Algae!

[corey.nolta]

It seems in the past two-three weeks I have had an algae bloom like no other! It' very frustrating because it makes my tank look like crap and makes it look green. It's on the rocks, the substrate, the glass, and all the equipment. I keep up on on my water changes and my parameters are all decent. I've always had a slightly elevated nitrate and phosphate, but nothing extreme. And it's something I've battled since day one and have never had algae like this. With those two levels being nothing new, I'm not sure why all of a sudden I'd be battling algae like this. So, I have a stupid question, which maybe I should have paid attention more back in high school--Does the changing season affect the sun's spectrum at all?

I've heard when dealing with bulbs that once they start to get old and the spectrum shifts, algae can be a problem, so I was just curious about if the different seasons have different spectrums when it comes to sunlight?

My tank is in my front room, which is 90% windows, but I've never seen the sunlight shine directly onto the tank, and for the most part the blinds are always shut. But the room is still always the brightest of the house.

Thoughts? Ideas?

60 Gallon
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 15
Phosphate - .2
Calcium - 400
Alkalinity - 8
Ph - 8.4
Salinity - 1.024
165w led lighting unit x2 (~60%blues / ~30% whites) 6 hours blues and whites, 2 hour blues (recently changed this- was running about 11 hours lights)

 

[twilliard]

You may want to look into bringing your po4 down
And yes sunlight will make the algae happy if they have the nutrients to live off of.

 

[chimmike]

What's the water temp? Sometimes warmer water can spawn algae too. Your water looks good aside from the light phosphate reading.

 

[corey.nolta]

Water temp is typically around the 78-80 mark. Been a tad lower lately now that the outside temperature has dropped. Trying to dial in a new schedule for the heater to maintain a 78-80. And yeah, I know the po4 is high, but it's been at that since day one and I've never battled algae like this before.

Also, it's a tad frustrating because my corals are doing very well and I notice good growth week to week. So it's not like my tank is all outta whack. Just that the algae is growing like mad.

Corals-
Red cap
Variety of zoas and palys
Torch
Frogspawn
Mushrooms
Star polyps
Galaxea
Green slimmer