Algae film on glassl

[Trailermann]

My new 120 gallon tank after four months is well into the maturing stage.  At one point, there was a mass of long green algae.  After the CUC and fish were added, the algae went away, presumably eaten.  

Now I am suffering from a very visible green film forming on the glass within 24 hours of cleaning.  NItrates are three and phosphates are zero.  kH of 7.2, calcium of 430, salinity of 1.025 and temp of 77.0F.  Lighting is from a hybrid ATI with measured PAR of 2-325.

Is this film a normal stage of a maturing tank?

[Deuce00]

To me it’s normal. I’ll get film algae pretty quickly. When I had a refugium set up I didn’t get the film algae as much. Your phosphates are getting ate up by the algae why it test so low. 

[CuttleFishandCoral]

Seems pretty normal. 

[Blue Z Reef]

Yep, light film appears pretty quick. I added a UV sterilizer and overall feel like it buys me about 1 more day before cleaning time but not anymore (don’t believe the hype of zero algae lol).

[ocboat]

It seems like my tank does the best when I get green film algae every other day or so.

[titus'reef]

1 hour ago, Blue Z Reef said:

Yep, light film appears pretty quick. I added a UV sterilizer and overall feel like it buys me about 1 more day before cleaning time but not anymore (don’t believe the hype of zero algae lol).

Just curious if you’re running the uv 24/7? 

[Blue Z Reef]

3 hours ago, titus'reef said:

Just curious if you’re running the uv 24/7? 

Yep!

[Trailermann]

I can deal with daily cleaning of glass, but now the growth has accelerated so that there is a solid film only one hour after a thorough cleaning.  So, in spite of zero phosphate readings, and no apparent algae on the rocks or sand, I assume the phosphate is hiding in the water column and providing a banquet for the algae.  I took steps early on to ensure the rocks held no phosphate, but maybe I missed something.  Next step, slap on a GFO reactor.

[Deuce00]

Yeah I’d try GFO. Or start a refugium or throw some extra live rock in the sump. 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

What lights are you running?  

[Manny Tavan]

Been using lanthenum chloride. That stuff is just a miracle. Brought my phos from above 2 to 0.1 in a week

[Trailermann]

11 hours ago, pdxmonkeyboy said:

What lights are you running?  

 With 24" x 48" tank, 24" deep, the lighting is from ATI Powermodule,  and I think I had the light too close.  PAR readings were 240 at each lower corner and 360 midlevel center.  However, the few corals I had introduced at this point have not bleached out.  In any case, I am raising the light up significantly to see if the algae buildup lessens.  I also have GFO on order.

[pdxmonkeyboy]

I meant what color lights. . Coral plus is white enough to grow algae pretty well.  And of course, if sunlight hits the tank.  I second lanthium chloride as opposed to GFO. 

 

[Oregonic]

I was having algae issues on my sand bed in my newer tank.  I was tired of brown sand and it seemed no matter what I did it would come back the next day. I started dosing small doses of microbacter everyday, I also added a co2 scrubber since PH would barley reach 8.0 midday. It helped somewhat with the brown algae on the sand but I noticed a huge difference on how clean my glass seemed to stay. I had been cleaning my glass 1-2 times a day before and now I can go 3-5 days between cleaning. I stopped dosing microbacter after a few weeks and glass still seems to stay much cleaner, wasnt the problem I was trying to cure but worked well. 

[Higher Thinking]

I feel like excess light will definitely accelerate the growth on the glass. That's why it always grows must dense wherever the light is strongest. Sometimes it's unavoidable, others times you can make adjustments to reduce it.

I'm not sure I would jump right into gfo. Your call of course. I wouldn't be making any major course changes in the first 6 months, arguably a bit longer. 

Do you have a lot of coral already? If not you could try reducing your lights. Just a thought...