Algae overload!

[kelly4687]

So I have been going nuts all day today and have no idea where to begin. I have algae all over my tank on my rocks- COVERED! I have a good amount of snails and an emerald crab to clean up but they are working over time on this!
I went away on vacation, came back to work beyond what I should have at work, and had a ton of family things- a CF walk, birthdays, etc...that I had to go to or I shall be stoned!
My tank looks like crap and I am in tears...I need help on how to get it back to the way it was!!! I am fully prepared with pics too!. Please help me

 

[prk543]

What are your water paramaters? How long are you lights on a day? Is your tank somewhere where it gets natural light? What is your livestock, and what/how much/how often do you feed?

 

[meowzer]

Do some large w/c's....pull out by hand as much as you can...that's a start....
Do you know what's causing it.....how long are your lights on? What do you feed?
You may need more cuc too?

 

[kelly4687]

My lights are on from about 2pm until 12 am max....so about 10 hours. I have not turned on the timer yet because I have been so busy with work...I need to sit down and figure it out. It gets some natural light during the day but not much as my dining room is not the brightest room or has a lot of windows. I only feed them once a day- pinch of marine pellets and about every other day they get a cube from the freezer- it is for all fish, I forget what it is, they sell it at most LFS packaged in the freezer in cubes.
My live stock is this as of now-
1 algae blenny- who is eating like a mad man
2 true percs
1 pj cardinal
about 10 snails-ast??
1 emerald crab
Water parim-
PH- about 8.3-8.4
Amm- 0
Nitrates- about 40 as of now, just did a water change yesterday and will be doing another tom after my water warms.
Nitrites- 0
Now the last time that I went in and grabbed some by hand my trigger and other pj cardnial were dead the next morning- so I am scared of going back in. I don't know if I moved the rocks around too much or what.

 

[prk543]

I would suggest that you turn your lights down an hour to see if that slows some of the growth.
Can you remove some of the rock during a water change and scrub the algae in your water that you are taking out of the tank? Then you wouldn't be pulling the algae off in your tank.

 

[meowzer]

What type of lights do you have?
What size is this tank?
When grabbing by hand...do not let it float away...I have done this, and some has floated away, and nothing ever died....don't stire sand by moving rocks...just take out what you can get to

 

[kelly4687]

So how would I do this? I have a spare 20 gallon that I can put some of my tanks water into, then take a rock out and pull it off in there and then just place the rock back into my tank?
I have 4 actinics- 1 50/50, 2 blue, 1 white.
I can start turning the lights off an hour early..but yesterday my job had me running crazy late and I only had the lights on yesterday for about 4-5 hours...and it still looks the same if not worse this morning!!

 

[meowzer]

It will not go away overnight....I just reach in and pull a clump out....You really need to get a timer. How many plugs do your lights have? run actinics more than the white. (if you can)
ALSO...What size tank?

 

[kelly4687]

Haha I know it won't go away overnight..sorry just really frustrated.
My lights only have one plug I bought the tank in december from a guy. It is a 55 gal. I have the timer...just not the patience to get it set up..I am going to have the bf do that tonight!

 

[meowzer]

Well best thing to do as a start is lessen the amount of time the lights are on....also I would feed the frozen more and pellets less. what type of filtration do you have?
and also how much flow?

 

[kelly4687]

I will feed more frozen then..thanks!
I have the canister filter that you have- I remember talking to you about the spray bar and what you use inside the canister.
I have two power heads too.

 

[meowzer]

I don't mean feed more food...I mean feed frozen more instead of pellet

 

[kelly4687]

Oh no- that is what I meant...sorry. Today is just a really crazy day for me.
Oh and I have about 75lbs of live rock too.

 

[meowzer]

lol...unless I missed it I can not recall what size tank
AND YES this day and week have been crazy for me too

 

[silverdak]

you think thats an overload?

just dont let it get to this point! shorten your light cycles as much as you can... depending on what else is in the tank, and do lots of frequent water changes, or you will end up like me... starting over.
Good luck! hope it works out for you!

 

[meowzer]

OMG...Did your fish live thru that????

 

[happy camper]

I have had the same problem lately, almost to the point of SilverDak's. I finally have it under what I think is control. Believe me it is a slow go. I took out what rocks I could without causing too much chaos and scrubbed them with a toothbrush when I did water changes. I also took out all of my equipment and scrubbed it each time I did a change. I got a sea hare (the best helper I found) and upped the crab population. The jade hermits worked really well for me. It has taken about a month or more but I can at least see the color of the rocks again and not just green.

 

[kelly4687]

haha it's a 55GAL.
Wow- and I am in tears now with my algae- I would run and never look back with that...how did that happen? I keep hearing how awesome these sea hares are but they look so ugly...maybe I should suck it up and get one?

 

[meowzer]

From what I hear they do work....BUT when the algae is gone they will starve...ask your LFS if you can bring it back

 

[truperc]

I will give you my now standard suggestion, and this is based on personal experience having a tank that looked like yours kelly.
I started with hermits, emeralds, and turbos. While they made a valiant effort, and did make a dent, they just could not keep up with my personal algae jungle.
So then I brought in the specialist......the blue dot sea hare.
This sea hare mowed down my hair algae in very short order, and IMHO they look awesome as well.
I would suggest that you consider joining a local reef club, and see if they have a loaner sea hare. Many do.
If you do make the purchase, I would suggest that you have a plan in place to either sell or give away your sea hare. Unless you receive one that excepts other algaes and want to try to keep it alive.
Otherwise it will likely starve.
Of course I only had to do this once, and cannot say that all experiences will be the same.
Good Luck...hope this helps.