Algae won’t go away

aquakj

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Hey Guys, so I’ve been dealing with alagae for quite some time now. I typically do water changes once a week or 2. However my tank is always dirty it will last a day clean before I start to see alagae comeback. My parameters are within range I lost my recent test soo don’t recall only thing I remember was the phosphate since that’s ideally a factor in alagae but 2 months ago it’s was at 0.5 and this month it was at 0.1. As for a clean up crew I don’t got too much going on 2 sand shifting star fish and about 10 turbo snails . I have 2 fish in the display and 2 in the sump. My light are set Kessils 180s I run them at the lowest setting and on blues, they are scheduled from 4-11pm as I’m writing this I realized my lights were suppose to only be on for 4 hours I’ll be starting that today. I’ve tried chemicals before and yes it cleaned out the entire alagae however it wiped out some coral and fish as well so I don’t wanna go that route, went from 6 fish to 2 ! And lost a lot of frags and colonies this was Flux Rx which is considered safe. So yea this is alage issue is getting old I feel like I’ve always had this issue it’s making the hobby a bit tiring for me right now, I’m not sure what the root cause can be I always have had the idea it maybe the water in my area ( LA County) I’m using , of course I run and RODI system but idk almost every tank I’ve had has had algae maybe I’m just good at growing algae lol I’ll drop some photos for reference. Thanks !

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Maebh

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The brown on the sand bed look like diatoms, which is a different treatment. I just mix up the sand every few days :)
 

Solo McReefer

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Get 6 feet of 1/2" tubing. Or use a Python tank cleaner

And siphon it out

Easiest way is to siphon it into a sock in the sump. Then wash out the sock

Get some Nassarius snails, perhaps
 

dschuffert

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I feel your pain! It looks like your sandbed is pretty thick. I am guessing there is a lot of detritus built up in it. Vacuuming the sand can help, and better flow on the sand to prevent detritus build-up could also help. I didn't see any pictures of your sump. If your sump has detritus built up, that could also impact nutrients and feed different algae.

For me, I solved my algae problem in my main display tank with plenty of flow reaching the sand bed (using Ecotech MP60s on the side and MP40s on the back, all tied together in Nutrient Transfer Mode), I also put smaller Hygger pumps throughout my sump to keep anything from settling. I installed a Matt Roller along with an Algae Scrubber. I do 10% water changes every 45 to 60 days. I also do ICP testing monthly (Fauna Marin Pro, which tests the tank water and RODI system water) to watch what is happening with elements and nutrients.
 
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