im questioning my filtration setup

[skelator]

ok i have a 46g reef tank. 40 lbs of live sand and 70 lbs of live rock. i have a hawkfish, clown (nemo) a strawberry psudochromis and a blue damse and a 4 stripe damsel. the blue and 4 stripe were the cycle fish. their too fast to catch lol. i have 10 coral frags that are doing quite well.

my skimmer is a aquamaxx hob unit. i have two powerheads on opposite sides of the tank flowing towards the center of the tank.

now here comes the stuff im questioning i have a cascade 1000 canister filter. i have carbon, chemipure elite, purigen and just plain filter media running in it. ive been cleaning it once a month or so. i always have 0 nitrate but ive been getting green hair algae as of late. i only have a api test kit and my phos appears to be 0.

i also made a diy hob refugium out of an old whisper 60. i have some kinda green algae i got at the lfs (i forget the name of it) and some rubble rock. i have the flow really low the water is hardy leaking out of it. i also have a clamp on led to grow the algae.

do you guys think the canister or the hob refuge is hurting my setup? should i only use the skimmer and ditch the canister or the refuge?

ive decided to leave the lights off for a few days to kill off the algae.

any help would be appreciated, thanks, Mike

 

[mike007]

Yes I would ditch the canister. If you are getting hair algae it is caused by excess nutrients. Most common cause is overfeeding ,infrequent water changes etc. Canister filters can cause these problems if not cleaned often.Good live rock, circulation and good skimming is all you need. Is your skimmer pulling out a lot of gunk? If it is not you might consider a stronger one. But cut down on your feeding and see if that helps.

 

[skelator]

i feed pretty sparingly. i feed the fish every 2 or three days and the coral maybe 3 times a week. is that still too much? this is my first salt water setup so i really dont know if the skimmers doing good or great. i change 5gallons a week and every 3rd or 4th week i do a 10 gal change. what are your thoughts on the little refuge? i was told the skimmer is totally fine with my tank since its only a 46.

thank you for the reply.