anything wrong?

[Wendo-reef]

water parameter

nitrate 30
calcium 390
phosphate 20
amonia 0.2
nitrite 0.4
ph 8.0

i'm having a whole lot of algae problem (hair) do you guys see something wrong with these?

[a4twenty]

water parameter

nitrate 30
calcium 390
phosphate 20
amonia 0.2
nitrite 0.4
ph 8.0

i'm having a whole lot of algae problem (hair) do you guys see something wrong with these?

nitrates are high
phosphates are off the scale ( is this a typo )
there should be no ammonia and no nitrites

can you tell us a bit more about your system?? and remember a picture tells a 1000 words :b16:

[Wendo-reef]

maybe the phosphate is .2 i'm not sure it's light blue on the test and i can match it to the second lowest reading

and more info well,

75g, 110 lbs of live rocks, mix corals (torch, frogspawn, shrooms, xenias, brains)

bunch of snails and crabs. i'll post a picture later if you really need to see one

[Wendo-reef]

one more thing, all my fish usually swim everywhere and are out all the time but now for the past 3-4 days, all of them are always hiding. ? why

[a4twenty]

.2 is better but still not great.

your algae is being fueled by the phosphates and nitrates, so finding the source of these is the best way to get rid of the algae.

RODI?
water changes?
skimmer?
sump?
fuge?
how much do you feed and how often?

[Wendo-reef]

i forgot my salinity is 1.025

not RODI water but tap with Prime conditioner
Tunze skimmer 9002
10g fuge

feed twice a day, each time feeding those little cube that comes in a packet. i feed one cube of brine and one of marine greens and that for 7 fish

[Wendo-reef]

water changes are 20% every month, my lighting is suntek T5 (4*54w) and i don't know how to find what's causing the problem

thanks

[a4twenty]

not RODI water but tap with Prime conditioner

everything sounds good except this. i had the same problem for years ( FOWLR ) and switching to RODI is unfortunately the only answer. there is just to much unknown stuff in tap water that can fuel the algae growth.

[Wendo-reef]

are you saying i should buy a r/o unit?

i'm willing to do this if it can help my problem

[a4twenty]

you don't have to buy a unit, you can buy the water from the LFS but it will be cheaper in the long run to buy a unit. RODI ( the DI is an extra resin stage that really finishes cleaning the water ) is really a necessity to have success with a reef tank.

the problem is that the low amounts in city water is no problem for humans but in a closed aquarium the excess dissolved solids fuel algae growth.