I would try lowing the light intensity or try a cheap cfl 4000 to 5600k light.

 

[cjohnson2]

To help curb the algae growth in the tank should I turn the main lights off and leave just the refugium light on?

 

[GoPitt88]

How much and often do you do a water change? What kind of fish and how much do you feed them? So things were okay when you had your canisters? I have a 2 year old 55 gallon reef with 8 fish, an anemone, and 12 corals. I also use a canister and hob, which I clean every week, and do a 15% water change, including the filter water. Both my nitrates and phosphates are zero (0). Was thinking about changing to a sump, but things are great now.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

To help curb the algae growth in the tank should I turn the main lights off and leave just the refugium light on?

No. Get the nutints down w water changes and the usual, and see if you can get the refugium going.

I had a current orbit in the fuge and swapped it for cfls. Then to 5600 and 3200k led.

 

[cjohnson2]

How much and often do you do a water change? What kind of fish and how much do you feed them? So things were okay when you had your canisters? I have a 2 year old 55 gallon reef with 8 fish, an anemone, and 12 corals. I also use a canister and hob, which I clean every week, and do a 15% water change, including the filter water. Both my nitrates and phosphates are zero (0). Was thinking about changing to a sump, but things are great now.

I do a 10-15% water change every week.

I have a yellow tang, orchard dottyback, goby, wrasse, and 2 clown fish.

I feed a cube of food a day. As well as a half a sheet of seaweed for the tang.