You should certainly have a sump/skimmer or better yet refugium and skimer combo on your saltwater tank. Canister filters are very efficient and are essentially NITRATE factories in any setup. In freshwater setup it is easy to export NITRATES out of the tank by doing water changes. It would be very expensive to do massive water changes in saltwater tank and saltwater inhabitants require much lower nitrates levels than freshwater counterparts in order to survive and prosper. I think you should rething your setup or as long as your nitrates are above 10-20 ppm you'll have problems with algea in a well lit reef tank.
Again, if there are no corals in the tank switch off the lights completely!
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