Getting Rid of Green Algae

[droidus]

I guess my first question... Is this hair algae?
I don't have a phosphate test kit, so I will have to buy one. Can anyone recommend one?
I am feeding Ocean Nutrition Prime Reef Flakes, Frozen LRS & Mysis shrimp. I feed flakes every day for my clown fish, then alternate between lrs/mysis. I feed every day, once a day.
I have chaeto in my tank, so I thought that would take in the nutrients instead of the algae?
- The algae off the rock you see is from me scraping off the front of the glass.

 

[ForTheLoveOfCoral21]

Do you use tap water? Any clean up crew?

 

[Uncle99]

Looks like a normal new tank in the Ugly stage, all of us have been there.
Hanna ULR 736 is the best but most expensive for phosphate.
Salifert is about half, and works well.

 

[droidus]

Do you use tap water? Any clean up crew?

Yes- but I run it through a RO/DI system.
Yes.

Maybe need more?

Looks like a normal new tank in the Ugly stage, all of us have been there.
Hanna ULR 736 is the best but most expensive for phosphate.
Salifert is about half, and works well.

Yup, it's about a month or two now. Should go away on it's own? Why is it that tanks start this way?
And thanks! Will buy one.

 

[Uncle99]

If you keep your parameters on point, the tank will mature and it will go away.
Ok to use a toothbrush and siphon out this crap, just keep up the fight.
Ensure your phosphate is trace only, say 0.03-.1 phosphate feeds algae.
Ensure your nitrate is say 2-5ppm, through regular water changes and or carbon dosing.
Not to long of a photoperiod and not so intense aids the reduction.
As the algae disappears you can start to increase the photoperiod and intensity......slowly.....slowly.
If you have control of the red/green light, turn these way down.

 

[droidus]

I've been considering increasing my CUC to get rid of this stuff - my only concern is when my tank "stabilizes", then there won't be enough food for all (unless I overfeed, I guess).
What is "photoperiod"?
Unfortunatley, I do not have control over this. It is a 32g biocube tank.

 

[Uncle99]

Photoperiod is the amount of time lights are on per day.
Algae requires two things, food and light.
Keeping nutrients as low as we can while the tank is maturing limits the algae food.
Less intense light and for shorter periods daily limits the algae’s light component,
As the tank matures and algae reduces, we can ramp up the lighting.