How often do you clean your glass?

[Fisherman Joe]

Hi all.

Got a new 600L aquarium that is 3 month old aquarium and im seriously having to clean the glass daily. Soft green algae covering the glass by 11am, if i cleaned it at 8pm last night!

Run my dKH around 8.0, my Nitrates are around 1.0ppm and Phosphates 0.04ppm. With my previous tank, it would need a clean each 3-4 days but this is nuts.

I keep telling myself it will pass. Advice?

 

[NShirke]

I'm assuming this is due to new tank. My tank is fairly new too, now 6 months old. I used to wipe algae regularly earlier. Nowadays, I wipe it once a week. I had super high phosphate issue in my tanks as well. I treated my tank with GFO and macro algae. Well, its still high between 0.25-0.5 but my corals are thriving as phosphate has remained stable at this level. Algae issue is slowly getting resolved.

Curious, what is your phosphate and nitrate level?

 

[odstar]

Every time i would do a water change or stick my hands in the tank when moving or removing something.

 

[AlexG]

Once a week normally for my reef tank. If I let it go longer the harder algae grows on the glass to the point where my flipper max can't do the job on its own. For my big fish tank I can let it go every couple of weeks since the lighting is lower intensity so I just get film algae on that glass.

 

[Fisherman Joe]

Nitrates are around 1.0ppm and Phosphates 0.04ppm (as above).

Surprising i am getting such rapid growth on the glass with these nutrient levels.

 

[madweazl]

Typically have to clean mine every other day to keep it spotless. I do the back once a week. NO3 <1ppm (typically <.5ppm) and PO4 <=.1ppm.

 

[S2G]

To keep it spotless I'd have to do every day to every other. I clean it every week.

Your tank is very new. Unless it was started with a lot of mature rock and sand it will take awhile to really stabilize.

 

[AZMSGT]

What kind of lighting are you using? How long are your lights on? How much regular sun light is directly hiring your tank? Lighting is one of three major reasons people get excess Algae and have issues.

 

[Duffer]

tank up and running for 2 years, clean glass ever 2-3 days.

 

[Chefwheredyougo]

I clean the front every other day. The back I'm pretty lazy about, maybe once or twice a month. Sides almost never need it.

 

[Fisherman Joe]

What kind of lighting are you using? How long are your lights on? How much regular sun light is directly hiring your tank? Lighting is one of three major reasons people get excess Algae and have issues.

I use 4 x Radion XR15, ligting from about 1pm-7pm full power, 72% intensity on the SPS+ setting (25% white, green, red with 100% blues)

I do get some natural sunlight across the tank for a few hours at noon in winter, which i am addressing, but im seeing algae growth overnight! Think its the same sticky stuff i remove the night before to be honest. I run no mechanical filtration, as per Triton method suggestion BUT that is soon to change and im going to put a sock on there now and then.