Help with ongoing algae problem.

[InsertName]

I've been battling this algae since I bought this tank about 6 months ago. It's on the rock and the sand, the algae on the sand looks especially ugly. I've also got to scrape the glass on the tank every few days. I do weekly water changes after getting as much of the algae agitated so I can suck it up. I've just reduced my lighting percentage by 10% overall so maybe this will help, I've attached the new lighting schedule below. The tank is a red sea max nano. Could it be to do with a problem with filtration, phosphate and nitrate seem normal although as far as I understand phos gets used by the algae so it could be higher than what it tested at.

I currently feed the fish once a day, I alternate half a cube of frozen food one day and then a few flakes the next day typically.

I'm really hoping that the photos don't show signs of dinos because I've already got aiptasia I've been trying to get rid of for ages, would be another headache lol.

Phos: 0.01
Nitrate: 10

Thanks!

 

[Waters]

That looks more like green cyano than algae....does it blow off the rocks with a turkey baster?

 

[Rick's Reviews]

Maybe turn your white lighting down TO 10% start from low/ 10% then build up , pleased you on to maintaining cleaning but I would definitely turn lighting down

 

[Emmanuel Zamora]

Exactly what I have, believe it’s green cyno.. follow along, bc I can’t seem to get rid of it also!!

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I dont see any snails on any of the pics. Increasing the clean up will help.
Feeding frozen food instead of pellets will help.
Since you have no corals on the rocks, I would just take the rocks out and scrub the heck out of them with a toothbrush (in a bucket of saltwater). 2 or 3 times of fierce scrubbing of the rocks and it has a hard time to grow back.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

About 4 months ago...

 

[InsertName]

That looks more like green cyano than algae....does it blow off the rocks with a turkey baster?

Yeah it does

 

[littlebeard]

I dealt with a cyno that looks just like that. I used chemi clean which knocked it out. Not a huge fan of chemi-clean but it did work. I think I would go with dr. tims cyno treatment instead these days.

 

[Waters]

Your nutrients are already look good. I agree with @littlebeard .....I wouldn't normally recommend Chemi-clean but in this case, since you have been fighting for 6 months, I would probably give it a try. It doesn't look like you have any sensitive coral so there shouldn't be any major side effects.

 

[fishy]

Your nutrients are already look good. I agree with @littlebeard .....I wouldn't normally recommend Chemi-clean but in this case, since you have been fighting for 6 months, I would probably give it a try. It doesn't look like you have any sensitive coral so there shouldn't be any major side effects.

I have some kind of red/rust cyano growing on my sand. Used chemiclean twice and it did not go away. Any ideas to help eradicate this stuff? by the way, the chemiclean treatment killed my snails so FYI - it is not harmless

 

[Waters]

I have some kind of red/rust cyano growing on my sand. Used chemiclean twice and it did not go away. Any ideas to help eradicate this stuff? by the way, the chemiclean treatment killed my snails so FYI - it is not harmless

Yeah that is why I normally don't recommend any chemicals....they all have risks. They can be perfectly safe in 100 tanks but still wipe out yours. Just have to compare the possible risks vs the rewards. Are you sure yours is cyano? It is hard to tell from the pics but it looks like it could be diatoms. I have never seen cyano not be affected from Chemiclean, even if it is temporarily removed and comes back. If it is cyano, I know of nothing other than increased flow and/or chemicals to remove it. Sometimes it is just a matter of watiting it out and it will often disappear on its' own.