Food and algae?

T

Tinyfish

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I feed every other day and the fish consume the food in 60 seconds. I continue to have the dark maroon algae, both slime and the short hairy kind. I have a cardinal scooter dragonet in one tank that I am always afraid of starving. But all my other tanks have the same problem. I run LED lights 8 hours for corals.

Is there an algaecide or something I can put in to get this under control? Is it caused by food? I have been feeding the small mysis frozen shrimp and pellets alternately.
 
Is the dark maroon algae something that forms in sheets? If so, sounds like cyanobacteria. Algae, just like anything else, needs the right nutrients and conditions to survive. I would start by testing phosphate and nitrate levels although if you have a lot of algae or cyano it could be using it up before it will show up on your tests. Hence the reason a lot of people have algae or cyano problems and test at "0" phosphates and nitrates. You can also have phosphates leach out from rock if it has absorbed some over time. Can you post some pictures of what you are dealing with? From your signature, it looks like you run a reactor and I assume you are running GFO, phosban, or something similar and I assume you are changing out the media as needed? Also, what types of LED's are you running and what colors? Reducing your light cycle a little bit sometimes helps (e.g. go from 8 hours to 7 or 6 hours).

The cheapest algae killer I know if is to just turn the lights off for 3 days. This could give your clean-up crew or reactor a chance to catch-up if you just have higher nutrient levels. I've had cyano outbreaks and algae outbreaks from overfeeding and the 3 days lights off, fresh GFO, and siphoning and cleaning off the top of the sandbed has worked without having to resort to chemical solutions.
 
Do you use tap water or RODI water? If you use RODI water what is the TDS Level?

Also if you run a full spectrum LED fixure, you will not want to run much red Led's. They will help grow algae.

Oh and ditto with the phosphates and nitrates above.
 
I will try changing out the Phosban in the main system and I can put Chemipure Elite into the 20g. I use RODI water with TDS =0.

How long should it take the new Phosban to work if that is the problem?
 
Be patient and give it time. If you have nutrients locked-up in your system it can take time to leach out to where it will get removed.
 
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