algae growth all over snails/rock...

[Skeptic9962]

on my new SPS tank its been going for almost 1.5 months. i know there is allways the algae cycle...but could there be other things feeding the algae. i have a phosban reactor running on it with Rowaphos and also running 1.5 cups of ROX 0.8 carbon in my overflow. tank params are at:

PH 8.3
amonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 10-15
Calc. 420
alk. 8-9DKH
phos. 0 (unreadable)
mag. 1400

my guess would be its just a new tank but could nitrate also be feeding it?

just sucks having algae floating around and getting strung up on my SPS frags

 

[tdgates10]

What else do you have in the tank, and how much are you feeding it? And what types of test kits are you using? Also what size of tank and what filtration method are you using, skimmer type lighting (how long are they on)?

 

[Skeptic9962]

i curently have about 12 frags of acros,montis, millis, also have a flasher fairy wrasse and a yasha hashi goby, 3 pepermint shrimp along with about 30 assorted snails. i am curently feeding them once a day some rods reef and every other day a bit of coralfrenzy. idd like to be able to feed in small amounts three times daily but just dont have the time to do so since i go to work so early.

all of my test kits are Elos (brand new) the tank is a 32 gal with around a 20 gal sump im using a sock on the incoming water from the tank and then it goes through the fuge and then to the return section. my skimmer is a tunze 9010 that pulls pretty good. i run Rox 0.8 carbon that i change out once a week along with cleaning of the sock and 5-10gal water change. i also run a reactor with rowaphos in it. lighting on it is a outer orbit 24" 150w halide with 4 24w T5 attinics. the halide is a 14k pheonix.

light cycle
T5s - 11am-9pm
Halide- 12pm- 7pm

 

[dnjan]

SPS corals in a tank only 1.5 months old???

At that early age, you probably haven't been overfeeding enough to fuel the nuisance algae, so it is probably still in the early algae cycle.

 

[Skeptic9962]

yeah it is a bit early i know its not going to be really stable for a bit but all the corals seem to be happy great polyp exstension and growth on everything. only thing that ive worried about was that the nitrate might cause an issue so ive been trying to get that down to 0. algae seems to be slowly going away as i decrease the nitrate....so not sure if that was it or if its a coincidence.

 

[tdgates10]

Sounds to me like it's just going through a cycle since it's only 1 1/2 months old. I would just keep up on good water changes and skim wet. IMO I wouldn't add anything else until it stables out for at least a month or two. Good luck!

 

[burning2nd]

no cycle just over feeding...... the ph4 undetectbul is from the tank eating it up so quick.... back off on the feeding.. check source water run wet skim