Algae blooms

[Off The Deep End]

So i have had consistant algae blooms for the past couple of months and cant seem to figure out why. Any ideas?

I just checked my params today and this is what i got.

PH-8.25
Alk-11
Cal-420
Nitrate-0
phosphate-0

I do not have a TDS meter but my RO/DI has new filters as of a month ago.

The system:

40 breeder
29g sump-with fuge
Asm g-2 skimmer
1x250w gueisemann pendant with 3 month old bulb
reefbright strip
Acjr

Any ideas on what could be the cause? thanks

 

[miwoodar]

Nitrate-0
phosphate-0

Nitrates and phosphates of "zero" doesn't mean much BTW. An algae bloom will often strip them down to near zero anyways. Beyond that, most of the available phosphate test kits on the market don't even look for a large component of your total available phosphate.

How much do you feed? Have you ever tried running GFO or adding an organic carbon source (vodka, sugar, other)?

If you graded your skimmer-ing skills on a scale of 1-10, what would you rate yourself? It's a surprisingly fine art even with the best of units. [Edit to add, have you ever read Calfo's notes in posts 3&4 here http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=554786? My skimmer-ing improved greatly with only a few small tweaks.]

 

[Off The Deep End]

I feed very minimal(1-2 times a week). Vodka dose. skimmer-ing?? i guess i will have to read about this

 

[KhensuRa]

I was getting a ton of algae on the glass and not figure out why, so I added some phosphate remover and over night it stopped growing on my glass. Might want to try it.

 

[Cake_Boss]

Yikes! Sounds like wiricks tank, lol. Could it be that your sand bed needs stirring? Are your rocks leaching?

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[Dr.DiSilicate]

What kind of algae? How much vodka are you dosing? You might want to back off it it is cyano... Many people do use gfo with carbon dosing. What else are you dosing? What is your magnesium.

 

[Off The Deep End]

Vodka dosing per RHF's exact directions, no its not cyano. Just enough algae on the glass to **** me off daily Jamie i sure hope not!

 

[miwoodar]

I was getting a ton of algae on the glass and not figure out why, so I added some phosphate remover and over night it stopped growing on my glass. Might want to try it.

So it's just on your glass? Not on the rock? Adding more snails might help a bit but there is no way to get out of cleaning the glass. Daily is higher than average though. Perhaps try what KhensuRa mentioned...run a batch of GFO for a few days/weeks to see if you can out compete the algae enough to knock it down.

I was picturing this...

 

[Off The Deep End]

LOL sorry i should have been more specific, yes just on the glass but i have never had a tank that i had to clean the glass once if not twice a day.

 

[Cake_Boss]

Classic!

I second the motion of running GFO for a bit. I had to clean my glass every hour it seemed, then I ran PhosBan. It slowly decreased my glass cleaning to eventually once every 3 days.
I bought a cheap scale from Target to measure the grams accurately and plumbed the tubing from my return. Not sure with regular GFO, but you have to make sure the phosban doesn't tumble too much or it will grind itself to a powder. I think my po4 readings are in the last few pages of my build thread.

edit: careful with reducing your po4 too fast. From my talks with kris and will, you need low readings of po4 and no3 in order for your corals to be happy. So a balance is in order. Think that's a whole other topic though.



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[SAZAMA]

I love GFO. check your tds on your rodi