algae on glass

[kaineo]

i keep getting a lot of green and brown stuff on my glass. the brown stuff i can clean off with the magnet but the green i have to take and scrape it off every couple of weeks. can anyone tell me how to get rid of it or stop it from growing so fast? i have a 40gal reef w/ a 250w 20k mh, 2 fluval 404s, 3x t twist uv, and a seaclone 150 skimmer.

[jinenon]

Im still quite new myself but i was once in the same boat as you. This is what everyone told me and it worked. First off, you say you have a fluval filter. Thats a big no no for a reef take. From what ive learned, using filters like that cause aerobic bacteria to flourish in the filter media causing your nitrates to skyrocket. Nitrates are the food source for most of the "undesirable" algea. Also, using tap water to make your water will drastically increase your algea growth rate because of all the minerals that are in it. After i learned this, i started buying premixed water and RO/DI water for top offs. I have not had any kind of nuisance algea other than the normal film algea on the glass since i quit using tap water. Hope this helps!!