Hi!
I have had my FOWLR for 4 months now (please see link below for tank set-up). After I got my protein skimmer 3 months ago I have never had detectable levels of ammonia, nitrite or nitrate. Last Sunday I did maintenance on my tank (cleaned protein skimmer cup and sponge, vacuumed crushed coral and did a water change). I checked all the levels and they were all zero (as usual). Suddenly on Wednesday I come home from work and there is green hair algae all over my tank!!! I check all the levels and nitrates are at 20 ppm. So I did a 20% water change and the levels barely budged. The next day I did another 20% water change and still nothing. So I just did monthly maintenance again and scrubbed all the algae off of everything. The pieces were so big I actually netted them out The nitrates are down to 10 ppm.
So now the algae is growing back. Not as sudden or fast but I see the little hairy bushels starting to grow. I can't get the nitrates down to zero. What happened???? I added 10 snails and a cleaner shrimp 4 weeks ago. Did the tank just go through another cycle? Maybe I overfed the tank? I got new brighter lights 3 weeks ago, did this contribute to the algae growth? I want to get the nitrates down for my anemones sake. Also, I have always had a little brown algae but this green algae is out of control and ugly. HELP!
I have had my FOWLR for 4 months now (please see link below for tank set-up). After I got my protein skimmer 3 months ago I have never had detectable levels of ammonia, nitrite or nitrate. Last Sunday I did maintenance on my tank (cleaned protein skimmer cup and sponge, vacuumed crushed coral and did a water change). I checked all the levels and they were all zero (as usual). Suddenly on Wednesday I come home from work and there is green hair algae all over my tank!!! I check all the levels and nitrates are at 20 ppm. So I did a 20% water change and the levels barely budged. The next day I did another 20% water change and still nothing. So I just did monthly maintenance again and scrubbed all the algae off of everything. The pieces were so big I actually netted them out The nitrates are down to 10 ppm.
So now the algae is growing back. Not as sudden or fast but I see the little hairy bushels starting to grow. I can't get the nitrates down to zero. What happened???? I added 10 snails and a cleaner shrimp 4 weeks ago. Did the tank just go through another cycle? Maybe I overfed the tank? I got new brighter lights 3 weeks ago, did this contribute to the algae growth? I want to get the nitrates down for my anemones sake. Also, I have always had a little brown algae but this green algae is out of control and ugly. HELP!