So after a weekly tank cleaning it takes roughly 3-4 days for an algae film to appear on the tank glass. It grows on the overflow box and its pretty tough to remove from the powerheads. Is this normal? If it is normal how can it be better?
It's my girlfriends 29 gallon tank of about 5 years with almost the same live stock. Pencil Urchin, Clown fish, and damsel. She had added a nano cube sump and skimmer a couple years ago. From what I remember that tank stayed perfectly clean for a week or more with no cleaning done at all. But maybe my memory is foggy. She moved into my house about a year ago. The tank stayed the same except she had an air stone in the tank and that was causing massive amounts of salt build up on the lid and rim of the tank. So that was removed at the same time of the move. After the tank was setup it seems like there has been annoying algae growth and we can't keep it clean! We were using tap water, had the lights on for 12-14 hours a day, and got pretty lazy on water changes. After reading forums and videos I learned that this was a huge problem.
We bought a current LED light and programmed it for 10 hours. Switched to RO/DI water and didn't really notice a change. For the past 2 months I have been performing 10-15 gallon water changes weekly to remove access nitrate that was almost off the charts. I just tested the water and everything has been consistent for a couple weeks.
PH: 8.2
Nitrate: 20 ppm
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
She can't remember the flow rating of the return pump. However, its set to its lowest flow rating and if it is increased at all the tank starts to overflow. There are also to powerheads in the tank for flow. I can't remember the flow rating of those at the moment either. But I know one of the heads is pretty large, if not too large for the size.
It's my girlfriends 29 gallon tank of about 5 years with almost the same live stock. Pencil Urchin, Clown fish, and damsel. She had added a nano cube sump and skimmer a couple years ago. From what I remember that tank stayed perfectly clean for a week or more with no cleaning done at all. But maybe my memory is foggy. She moved into my house about a year ago. The tank stayed the same except she had an air stone in the tank and that was causing massive amounts of salt build up on the lid and rim of the tank. So that was removed at the same time of the move. After the tank was setup it seems like there has been annoying algae growth and we can't keep it clean! We were using tap water, had the lights on for 12-14 hours a day, and got pretty lazy on water changes. After reading forums and videos I learned that this was a huge problem.
We bought a current LED light and programmed it for 10 hours. Switched to RO/DI water and didn't really notice a change. For the past 2 months I have been performing 10-15 gallon water changes weekly to remove access nitrate that was almost off the charts. I just tested the water and everything has been consistent for a couple weeks.
PH: 8.2
Nitrate: 20 ppm
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
She can't remember the flow rating of the return pump. However, its set to its lowest flow rating and if it is increased at all the tank starts to overflow. There are also to powerheads in the tank for flow. I can't remember the flow rating of those at the moment either. But I know one of the heads is pretty large, if not too large for the size.
