Algae problem

oceaninabox12345 · Sep 5, 2018

I've had this tank for over two years now, and it looks like the first couple months i had it. Its having the tank uglies all over again and i have no idea what im doing wrong. All the coral is very healthy, the fish are happy, but the algae is everywhere. I have cyanobacteria and this green algae that gets very long if i dont constantly scrape it off. I do water changes once or twice every two weeks, and i am down to barely feeding the fish to try to combat the bacteria, but its not helping. I feed them small amounts about twice a week. The lights are on for 8 hours each day. The tank gets no natural light. It looked super good for about a year, and then it went back downhill. Im extremely frustrated with this tank and dont know what to do. Any advice is appreciated!! Thanks!

oceaninabox12345 · Sep 5, 2018

Forgot to mention, my fish are
1 maroon clown
1 six line wrasse
And then my 2 cardinalfish

Breefin1220 · Sep 5, 2018

Following,love that nem btwbs =D

James M · Sep 5, 2018

parameters and the bubble tip is so nice

saltyfilmfolks · Sep 5, 2018

Is it sumped ? Aio?
Refugium?

No3 Po4?
Ph before Lights come on
Ph at the end of the day?
Rodi water ?

oceaninabox12345 · Sep 5, 2018

saltyfilmfolks said:
Is it sumped ? Aio?
Refugium?

No3 Po4?
Ph before Lights come on
Ph at the end of the day?
Rodi water ?

No sump, its an all in one.
Yes rodi water. I will check the parameters right now

oceaninabox12345 · Sep 5, 2018

James M said:
parameters and the bubble tip is so nice

Thank you so much! And im working on parameters right now. Ill post them as soon as i get them all done

oceaninabox12345 · Sep 5, 2018

Brittney Leonard said:
Following,love that nem btwbs =D

Thank you so much [emoji4]

oceaninabox12345 · Sep 5, 2018

@saltyfilmfolks @James M @Brittney Leonard
Ammonia is .50ppm,
pH is 8.0,
nitrite is 0,
Nitrate is 0,
Phosphate is kind of hard to tell, but it looks like between 0 and 0.25

saltyfilmfolks · Sep 5, 2018

Nyke73 said:
@saltyfilmfolks @James M @Brittney Leonard
Ammonia is .50ppm,
pH is 8.0,
nitrite is 0,
Nitrate is 0,
Phosphate is kind of hard to tell, but it looks like between 0 and 0.25

It’s the ammoina most likely.
Ime with a jbj bio cube aio , the back chambers , Esp if there is rubble , just got so full of gunk constantly I did all the wc right from the back.
It’s possible if your using ati for ammoina it’s a false positive , but , some extra cleaning won’t hurt.

If it’s the Po4 (that’s not actualy that bad ime ) and you have a skimmer or good mech filtration , you can use a gfo or a lanthanum product. (Phosphate Rx I belive) look at melevs site for a good tutorial.

Cleaning , bacteria treatment (dr Tim’s one and only ) and Po4 reducer should help.

I will say the no3 is surprisingly low.

oceaninabox12345 · Sep 5, 2018

saltyfilmfolks said:
It’s the ammoina most likely.
Ime with a jbj bio cube aio , the back chambers , Esp if there is rubble , just got so full of gunk constantly I did all the wc right from the back.
It’s possible if your using ati for ammoina it’s a false positive , but , some extra cleaning won’t hurt.

If it’s the Po4 (that’s not actualy that bad ime ) and you have a skimmer or good mech filtration , you can use a gfo or a lanthanum product. (Phosphate Rx I belive) look at melevs site for a good tutorial.

Cleaning , bacteria treatment (dr Tim’s one and only ) and Po4 reducer should help.

I will say the no3 is surprisingly low.

Alright, ill try that. The weird part is i used to do water changes 1-2 times a month, and now i do them 3-4 and its continually dirty, and i never struggled with that before. I just dont understand what changed

saltyfilmfolks · Sep 5, 2018

Nyke73 said:
Alright, ill try that. The weird part is i used to do water changes 1-2 times a month, and now i do them 3-4 and its continually dirty, and i never struggled with that before. I just dont understand what changed

We call it “mature”. Lol.
The first time I cleaned out the back I was shocked.
Def double check that ammonia. That’s not good

oceaninabox12345 · Sep 5, 2018

saltyfilmfolks said:
We call it “mature”. Lol.
The first time I cleaned out the back I was shocked.
Def double check that ammonia. That’s not good

Alright will do. You thought the ammonia was too low or high? What would you guess its at?

cracker · Sep 5, 2018

Am should be zero. I'm following also , have same history same issues & not sure which way to go .

saltyfilmfolks · Sep 5, 2018

Nyke73 said:
Alright will do. You thought the ammonia was too low or high? What would you guess its at?

cracker said:
Am should be zero. I'm following also , have same history same issues & not sure which way to go .

Yup. Zero.
If the lfs has a diffent test (Esp of you use ati ) that’s the best.
A bottle of dr Tim’s should knock it out really fast though If you can’t get a double check.

Ime , here and at home , .25 is the ati error code basically. So .50 is concerning.

oceaninabox12345 · Sep 6, 2018

I decided to try Chemiclean to get rid of the cyano. I added an extra airstone, which actually may be part of my issue with the pH now that i think about it. Not enough oxygen in the tank maybe? Well anyway, i have water thats ready to do a water change, and i removed the carbon. Ill do updates on how its progressing