trouble...

[Reefer769]

well it finally happened. my 30g cube was doing great for the longest time, when all of the sudden this brown hair algae started growing all around the tank, along with this black slime algae. Well soon enough my sps started to turn white, or brown, or get covered in this black slime. What do i need to do to fix this stupid agae problem ive been having?

[Poseidon]

Have you been keeping up on your water changes? What is your PO4 level?

[Reefer769]

i have been keeping up with water changes, and i will check the PO4 level as well. I need some quick advice, becuase i really dont want this tank to crash. Too much money was put into this.

[Poseidon]

Algae blooms are usually caused by excess nutrients. I can't remember what algae you have in your sump, how is it doing? Do you harvest that algae? If not you really need to, it will help.

[Reefer769]

maybe i have the lights on for to long? i have them an a 12-hour schedule, should it be less?

[sihaya]

It's not the lights. These algaes can grow even with very little light.

But try to relax, an algal bloom doesn't mean your tank is going to crash. Just cut down on the feeding for awhile and do extra water changes until the condition improves. You can also manually remove some of that algae. That will help too because when it grows back (if it does), that will pull even more stuff out of the water).

Everyone gets these algae blooms every now and then. It's not the end of the world. It just means your tank got out of balance and now it needs to find a new balance. Just try to keep it clean and keep the algae off your corals. (And like these guys said, test your PO4 and nitrates.)

[sihaya]

And when I said "keep it clean" I mean clean your pumps, your tubes... all that stuff. You wouldn't believe the s**t that can build up in those things!

I swear sometimes I have aptasia and sponges growing in my drain tube. It's just nasty.