What's the reason for algae bloom?

[yuji]

I used PhosZorb and had my lights on timer. average timespan is about 10 hours per day.

it was still fine when i left the country. 2 weeks later when i'm back algae has grown all over the tank. I had to clean up the entire tank and restart my water cycle.

what could be the reason for the algae bloom? is the phoszorb working? or could the phoszorb have reached its absorption limit?

[RAV-65]

Did u feed during the 2 weeks?

[yuji]

well, my mum did. she fed daily.

[iewnehz]

how big is your tank?

how much phoszorb u used?

how long it had been used?

anything died?

[yuji]

my tank is abt 2 ft long. I used an entire packet of phos-zorb and it has been in my filter for less than a month. nothing has died.

[lightningstrike]

phosphate is not the only fuel contributing to algae bloom. other worthy points to note r nitrate, photoperiod, etc.

[giantbicycle]

high nuturient levels...do u skim">?

[yuji]

yup my skimmer is working perfectly fine.

[Ekia]

phosphate is not the only fuel contributing to algae bloom. other worthy points to note r nitrate, photoperiod, etc.

actually i got some problems on algae as well.. currently having some green hair algae and also diatoms on the glass wall... PO4 at 0.05ppm and NO3 at about 2ppm.. what could be the other reasons? Amount of hair algae increasing....

[Kalib]

Silicates from tapwater maybe 1 of the factors as well.

[lightningstrike]

actually i got some problems on algae as well.. currently having some green hair algae and also diatoms on the glass wall... PO4 at 0.05ppm and NO3 at about 2ppm.. what could be the other reasons? Amount of hair algae increasing....

how old is ur tank Ekia?

[Ekia]

how old is ur tank Ekia?

5 months diatoms understandable due to the silicates... but green hair algae? possible to have even with low nitrates and phosphates as my tank is new?

[madmac]

what could be the other reasons? Amount of hair algae increasing...

Do you use treated water or RO/DI? Topup water straight out of the tap may be a contributory factor. I had GHA under control for some time and it recently started to come back on too... it wasn't until I added some off-the-shelf-tap-water-treatment solution to the top-up water that it started to noticeably disappear.

Also you may like to occasionally give your LR a "blast" (when you do your water changes) to rid the areas/holes where good water circulation cannot get to.

Have the phos media changed a little more frequently could also be considered as it may have "worn" itself out sooner than you thing so.

Growing some macro algae should also be considered...

... a bit voodoo here but I find feeding small amts of phyto to the tank also helps... can't proof anything though.. just an observation.

reduce exposure to direct sunlight will certainly help..

reduce feeding to once a day, some frozen feed like the HIkari ones, mysis and brine shrimps should never be over fed to the tank, unless you hv the ability to remove the uneaten bits.

can't think of anything else at this stage... best to all.

oh yes.. new live fish should nvr be introduced to the main tank unless, you're very sure it can compete for food without you having to overfeed to the point... had a bad case of an injured regal angel which subsequently died... but almost lost the whole tank to poor parameters primary to overfeeding.