i have a 75 gal reef tank .it is 6 months old .icycled it with 100lbs. of live rock and 100lbs of live sand.i use a protein skimmer ,wet dry filter uv sterilizer and 2 powerheads for circulation.fish include 1 powder blue tang and 1 6-line wrasse.i have 1 elephant ear,3 corals and 1 crocea clam.my question is i am covered up in green algae on the glass and brown algae on the sand.once i clean it off it comes back in 8 hrs or less.it seems to get worse when i feed the filter feeders dt's phytoplankton 1/2 tsp.every other day.i use 2 metal halide combined with 4 actinic 12 hrs on 12 off. is this to long ?my tests are ammonia-0 nitrite-0 nitrate-0. i use chemi-pure and poly-filter in the sump and i do weekly water changes. my wife tends to over feed when i'm at work, but idon't think this is the source i my problem.i don't use ro water however i aerate and use a poly-filter in a 20 gallon aquarium set up to treat my water for aweek before putting it in my reef tank. any body have any ideas? thanks

WELCOME TO THE ARC!!!
:welcome:



A powder blue is a big fish for a 75, aside from tangs requiring alot of swimming room... all they do is EAT! After eating a ton of food, I think we all know the aftermath. Tangs produce more waste than most any fish in the hobby.

Due to the tank being so young (6months isnt established) your water chemistry is going to be inconsisitent anyway. The Brown algae is more than likely a diatom bloom (typically caused by a spike) and the green algae is likely caused by excess nutrients (the end result of a fish that eats alot and excessive overfeeding and underskimming)

With using tap water I expect that your phosphates are thru the roof, I STRONGLY reccomend that you invest in an RO unit (check out the Filter Guys (http://www.thefilterguys.biz/)...they're a sponsor and offer a club discount) A necessary evil in this hobby, but adds a significant difference.

I would say that you can easily cut back on your lighting... no more than 8-10hours total, you can probably stop feeding DTs all together until things calm down and beg your wife to stop overfeeding :)

What kind of skimmer are you using? Can you describe the wet/dry for us? Got pics?

Again, Welcome to ARC!!!

Hi, :welcome: to the ARC site!

If you don't use RODI water, that is a HUGE problem. All the ickies in tap water are feeding your hair algae.

A wet/dry filter, also called a nitrate factory, is another problem. Over time the bioballs or whatever material you are using becomes dirty, which eventually leads to a build up of nitrates.

What kind of skimmer do you have? Is it truly pulling what it should?

Definitely invest in an RO/DI filter--it will save you a headache and dollars in the end, and talk to your wife about feeding the tank, please! sometimes your levels never show up on test kits because the pollutants are consumed so quickly by the nuissance(sp?) algae, but if it's growing, trust me, they're there...

Tony is absolutely right--6 months really isn't enough time for a tank that to have truly cycled. In my 110, my worst cyano breakout hit right at 6 months and lasted for two more. Right when I was getting ready to quit out of pure frustration, it died off almost overnight. Trust me, yours will, too, as long as you maintain good husbandry. Unfortunately, I really do believe that might mean throwing down the cash for an RO/DI filter--they really are pretty cheap if you think about it being a major piece of equipment--just as necessary as a protein skimmer in my opinion... Have you tested for phosphates, too? Silicates? These are problems we get with tap water. IT may take some time to cycle them out of your tank if they're there...

Also, I would second Gwen's advice about losing the wet/dry and going to a straight sump. Do tell us what type of skimmer you're using. We'll figure this out!

A few more questions/ideas: Do you have a clean up crew (i.e., snails, crabs, detritivores)??? If not, this will be a HUGE help. Darn I forgot what else I was going to say. OH Yeah, flow--how much water do your powerheads push? Increasing flow is said to help with algae problems, too, if you don't have enough already. A Tunze 6060 or 6080 could easily do the work of both your poweheads and then some in a 75g tank.

You can get a great RO/DI unit from eBay for about $120 - $130 shipped. Also, if you don't have any, consider getting some macro algae in the tank or in the sump which will pull away some of the nutrients away from the green hair algae.

Besides for dropping some seaweed in for the tang, you really only have to feed your tank once every other day or even less. Your six lined wrasse will pick at the rocks all day for pods and other stuff anyway so there's no reason to feed anything else besides for some nori/seaweed.

thanks for all the help i have a red sea skimmer and a omega -2 wet dry filter i will get me a ro unit this week probably a kent.my local dealer is only 5 minutes away aquarium outfitters in loganville

I would honestly also suggest losing the wet dry. Just pull the media out. With the live rock, you should have more than adequate biofiltration. The wet dry will be a near constant producer of nitrate- especially in a well fed tank. If you decide to do this steps, removes it slowly over a period of time.

Ultimately, look into a better skimmer too. Red Seas do work, but you'll be amazed what a better (and honestly more $$$) skimmer will pull out of the water.

Remember- algae is not necessarily a bad sign. ALgae grows even in the oceans, just make sure you do not let it get out of control.

More than likely phytoplankton is the source of your problem. I used to have the exact same problem as you do until I stop using phytonplankton. My tank is overstocked and full of tanks (ARC member that seen my tank can tell you that) which is known to produce lots of waste. I feed my fishes about 5 times a day. You can see, there are potential with lots of nutrient in my system yet I really don't have algea problem.

I agree with reef1973. I think adding phytoplanktion is really unnecessary unless you have a tank full of filter feeding gorgonians or dendronepthea or such. If you feed your fish, there will surely be plenty of food in there for filter feeders.

i bought a ro filter saturday coralife 24gpd.what a difference in the algae in the sand it made and on the glass with a water change and a top off for evaporation.i am thinking about getting a deltec skimmer hang on the back type since there is no room in the sump for it. it is expensive about 500.00. what is your thougts on these skimmers? thanks anybody

You need approx. 50-60 Astrea and/or Nerita snails above and beyond all else and for filamentous algae of any length whatsoever you need to perform the old "bucket and brush" effort of physical removal of all long algae by scrubbing as these Trochids do not touch long algae. You can have the most pristine environment in the world and the algae will still grow unless there's a snail to eat it and enough numbers of them.
I take a half inch vinyl siphon hose and about a cm. above the sand siphon off the mat of algae into a bucket. Sand comes up with it of course and you can take this to the sink and rinse the sand in tapwater, swish it around with your hands pouring off the separated algae from the sand grains which you can reuse.
I drip in kalkwasser (milky, with a Nilsen style doser with stirring bar) as all my top off water and my sand progressively turning a speckled pink appearance as the coralline algae (and Ostreobium and the occasional diatom film) becomes the dominant algae on the sand. Coralline dominated sand characterizes a mature sand bed. Astrea snails in high numbers are crucial to achieving this as their rasping at filamentous films clears the way for coralline to dominate your whole environment.
Create a storm each month by blasting the detritus out of the nooks and crannies of your live rock with a powerhead, allowing it to settle for siphoning or catching it in a mechanical filter for removal.
Be sure to maintain 1.025 S.G. alkalinity 8-12 KH, PH 8.2-8.4, Mg+ at least 1,000 to 1,350 mg/l and Ca+ 400 mg/l. Lower specific gravity dilutes these values.