controlling phosphates and algie
 

Hey guys i posted two threads eailer about setting up my 80 and asking ppl about greeen hair algie so im not going to put the aptasia farm into my new tank instead i took the advice of my lfs manager and kill the 60 pounds of rock i took when i picked up buddys 60 gallon so ive put it in buckets and im currently letting it sit outside foe the nxt few days as far as the algie goes whats the best way to eliminate phosphates so i can get this green hair under controll

Any details on your setup at all? Good way to start so you can start gettinf some answers

Ya my main dusplay is a 35 gallon reef lots of corals and animeies 4 fish feeed em only eveey second day run a protien skimmer with carbon

Use Ro water
Good flow
If using frozen food than rinse well with RO water to remove phosphates
Make sure your bulbs are not too old
Run a reactor with GFO
Keep a good maintenance schedule on water changes
Someone else who is alot better at explaining things in detail without rambling like myself will most likely step in. But heres a start to help.

I battled algae and phosphates for years. Doing all the right things, rinsing food, changing bulbs, new skimmer, you name it I tried it. I even tried a few different phosphate removing chemicals. I was even doing 30% water changes everyday for like 2 weeks! The only thing that finally done it in the end was RowaPhos.

The only explanation I could come up with in the end after trying everything was that the rocks which I purchased from a shutdown tank that was lit very badly much have been saturated somehow in phosphates and no matter what I did I could not get them down without chemical help.

To that list you could add:
Grow macro algae
Run a larger protein skimmer
Feed only what your fish will consume
Dose kalkwasser
Read this article

Phosphate and the Reef Aquarium
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/rhf/index.php