Algae who needs it, but how do I get rid of it

[chadreef]

I have a small nano-reef roughly 10 gallons and as soon as I clean it it looks great but by the end of the week there is algae everywere my live rock is covered with a feild of green pasture and my sand has a green layer on it. :x

 

How can I prevent this?

 

My tank is running on a 70watt 5200K metal halide HQI could this be the problem?

I do have snails but they are very slow and make little difference.

 

 

Please help me

[Pink_Mist]

Not sure what your case is, but here's a couple of things to think about. Are you using tap water? How long is your photoperiod? What do you have in your tank? How much are you feeding? How old is the tank? There are a number of factors that can lead to an algae outbreak. I'm fighting a bad algae problem in my tank because of using tap water. I'm sure if you post some more information about the specifics of your tank/setup, there are definitely enough knowledgeable people on this board that can offer advice. HTH.

[tinyreef]

like mist says, more info is really needed for a good answer. you're correct that the low kelvin light isn't helping your situation but i doubt it is the main culprit as cyano would also be prevalent.

 

if you're cleaning it weekly (i.e. exporting wastes) and it's still filling up (after how many weeks of this) then most likely there are other issues involved. (e.g. heavy feeding, plankton supplements, missing livestock, questionable water, etc.)

 

more data needed.