[miareefer]

hey crew ive recently had a problem algae growing on my dsb sandbed its the very fine white sand and the algae is green ive had a slight red slime problem and replaced my reverse osmosis filters and grabbed a few brand new iwasaki 6500 globes to match and my slime algae dissapeared so the green stuff has become quite dominet .
okay 6 foot tank approx 1000 litres in total
wet and dry filter i50 litre capacity
protein skimmer on and off to suit
250 pounds off live rock
7 inch deep sand bed
250 litre sump 3 types off caulepra 24 7 lighting 4 inches off true mangrove mud very reliable never crashed
tank has been running for three years and has a considerable load off healthy corals 2 very fast growing giant clams


1 mandarin
1 yellow tang
1 blue tang
1purple gobby
1 firetail gobby
1 lawnmower blenny
2 chromis and mantis shrimp in algae sump
heaps off hermits 2 coral banded shrimps very placid would always recomend them they are so tame and i cant believe why everyone hates them
various snails and 1 blue starfish and 1 black cucumber that has tripled in size in about 6 months
ime at work at the moment so ill repost all tank parameters i live in the dampier archipelago so when i water change my waters are loaded with plankton and bugs so whats the green stuff why hell is trying to cover my sand bed my tangs are litterely eating it off the bed and the hermits are having a chew and my cucumbers thinks its christmas and ive seen similar looking stuff in nature so is it really bad i reckon it just looks crap compared to the whitish look off the bed thanks in advance for any help or replys
ian

[bongobrian]

Geez and I thought I got frustrated! only jokes my friend. What size is your tank? I'm not sure what 1000 litres equates to in gallons... I think it's a 250 gal maybe??? you mentioned your water is loaded with plankton and bugs.... are you talking about the water currently in your tank or the top-off water? Sounds to me like you either have bryopsis algea or green turf algea. Test your water for Nitrate and Phosphate. High levels of nutrients coupled with strong lighting will cause your tank to become and algea farm. Also, test your R/O water for the same nutrients to make sure you aren't introducing something to the tank. Are you overfeeding? is there anything dying in the tank?

Your first step is to identify the type of algea, next step is to look at every possible cause (source), and then after that we will be able to help find a solution by eliminating that source.

[bongobrian]

PS welcome to Reefland! nice to meet your aquaintance