14 Gallon Help...

ejm4

ejm4

Member
My 14 gallon has been up for a little over 2 1/2 months. I seem to always be fighting an alage problem. It seem to have two different types now. The first looks like moss on a rock and the other I assume is hair alage. I have a red collared snail, a red legged crab and conch crab. I used to run the lights for 12 hours, about a week and 1/2 ago I cut it back to 10 hours a day.


 
subielover

subielover

Active Member
Looks like cyano, what are you using for flow in the tank? Also how often are you feeding, and what are you using for top-off/salt mixing water? We need some more information to help
 
ejm4

ejm4

Member
I have the standard pump from Oceanic and a koralia. I feed once a day. For top off & mixing I use distilled water. No access to RO water yet. Could it be a low flow causing it? The majority is where the water enters back into the tank.
 
patrick8929

patrick8929

Active Member
well first of all you need to use RO water only. second of all you should only feed 2 to 3 days. overfeeding is a big problem for growing algae. also do you do water changes? what are you nitrites and trates at?
 
ejm4

ejm4

Member
I do water changes every week. trites and trates show nothing using API test kit. LFS told me to feed green chromis every day??? I can pull the thick stringie alage off by hand for the most part BUT it comes back.
 
patrick8929

patrick8929

Active Member
even if he does that it will come back trust me i have battled algae before in my old 55 and it can be very hard to get rid of. its gunna take a good sized cuc with good water parameters.
 
subielover

subielover

Active Member
Try cutting your feeding down to once every TWO days. Also what are you feeding? For the cyano, I would suggest siphoning it out during water changes. Cyano is caused by excess nutrients or insufficient flow, since I see some hair algae as well my bet would be on too much nutrients in the tank. How often do you perform water changes? You would probably benefit from beefing up your cleaning crew as well, stick with a variety of snails, i.e. mexican turbos(best algae eater, but get HUGE and knock over anything in their way,) nassarius (detritus eaters and help to keep the sand clean,) trochus (IME these snails do a pretty good job on both the glass and the rock,) cerith (like nass. they work mostly in the sand although at night they cruise around the glass too.) The biggest thing is that you need to find a way to get nutrients out of your tank. A refugium would also be a good addition to your tank, either in-tank or a HOB style. HTH
 
patrick8929

patrick8929

Active Member
Originally Posted by ejm4
http:///forum/post/2833381
I do water changes every week. trites and trates show nothing using API test kit. LFS told me to feed green chromis every day??? I can pull the thick stringie alage off by hand for the most part BUT it comes back.
okay well what i your CUC? maybe get a bigger one. start using RO water and slow the feeding down
 
ejm4

ejm4

Member
Originally Posted by patrick8929
http:///forum/post/2833383
even if he does that it will come back trust me i have battled algae before in my old 55 and it can be very hard to get rid of. its gunna take a good sized cuc with good water parameters.

What is a "CUC?"
Never mind --- DUH!
 
patrick8929

patrick8929

Active Member
Originally Posted by subielover
http:///forum/post/2833384
Try cutting your feeding down to once every TWO days. Also what are you feeding? For the cyano, I would suggest siphoning it out during water changes. Cyano is caused by excess nutrients or insufficient flow, since I see some hair algae as well my bet would be on too much nutrients in the tank. How often do you perform water changes? You would probably benefit from beefing up your cleaning crew as well, stick with a variety of snails, i.e. mexican turbos(best algae eater, but get HUGE and knock over anything in their way,) nassarius (detritus eaters and help to keep the sand clean,) trochus (IME these snails do a pretty good job on both the glass and the rock,) cerith (like nass. they work mostly in the sand although at night they cruise around the glass too.) The biggest thing is that you need to find a way to get nutrients out of your tank. A refugium would also be a good addition to your tank, either in-tank or a HOB style. HTH

+1 me and you are on the same page!
 
ejm4

ejm4

Member
Originally Posted by subielover
http:///forum/post/2833384
Try cutting your feeding down to once every TWO days. Also what are you feeding? For the cyano, I would suggest siphoning it out during water changes. Cyano is caused by excess nutrients or insufficient flow, since I see some hair algae as well my bet would be on too much nutrients in the tank. How often do you perform water changes? You would probably benefit from beefing up your cleaning crew as well, stick with a variety of snails, i.e. mexican turbos(best algae eater, but get HUGE and knock over anything in their way,) nassarius (detritus eaters and help to keep the sand clean,) trochus (IME these snails do a pretty good job on both the glass and the rock,) cerith (like nass. they work mostly in the sand although at night they cruise around the glass too.) The biggest thing is that you need to find a way to get nutrients out of your tank. A refugium would also be a good addition to your tank, either in-tank or a HOB style. HTH


I feed Cyclopeexe and Tetra Veggie flakes - all given by LFS. I will get some more CUC tomorrow night. Water changes every week.
 
rebelprettyboy

rebelprettyboy

Active Member
Also cut lights back to 6 hours day...
None of ur corals will die or anything everything will be fine...
And start pulling as much out as u can everyday and esp when u do a water cahnge.
And feed TWICE a week.

[hr]
every 2 days until U get the algea down
 
patrick8929

patrick8929

Active Member
okay well just because the lfs said so i not the best reason lol. if you look through many peoples threads the lfs are constantly being attacked for being wrong. im not trying to be rude im just saying. ask questions on here and we will take care of you!

wat is your CUC right now?
 
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