Hi there. I posted here about a year ago, with so much excitement to start my reef tank. Things were going slow for the first 6 months and I was hoping my corals would start growing so that I could come to the swaps but they were not growing fast enough. So I started feeding them with live plankton and that is pretty much when all hell broke loose. I think I overfed and got hair algae. And I got more and more and more. I am about to cross to the "dark side" and turn it into a cichlid tank since I am really tired of looking/picking algae for the past 6 months. I did research online and got suggestions on how to get rid off it etc etc but it keeps coming back. Let me state what I did wrong and how I corrected it and what I am currently doing:
Tank specs: 50 gal + 10 gal sump, 2x39W 10000k and 2x39W actinic(total 4 bulbs) - 10 hrs a day of light, ESV bionic 10ml of each solution every day, 1 clown loach, 1 royal gramma, 1 dwarf angel, 1 cleaner shrimp, 3 crabs, 60-70lbs of live rock, 80 lbs of live sand, 2x koralia 4, Coralife XL skimmer(rated for 70gal), some chaeto in the sump which keeps shrinking in size, I feed the fish about 8-10 micropellets a day. I only a have sump which circulates the water but only filtration I have is poly filter.
ph; 8.5, Ca 450, Salinity 1.022-1.025
1) OLD; I was using tap water. SJ has 20ppm nitrates in water.
NEW; I use RO water from the store.
2) OLD; I used to have 2x 96W PC light
NEW; t5s
3) OLD; Water change(10%- 1-2 times a month)
NEW; once a week
4) OLD; Feed corals every day
NEW; once a week
Other notes; My Salinity is not very stable, I dont have a autotop doser so it must vary few points every now and then. I even tried "Poly filter" to remove the phosphates and nitrates. The test kit shows 0 for each but I dont trust it. Since algae is growing , I know there are nutrients water. Now, I am very confused. I do not think I overfeed. But I cant seem to control this algae. For one week I tried water changes every day, and it was retreating but as soon as I decreased the frequency to 1 week, it came back. It is not practical for me to water changes every day since I need to buy the water from the store, carry it, mix salt, dump it, etc etc.
Is there anything in this picture that is sticking out as THE PROBLEM? Do I definitely need a de-nitrator or something? I thought keeping the live stock low in numbers would not require one.
Thanks in advance.
Tank specs: 50 gal + 10 gal sump, 2x39W 10000k and 2x39W actinic(total 4 bulbs) - 10 hrs a day of light, ESV bionic 10ml of each solution every day, 1 clown loach, 1 royal gramma, 1 dwarf angel, 1 cleaner shrimp, 3 crabs, 60-70lbs of live rock, 80 lbs of live sand, 2x koralia 4, Coralife XL skimmer(rated for 70gal), some chaeto in the sump which keeps shrinking in size, I feed the fish about 8-10 micropellets a day. I only a have sump which circulates the water but only filtration I have is poly filter.
ph; 8.5, Ca 450, Salinity 1.022-1.025
1) OLD; I was using tap water. SJ has 20ppm nitrates in water.
NEW; I use RO water from the store.
2) OLD; I used to have 2x 96W PC light
NEW; t5s
3) OLD; Water change(10%- 1-2 times a month)
NEW; once a week
4) OLD; Feed corals every day
NEW; once a week
Other notes; My Salinity is not very stable, I dont have a autotop doser so it must vary few points every now and then. I even tried "Poly filter" to remove the phosphates and nitrates. The test kit shows 0 for each but I dont trust it. Since algae is growing , I know there are nutrients water. Now, I am very confused. I do not think I overfeed. But I cant seem to control this algae. For one week I tried water changes every day, and it was retreating but as soon as I decreased the frequency to 1 week, it came back. It is not practical for me to water changes every day since I need to buy the water from the store, carry it, mix salt, dump it, etc etc.
Is there anything in this picture that is sticking out as THE PROBLEM? Do I definitely need a de-nitrator or something? I thought keeping the live stock low in numbers would not require one.
Thanks in advance.