algea in general, red slime and green

[seanathen]

So, my Biocube looks kinda jungle-ish. My rocks are mostly covered in green, and now slime algea has grown over my sandbed and up and over half the rocks. The slime is growing so fast, that I cleaned half the tank yesterday and that section is already close to half grown over today. The funny thing is, my corals don't seem to be bothered by any of this. My SPS's are even still growing great. But the rocks are to the point of unsightlyness, and all the water changes in the world don't seem to be helping. My nitrate reads at 0, but I think the algea is causing that by consuming it. I don't have a phosphate kit. I only use Distilled water for make up and water changes. I have a culerpa clump in the refugium, but it never seems to really grow much. I may need to add more light to the refugium for that though.

Any suggestions?

[Tlalok]

I ran into the same issue and i was leaving my lights on too long ... since then i have cut back to 11-13 hrs a day and it slowly went away ... that was my issue. Just sharing

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[seanathen]

Mine are 12hours. 7:30 to 7:30. I've thought about cutting that back to 9 hours a day, but I don't want my corals to suffer...

[wazupjames]

My lights run for 6 hours.

[seanathen]

really? only 6 hours? That seems sooo short to me....they get 12 on the reef....

[tomgl]

Corals need 6 hours to recharge.

[Troylee]

Any skimmer on your tank?? I would get some more flow and a decent skimmer if you don't have one.. Should cure it.. Sounds like you have dead spots where **** is collecting..

[seanathen]

I have the return pump and I have a mini Koralia knock off powerhead. I don't think it's flow, buy my rock display could be an issue. I have a week left or so of my aragocrete creations that will help the water flow tremendously I think. I don't have a skimmer cause the stock one was useless. So I'm relying on water changes. I do 5 gallons every other weekend. I have no fish, so the bio-load isn't that high....

[Troylee]

So then your not feeding the tank are you??? I would check your di resin the water changes are prolly feeding it... Unless the rock was bound with po4 and leaching it slowly over time... Skip a water change or 2 and see what happens...

[TheGreatAukSociety]

How long have you had that sand in there? How deep is it?

[seanathen]

Sand is 1.5 to 2.5 mm aragonite. I have about 15 pounds. I also have 10 pounds of GARF grunge. Here's where I'm sure you'll all go "geez, what were you thinkin". I have a plenum under there. So, I have about 3.5" of aragonite, and 1" of grunge. Under it all, I have a .500" plenum with egg crate and screen. I got the live rock from CL, and I had bubble algea problems right away. Here's my thoughts. when my arogcrete is ready, I do a complete re-haul. take all the rock and live sand/gravel out. Pretty much start over. I'm gonna need someone to house all my corals. My attitude towards the garf plan is that it's not a long haul solution. Although I've had great coral growth, the algae is not worth it. Their solution is snails and cleaners. With a 240 gallon tank, maybe. But that's not my long term plan. So, lesson learned, and now I need help with storage for my corals when I get the new layout going. Prolly in two weeks. Mike, Tom, Lee, Marcus, if you've got room for my corals in a quarantine tank, I'll be hitting you up.

[seanathen]

I've had it in there since january of last year...

[TheGreatAukSociety]

Good plan, how big is the tank?

[seanathen]

It's a 29 gallon Biocube.

[tomgl]

Here is a question that gets missed a lot when it comes to algae problems. How old are you bulbs? There are algae that thrive when the bulbs are worn out.

[seanathen]

The bulb is a Coralife 14k 150w DE. I've had it about 7 - 8 months. It's the one that the tank came with.