I have a 55 gallon tank. Inside are approximately 50# of lr, 20#ls, two blue green chromis, two true percula clowns, two skunk stripe shrimp and one sea hare.
I feed Prime Reef once a day at about 5 PM. I give one lump about 2 mm in size to the larger clown and one a bit smaller to the smaller one. The chromis get a little tiny bit each and the shrimp get nothing. The sae hare is eating away at the hair algea of course..
I check my water on average once a week at around feeding time on Saturdays. Last check was yesterday and I had Ammonia at between 0 and .25, closer to 0than .25. Nitrates were at 50 and pH was at 8.4. I did a 20% water change after the test as it was time to do it. I use Bluewater from the fish store rather than mixing my own and worrying about all the stuff in the water as I have not purchased any RO/DI unit yet. Salinity stays at between 1.27 and 1.24 depending on how much evaporation has occurred. I usually add water (about 1 to 1.25 gallons) about once a week as evap is minimized by my hood.
As I don't have the proper lighting yet, (I am running full-spec. fluorecense) and two little moon lights, I don't have any corals, anemonis, polyps or anything like that.
My lights are on from 6:30 am to 8:30 pm so they are on around 14 hours per day but the moons are on all day and night.
The skimmer is a SR2 by CPR.
As I said before I don't have any inverts or corals so I don't add anything to the water unless I am between WCs and the pH drops too low which has only happend once about three weeks ago. I added two applications of Tech CB over a three-day period and then the following weekend did a 30% WC. Since then my pH has been just a tiny bit lower than I would like ( I am most comfy with the pH being between 8.4 and 8.6) but I hesitate to add stuff if I don't absolutely have to.
Nitrates have been on the high side for about a month but much lower than they were since I started target feeding the fish and not feeding the shrimp. Before nitrates were at almost 100. The lfs said that I was overfeeding if the shrimp were eating from me so I had to suck it up and let them act hungry. They don't even ask anymore
I hope I gave all the necessary info. I really appreciate your help.
Ok thanks for all the info, it did help understand a bit, and there're a few leads here.
Ok , first ;
Reduce you lighting time to 8 hours, without corals and such you don't need such an extended time of light it gives that hair algae energy too grow.
Cease all additives other than food.Which may need to be changed to mysis( but thats a later topic)
I don't know when exactly you made your last water change but do 1-2-3 water changes in a row ; what ever it take to drive down the nitrates( Thats the fuel behind your algae).
The source of your nitrates mean either too much flakes are wasted and not eaten by the fishes, or they get trap somewhere. Do you have a sponge or detritus filter like floss anywhere? If so remove and clean it . Clean it at least every week. And if you can do without do so.IMO.
Your water source bothers me; do you check for phosphates in your tank, very important. Some water source contains phophates and this also fuel for the algae. Buy a test kit for phosphate and check you tank and specially the stores water( sometime they are known to be less than let say professionals)
Your trying to keep your ph stable with Kent Tech CB i would go for the super buffer-DKH
Reef Depot
It will take care of both PH and Alkalinity.
Inverts; you need some, for a 55 G hold on its needed trust me.
You can get these package deal from any good supplyer. Here a list suggestion according to the tank size you have.
Saltwater Aquarium Inverts for Marine Reef Aquariums: Basic & Deluxe Caribbean Reef Packages
Now you can start with less but get some and fast. A few things about some of them;
Nassarius Snails; the best at getting left overs, they race on the sand and also churn the sand bed they're very good. get 20 get the big ones
Cerith Snails One of the best for your general cleaning algae of any kind and the glass. Get 20
Scarlet Reef Hermits Very good and pick on you LR and sand the algaes, very good tank mate not agressive, stay away from blue hermith, they attack each other and your left with one or two, waste of money.
Astraea Turbo Snails. I've put them on hair algae, like lawnmowers they whent; hair algae gone in 2 days.Finished. They take out the "roots" and everything, greatest glass cleaners. Get 20
Mexican turbo snail are very good, but one drawback; they knock things over LR and if you have too many they starve, so just get 3-4 of those.
Ok for your water; Test for phosphate pronto.
For your food; Mysis shrimp is better than flakes IMO, just rince the frozen mysis in RO water( That is something that will help also to get your RO system in the future) I ran my tank with no Ro unit for almost a year, with no problem like your so you can to for now. But make theses changes and it should help.
thats it for now keep intouch.