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My setup is very similar to yours. I did a few modification to the piping to help control water flow.
I have no problem with Algae in my display tank at all. Tank is super clean and so is water. Only problem is nitrate... I'm really hoping it will start to drop so I can start feed my corals.
This is truly a blessing for us reefers. :) I hate complicated systems simply because they are complicated! Using ATS for filtration is just genius.
update:
got water tested yesterday. other than Kent Marine Iron and Magneese i havent been dosing anything.
Mag. - 1680 (high...)
Nitrate - 0.2 (YAY!)
Calcium - 500
Alk. - 7.2
Phosphate - 0.10 (YAY!)
Horrible algae mess has cleared up more and more. Now all my lights and scrubber are on timers.
the 40 watt bulbs were like $11-12 a piece, plus shipping, and I honestly don't have the extra cash to spend on just bulbs right now :( It was either bulbs or groceries this week and I picked food! lol. I bought 23watt 35K CFL bulbs 4-pack at Lowes for $12.
Since installing them yesterday, and cleaning the screen 2 days ago, the screen is growing back a brighter green.
I'm so happy about my low phosphates. Thanks Santa!
Nice :)
new tidbit of info.
brown algae mess keeps coming back every few days if I dont blow it off with a turkey baster.
traced it back to WTH could I be doing wrong?
new bulbs- check
new light fixture over DT with new bulbs - check
Then I decided to check my daily top-off water with a TDS meter. i buy my RODI water from a local LFS. Ive been using it for over a year.... TDS reading of 16. this may be the reason I can never keep algae under control. possible silicates from RODI water? I add over 2.5 gallons a day of top-off water, so possibly this was contributing to the problem?
I started using RODI water from a friend that tests out 0 with the TDS meter. its been 4 days so far, i'll keep you all updated with pictures over the next few days
Just for comparison the faucet water has a reading of 287 TDS for cold water, and 319 for hot water.......EW. :shock:
The 16 tds could be all phosphate. True, if a scrubber is strong enough, it could handle it, but until you get your scrubber figured out, you don't need any question marks.
posted a video on youtube of the kind of algae issues i am having.
What else can I do do get rid of this stuff?
Also I am having a bad luck keeping zoanthids and mushrooms (besides the green fuzzy ones, which havent grown, either) alive. Would my algae issue have anything to do with this or do you think its unrelated?
forgot to add the link, oops....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5oTs9hSRrI
Going to try to guess everything from the one video, especially since it was moving fast and was not clear how the rocks really looked:
1. Looks like algae is on rocks only. This would mean nutrients in water are low, and P is coming of the rocks.
2. No algae on plastic parts. This would mean nutrients are low in water.
3. Algae blows off easily from rocks. This would mean the algae is almost dead from nutrients almost gone from rocks.
4. Softies having trouble. This would mean very low nutrients in water.
5. You have a strong looking scrubber, and it's been running several months.
Put together, I'd say that your rocks were loaded with P from a previous time, and that your scrubber pulled nutrients down very low in the water, and is almost done removing P from the rocks. Softies having trouble in the mean time.
Fix: Feed more, more, more.
2X more this week, 3X more next week, 4X the following week, and keep increasing until the softies do better. This will put more nutrients in the water to help the softies, but will not slow down the P coming out of the rocks too much. Feed some type of particle food like rotifers, that are too small for the fish to grab them all.
1. Its terrible on the sandbed, as well. I have to sift daily or its horrible looking.
2. algae is all over the overflow box, like it attracts it or something. The large mexican turbo snails and the sea cucumber eat it though, because there is a nice clean trail on the overflow box where they went through. Its also all over the back glass, though it doesnt look like its inhibiting coraline growth on the glass.
3. algae blows off easily from everywhere, the problem is it re-appears with a vengance, in the same place, the next day. :shock:
4. not all softies are struggling. Hairy mushrooms are opening fine, as are yumas. Its only 4 colonies of zoanthids that I have that will not open anymore. The light blue palythoas are doing fine, though. Im not sure if this problem is caused by the algae or possibly by a Zoanthid-eating nudibranc, I'm going to dip the colonies accordingly, though.
5.thanks :)
I'm feeding more like you recommended. I am feeding things more targeted towards softies as well as the fish now.
some sps are growing. an ecrusting monti is spreading rapidly, and a digi's growth has been exponential. other corals are suffering, though, and I dont want to add any new corals to the tank until I get this algae under control.
Do you know what kind of algae it is, by any chance?
here is a link to the new video I posted on Youtube of the problem. This one shows the problem on the sandbed more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDEAETwGmtE
also, I would like to note that in the area where 1 powerhead is hitting directly on a rock, that rock is free and clean of any kind of algae at all, and it looks AWESOME. If I could just get the rest of the algae under control I would be ecstatic. :mrgreen:
Then if you have algae on plastic parts, that changes things. This mean you have more nutrients in your water that your scrubber can pull out. So... Cut feeding to 1/4 of what you were feeding. Make your scrubber stronger, using every technique.