out of controll algae

[Cake_Boss]

are you taking into account your headloss? Headloss calculator

 

[coralman]

thank you for the heads up after using the headloss calculator the new calculation is 40.54 times an hr. now i fill dumb but i am learning from this

 

[coralman]

here are those pics i don't know how to put them in an Email on here this is when i first thought of doing this

 

[Cake_Boss]

Don't feel dumb, we all have asked/done/said dumb stuff before...just read DV3's posts. (J/K Don)

edit: some things I will note; the white eggcrate seems to attract algae growth, the flow director on the end of your powerhead reduces the flow. The Alternative Reef on R2R makes some pretty interesting structures. I'm not saying buy from Gooch, as they are a bit on the pricey side, but use that as inspiration to construct your own. I'm unsure of his materials, I'm sure its a trade secret, but from what I gather its either clay or aquarium putty with a nice texture on it.

Some of his designs

 

[coralman]

here is a drawing of my sump i will post pics

 

[Craigar]

So bio balls are nitrate factories if you have nitrats it's a pretty good bet it's due to the bio balls if I were you I would go to percolate there having $1 per gallon sale get the biggest tank you can fit and make a sump and refugium just my two cents

 

[coralman]

i would agree with you if you don't wash them which i do every other months in salt mix at this time my WQ is great i am in the processes of building a new sump
that will be 30 x 13 x 18 which measures out to be 30.98 gallons and i will be running my bioballs a long with that i will be adding a new stand to accommodate
my HOB fug. my protein skimmer and return pump with a place to have some LR for more filtration

 

[Craigar]

You may not be showing trades because your Alge is using them up so there being in detectable

 

[coralman]

even before my algae problem i had no traces of nitrates now at the peak of my algae bloom i did have some nitrates and that is the only time i have had any nitrates in my system
if you clean the bioballs you should not have a problem

 

[Tabasco]

So bio balls are nitrate factories if you have nitrats it's a pretty good bet it's due to the bio balls if I were you I would go to percolate there having $1 per gallon sale get the biggest tank you can fit and make a sump and refugium just my two cents

+1 I would ditch the balls for a fuge with additional chaeto. I would modify your sump to a 3 compartment sump, return, skimmer and fuge and leave out the bioball part all together. I prefer my return in the middle and have the fuge and skimmer on either side overflowing to the return. That way I can run a differnt flow throught the fuge and the skimmer. But some people prefer to run them in a line with the return on end.

Good luck!