new algae for me...fast spreading

[Sea~Horse~Whisperer]

Can anyone ID this algae and tell me how to get rid of it? I've been siphoning it out of one of my tanks, but it's comming back faster then I can keep up. Water paramenters are:

Nitrate under 20
Nitrite 0
ammonia 0
ph 8.3
Temp 74
salanity 1.022

[Sea~Horse~Whisperer]

I only use ro di water and this tank is only fed every other day. Tank is my 75g. 30 lbs of LR, 6inch sand bed, macros, crabs, snails, 1 peppermint shrimp,
and 1 gobie. That is all that is in this tank. It has a 20g sump with an ASM skimmer, live rock rubble and chaeto in the sump. From a practical stand point, there shouldn't be any algae issues in this tank at all. I will test phosphates and see what I come up with. the return pump is mag 9.5 and I added a powerhead for added circulation just in case it was from lack of water flow. It didn't help so far.


Ok phosphates are 0 now I'm really stumped by the algae.

[jojo22]

From the pics it looks like cyano.

[graphixx]

yep its a slime algae

[Sea~Horse~Whisperer]

How do I get rid of the nasty stuff? I tried to leave it alone and let it run it's course, but it covered / smothered everything. It was a mess to clean out of the tank. I hate this almost as much as I hate HA. Geesh this tank is a PITA for some reason.

I'm going to to add 50 lbs. of dry rock from marco rocks to this tank. (The gobie will be removed, but the cleaners will stay in the tank) Maybe that will help. I'm also removing the HA infested macros and replacing them with new macros from the sump of another tank.

Any other suggestions? Could it be the lamps in my T5 setup? It is only a month or 2 old but it is an off brand so the lamps may not be the best.

Thank you.
Angie

[jojo22]

Up your water flow and do water changes syphoning it out as best you can. It feeds mainly on phosphates so as a last ditch band aid you could get some remover. generally overfeeding is what causes it so you may try cutting back on the amount at feeding time

[hummer]

good luck

[Fally]

I would second the phosphate reactor, it really helped my system. I built a really simple DIY reactor out of PVC that works great.

Dave

[Snuggle]

Good Luck!