Algae Control

[nicodemus]

In the last couple of days, my tank has had a tremendous growth of green algae all of the walls, rocks, and sand. My phosphates are very high (1) and I'm trying to use bubble algae to eat up the phosphate, along with frequent water changes. Can anyone help me? I have some hermit crabs, clownfish. cleaner shrimp, and some mushrooms and star polyps. I plan to get a magnet cleaner for the walls, but I would like to get something..maybe some creature, to eat it up. thanks
P.S. I have phosphate out, but would like to use that as a last resort

 

[arkey.d]

Get your self a cleaner crew. This my list for my 55gal.
15 Scarlet Hermit Crabs
10 Astrea Snails
15 Cerith Snails
15 Nassarius Snails
10 Margarita Snails
5 Peppermint shrimp
2 Emerald Crabs
1 Cleaner Shrimp

 

[nicodemus]

Thanks again for the help arkey. I have a 20 gal and very few corals...do I still need that many for my cleaner crew? and should I ditch my bubble algae and try to regulate phophate another way?

 

[arkey.d]

I have heard that bubble algea can take over a tank very fast so keep an eye on it. If you tested for phosphate and it's high or present you could use a product called phosphate out it you truely have a problem. It's made by cellpharmbio.
You can divide by 3 on the cleaner crew numbers to get a feel for what you may want to get for your own tank. Exmple below.
5 Scarlet Hermit Crabs
3 Astrea Snails
5 Cerith Snails
5 Nassarius Snails
3 Margarita Snails
1 Peppermint shrimp
2 Emerald Crabs
1 Cleaner Shrimp
Something like the above, and you pobably don't want to add them all at one time, split them up over a couple of weeks. You may want to add less, it all depends on what condition the tank is in.

 

[nicodemus]

Thanks a lot for your help. I actually already have the PhosphateOut product you mention, but would like to avoid adding chemicals to my tank. Adding the the reef cleaners slowly is a good idea...I plan on getting some tommorow and testing my phosphate.
Thanks again

 

[mana_man19]

How much waterflow do you have in your tank? One of the best ways I have found to combat green algae is with powerheads. Algae has a much harder time growing in water that is moving.

 

[nicodemus]

well its hard to say how much I have, but I have two powerheads, a bio filter, and a protein skimmer. Its a 20 gal tank. I just purchased 4 margarita snails yesterday and they seem to be eating the algae quite well. Will they clean my sand bed?

 

[mana_man19]

they can, but it is usually their least favorite place to go since the solid surfaces are easiest to eat off of.

 

[nicodemus]

Once they clean the glass off, will they turn to the rock and sandbed?

 

[jac913]

Are you really supposed to have that many snails? My algea is so thick, but I was told to have 1 concho per 50 gals. I have a 44 gallon tank, and I got two, plus 3 others.
Ok, I know fresh water a hell of a lot more, and I know I don't want a snail infestation! If I get more, will I run into that problem?

 

[nicodemus]

I dont have conch's, there margarita snails. I was told to actually get more, but I'm going to start small and see if they can keep up with the algae growth. So far, they seem to be doing a great job keeping the glass clean, but haven't touched my rock and sandbed. Is this where an emerald crab would be a good idea?

 

[jac913]

I am actually worried about my glass. I am not sure if this pic will load, but it is too show how bad it is. I have tryed scraping it, but my arms got too tired.

 

[jac913]

How do you load a picture? It says it can't be bigger then 500 X 500

 

[nicodemus]

well mines not that dense, but its getting thick on the rocks. Has yours grown that thickly on the rocks or sandbed?

 

[jdm_ae86]

You havent figured out the source of your problem yet..what kind of top off water do you use?, what kind of protein skimmer are you running?, how regularly do you feed your fishes?

 

[nicodemus]

I'm going to assume that question is directed to me. I feed my fish daily, alternating between flake and formula 2 frozen. I use a brita filter to top off my tank almost daily. I top it off so much, its basically like doing weekly 10% water changes. I have a bac pac proteing skimmer.

 

[jdm_ae86]

theres your problem..brita filters only help very very little with sucking up the metals and contaminants. you need something like a RO, DI, or RO/DI filter..

 

[nicodemus]

unfortunately i dont have access to RO water. I live in a college dorm w/out a car. Would it be possible for me to buy say 5 gallons of RO water and use this to occasionally top off my tank, or would that build up algae etc. if left sitting?

 

[jdm_ae86]

thats fine..

 

[mana_man19]

With reguard to the number of snails. The guys in my local fish store told me when I had a big algae problem that for severe algae they recomended 1 to 1.5 snails per gallon of water. Refering to the smaller variety of snails.