ok ............well a good thing, if you want to call it good is I am also running a 20 gallon tank {long}

do you have crushed coral or live sand? crushed coral is terible, it is very pourus and alows fish crap and exsess food to settle down in it and that is a nitrate factory................my first go round ended up in a total tank lose because of my ignorance and crushed coral

for now you should only run your lights about 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours at night, this will starve the algae somewhat

feed them sparingly every couple of days fpr a while - -- a fishes stomach is about the size of it's eye, so they don't need much - - -get away from flake food, go to pellet or better yet fresh frozen, like mysis shrimp

get rid of the phos pads they are good for about 48hyours then they are putting what they took out back in, get a phosban media {it comes in a bag like carbon and lasts 3-6 months in a 20 gallon tank

from there i ended up getting some algae hermit crabs - - -little tiny buggars {about 1/2-3/4 inch shells} i put 7 in there and they really cleaned things up after awhile

do 10% water changes every three days for a couple weeks

when things come back in line, you can slowly increase your lighting times for viewing


it goes away.....i promise ........lol............but if its as bad as it sounds your in for a 6-8 week trip ..........just to let you know


oh yeah- - - -is the tank in direct sunlight at any time? if so, serously think about moving it - - -bad bad bad ..............lol


Snowboss

Lol nope its far from windows and sunlight I moved the time down to less than 7 hours now but ill have to try your idea also anything helps. I use live sand and i feed my fish all frozen brine shrimp Ill have to do the water changes also my friend told me not to do as many as i was so i did cut back some but ill give it try and do alot more I have about 8 hermit crabs and 10 turbo snails. and one emerald crab ill buy new pads for my filter also thanks again I need all the help i can get at this point since im new to salt water tanks or any aquariums at that matter

Yea its going full blast its a skilter 250 Ill have to give him my corals to hold onto they were doing good for a few months now there not looking to good. Im gonna try cutting my light down more and not feed as much I have been really patient with this thing hopefully i can keep it up