[crousec]

Hey guys well I tried to be as well educated on saltwater aquariums as possible before staring this hobby but I seem to be stuck. I started my tank 2 months ago it is a red sea max 34g everything has been wonderful I have plenty of live sand and live rock my water quality is excellent I had my LFS test my water on several occasions and all seems well. I started my cycle and the brown algae came and went all according to plan then came the green algae and after 3 weeks it is still here. I thought that I would cycle through algae during this process but it seems to have stalled the nitrates and nitrites have stopped dropping but are not gone. I have no phosphates my lights have stayed the same 10 hours a day. I'm not sure if there is something I need to do to continue the cycling process? I have 2 small fish and 12 hermit crabs all do fine. I followed all the manufactures guidlines. Is it possible that I am keeping the tank to clean (a fellow hobbyist told me I have been cleaning my filters to often but Red Sea directions tell me to clean the filter pad every two days and the bigger black sponge once a week. Any ideas or will this clear evetually with the development of bacteria. I do add red sea nitrobac as directed. Any info would be great!!!! Thanks

[dfurbee]

You might want to turn your lights off for a day or two. Might also be cleaning your filters too often.

[mbhershk]

Yes I would say that the lights are on too long, but it also might be a water flow problem, as in not enough

[glampka]

If you don't clean the filters you'll have more problems with nitrates. What type of green algae are we talking here - hair algae or the algae that forms on the glass? What kind of water did you use - tap or RO/DI?
Snails will clean up the algae that tends to grow on the glass.

[crousec]

The algae is the type that grows on the glass, there is a very very small amount of hair algae not enough to trouble with though, I use RO water I had that tested also and there are no problems there i'll try the shortening the light length. Also would adding a chiller help my temp runs 80-84 with the lights on if I could bring the temperature down to 77 would that help? Thanks