Green Glass? (1 Viewer)

[LoJenn]

Tho all parameters appear in good range, there must be some indictor that addresses a constant green algae film on aquarium glass. It doesn't seem to matter if lights are on or off. My AI lights over a 40G breeder I've set 1) 1:30 P to 9:30P, the other 4P to 9P. Both ramp up and down within an hour at roughly 30 %. LPS do well under this configuration. I've swapped out T5's with the same concussion. Have considered overhead basement lights that are on multiple hours per day, again does not seem to be the issue. Taking these factors out of the equation, is there another obvious concerns I'm overlooking? Inquiring minds want to know. Thx again for your help.

 

[ichthyogeek]

How much external light does the tank get? It could be that it's not the lights over the tank, but lights that are around the tank.

 

[Jposch]

Probably silicate. Comes from rodi, aome low quality pellet foods, and when sand dissolves, it releases silicate. My DT is like this. I clean the glass, and the crap grows back in a day. I never change water in that tank, nor have any real filtration. When I do actually change water and vacuum the sand, the glass stays much cleaner, longer. I've also gotten far better with not having excessive silicate blow past di resin. Everyone wants to blame lighting spectrum, as it's easy to do, but if it ever "fixes" anything, its just a bandaid. At best.

 

[LoJenn]

Probably silicate. Comes from rodi, aome low quality pellet foods, and when sand dissolves, it releases silicate. My DT is like this. I clean the glass, and the crap grows back in a day. I never change water in that tank, nor have any real filtration. When I do actually change water and vacuum the sand, the glass stays much cleaner, longer. I've also gotten far better with not having excessive silicate blow past di resin. Everyone wants to blame lighting spectrum, as it's easy to do, but if it ever "fixes" anything, its just a bandaid. At best.

Thx for your response, but It brings more questions. I maintain fairly strict 7g water change on 55g in total (includes sump) q week. Without this the tank turns to shit. Green turns brown etc. 1) I use high quality AM feeds ( 7 fish, shrooms, and assorted LPS) TDO and Reef roids in small quantity. HS feeds Frozen Mysis. < 1/8 th cube. 2) When i sand vac the water is kinda piss yellow. Not so dirty you cannot see the bottom. 3) The Trigger roller mat removes a lot, skimmer never collects the dark brown sludge. Numbers ALK 8.1/P04 0.07 /N03 7.7/CA 455/Mg (low) 1190. 4) I've not tested RODI as it's currently reading 0.00 Question; Do you or have you used PhosBan to lower silicates? How accurate is a silicate test? Do you use GFO Of which I'm not a fan as it seems to strip everything from the water too quickly. Is there a marked difference between the two? To sum up No concerns w/ hair algae, Diatoms, Dinos, or cyano, just the dusty green algae that makes itself far too noticeable on glass. Thx again for your input.

 

[Jposch]

So, thats the conundrum. Any silicate remover will pull po4 (and other trace) phosphate removal media such as gfo and phosguaed actually have a stronger affinity for silicate. I suspect this is why they work to reduce algae while really, not doing to lower po4 in many tanks. A simple solution would be to use either, or an add-on anion resin filter for rodi.
Silicate is often in a form that is not measurable, nor significant enough to read with a tds meter as 1+PPM. But. Even minute amounts can really be a pain in keeping a clean looking tank. Your salt is probably fine, unless its instant ocean, or another known to leave alot of residue.
Alternatively, you could try running a bag of phosguard (no reactor hassle) in a media bag for a short period each day, for a couple days. Like, an hour a day. It won't pull much po4 until it's been "satiated" on silicate.
I spent 4 years fighting terrible tap water, and silicate was one of the biggest issues. If you don't shut off the incoming tap water to your rodi unit after each run, you'll get tds creep. Essentially, tap water minerals will slowly seep past the membrane.

 

[LoJenn]

How much external light does the tank get? It could be that it's not the lights over the tank, but lights that are around the tank.

AI are set 12" above with little a light spill. Will try to lower AI t5 fixture too reduce spillage and to get more bounce reflection from glass. I.ve replace all fixture outside of DT with LED tubes. ( I think theyre 5000k) Thx