Help! Black algea

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by vince0

The tank is a 4ft 55g with a eshopps 75 hang on back skimmer, a 4ft HOT5 with a 10,000k and kz 14,000k bulbs on 6 hours a day. It has 2 koralia 1060 gph pumps, one per side aiming up for air exchange. It has 75lbs of live rock, and 40 lbs of live sand. I've been mostly testing for nitrates, which always register at zero, and I'm assuming that its becasue they various algeas are using it up.

what you need to be working on is nutrients, lights are only a very small factor compared to nutrients mainly phosphates. to keep them in check use ro water, when feeding frozen food let thaw and blotch the juices as almost all foodcontain phosphates just not in really high enough amounts that the basic cheaper test kits can detect.use a high powered skimmer rated for much larger than your system.run carbon aggressively.consider running phosphate removal media and change it when needed.nitrates are a factor as well but not nearly as much as phosphates,nitrates more affect coral growth and color, your testing zero for nitrates because of the water changes , you can get rid of nitrates easily with massive water changes as they dont build up that fast and with good liverock they get converted pretty quickly,plus reduced feedings.any dieing or decaying matter like corals dieing or fish/inverts and anything that changes rapidly lkike spawning or sudden light changes can also trigger these blooms.increase flow in areas where it collects.if your liverock is old it can trap phosphates and leach them out in time


the steps to a algae free system are basically(but not limited to) this:


use ro water for water changes and top ups
feed only what you need to(fish dont need frozen food 3 times a day)
avoid liquid foods and if using frozen carefully thaw and blotch out juices
run carbon and phosphate media like gfo(ferris oxide)
regular water changes and lots of flow
avoid very high bio loads unless equipped to handle them( ie.good skimmer,lots of lr,nutrient reduction systems like zeovit,prodibio or bio pellets)
discard any cloth like materials or wash frequently if using them and avoid bio balls
consider growing macro algae
regular tank husbandry like wiping off glass,manual removal,ditrius removal/cleanup crew


(think i got most of em in there lol it sounds like alot but its really not goodluck