My Saltwater setup

[mattie1391]

I have a 75 gallon bow front saltwater tank. I have (2) whisper 60 filters cycling about 660 gph, and an Eheim 2217 filtration system(264 gph) with the substrate bio balls and hagen biomax filter media and a 950gpm circulation pump. The tank is obviously getting plenty of filtration and circulation. The tank was set up with live sand and live rock and was properly cycled, it took about three weeks for the nitrates to rise and the nitrites and ammonia to diminish. I added a few fish that I had from my old tank, a semi-Picasso clownish and a citron goby, they have been alive and well in the tank for about two weeks. The question I have is there seems to be an awful lot of algae that grows in my tank, literally overnight. I clean the tank at least three or four times a week and do water changes bi-weekly and test the water weekly. Is it possible that the bio media i am using in the Eheim is contributing to my wealth of algae? If so is there anything you can recommend to do? I leave the
eheim running constantly, mostly because the water return is adding to the circulation in the tank. Should i take out the filter media? run this filter less? etc... I know there are chemicals for algae reduction but i generally try to avoid treatments like this unless it becomes completely necessary. Also this is a relativley new tank, so is there a chance that this problem will diminish as the tank gains some age? I have added a few snails and a couple hermit crabs...I am taking it slow as far as adding livestock goes. Thanks for your potential insight.
Thanks in advance
matt

 

[BigCountry]

Few questions - how high are your nitrates? What color is the algae? How many lbs of live rock do you have and how thick is the sand bed? Pick you snails up and smell them also, make sure they did not die. They can pollute a tank pretty fast when they die!

 

[Wiggles92]

Few questions - how high are your nitrates? What color is the algae? How many lbs of live rock do you have and how thick is the sand bed? Pick you snails up and smell them also, make sure they did not die. They can pollute a tank pretty fast when they die!

x2.

If your snails and hermits didn't die and cause the bloom, then the water you use for water changes could be to blame. Are you testing for phosphates? I know that high levels of phosphates can cause algae blooms like no other.

I would also max out the snails and hermits that are in there; there's no need to take it slow with stocking them. In fact, they're the first livestock that should be added to a new saltwater aquarium because they keep the nuisance algae and detritus to a bare minimum.

 

[mattie1391]

My nitrates are at around 20 ppm. The snails and crabs are all alive as of this morning. It probably could be the water, i just use tap but i run it through a filter and add a dechlorinater as well. I was thinking of purchasing a reverse osmosis filter to run the tap water through too. But no i haven't tested for phosphates as of yet. Thanks for the tips.