Hair algae problems

[Nemo1]

Bought a new tank a few weeks ago and set it up as a “instant reef” as I have done before but this time with a much bigger tank
may the moment it has a few corals, 3 green chromis and a pair of clowns
I stirred the sand to pick up fish waste during a water change before work, the next morning when the lights turn off there was what looked like red hair algae after giving it a few days it now looks more of a greenish colour
I’ve cleaned it off glass a few times and it keeps coming back
many ideas of the cause and how to prevent Would be much appreciated

parameters are
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
Ph 8.2
Salinity 1.025
Calcium 400
Phosphate 0.25, Need to get a better one, test kit doesn’t go any lower

 

[Retro Reefer]

Do you have a picture? I doubt you have GHA in 3 weeks, it’s probably cyano

 

[Nemo1]

It’s hard to get a picture because of the lights I’ll try get one later, it looks different to cyano I’ve had in tanks before but possibly

 

[Nemo1]

Best photos I could get are only with it on the pumps, but it’s all over the one side of glass and back wall

 

[Retro Reefer]

Hard to tell from pictures, tried to clean one up a little. Looks like possibly a form of bryopsis? I’m assuming power heads came from another tank?

 

[najer]

Hard to tell from pictures, tried to clean one up a little. Looks like possibly a form of bryopsis? I’m assuming power heads came from another tank?

I zoomed as well, I would say micro algae, my tangs would love that but not clear enough to tell!

 

[Nemo1]

The power heads were new not from another tank, I googled bryopsis does look similar it says about light levels and water chemistry
My lights are Red Sea led 90s and I have them on from 10am-8pm then 3 hours moonlight is that too much?

 

[Nemo1]

Under white light it’s much clearer to see

 

[Retro Reefer]

10 hour light cycle is not to long. I’m not familiar with RS lights, can the brightness be controlled?

I see in first post you said tanks a few weeks old? That’s a lot of algae on a new powerhead in 3 weeks.

Do You have a complete list of parameters? most importantly nutrients n03 & p04

 

[Nemo1]

I can alter the % of blues and whites if that’s what you mean I’ve not really messed around with it that was recommended for the settings I put into the app
The algae on power head has developed over the past few days there was lots more on the glass that I got off with a aquarium sponge thing, maybe that made it worse I’m not sure
Most Water parameters are in the first post

 

[Retro Reefer]

IMO Your whites are way to high. I would cut the blues to about 80% and whites to 20% or even less.. another thing is your short ramp up/down time, I would adjust so you have about 4-6 hours peak lighting with the rest of your run time ramping up and down.

 

[Nemo1]

Alright I’ll lower both
Would that have been the cause of all that algae in such short period of time or would there have been another cause do you think? And the best way to remove?

 

[Retro Reefer]

Lighting probably not 100% of the problem but certainly it may be major contributor. Do you have a clean up crew? Sorry if I missed it I don't see any. Big CUC along with good tank maintenance/water changes along with manual removal using tooth brush.. also pull power heads out of tank and spray them down with hydrogen peroxide then use tooth brush or similar to scrub them clean followed by another spray down with peroxide, let sit for 30 min or so and then give them a thorough rinse before returning to tank. Probably just going to take some elbow grease along with a good CUC to get ahead of it.

 

[Sandman99999]

IMO, nutrient load is too high. Just because you test 0 doeant mean that you dont have nutrients. Think of the algae as a nutrient sink. They absorb them from the tank and your readings are 0, but the nutrients are still in the tank waiting to be released.

 

[Nemo1]

I have a clean up crew but not very good by the seems of it, what’s the “best” CUC to tackle this kind of algae to prevent it when it’s more under control, I’m assuming nothing will get rid of how it is now so I’ll clean that with toothbrush as you said

 

[Nemo1]

Update to this post as I’m still having major issues, the algae has grown so much since the last post on here
I’ve lowered the brightness of lights and how long they’re on for
There’s 5 Mexican turbos in there the guy at the LFS has said they’re great for hair algae but hasn’t seem to touched it for the week they’ve been in there
In some places I’d say it’s around 2 inches long and all over the rocks and back wall
Potential problem- nitrates and phosphates reading complete 0
Ive has my water tested with the Red Sea test kits and taken to LFS
Could the nitrates and phosphates being 0 cause this to happen and grow so much?