Algae Problems!

jimmy234

jimmy234

Member
Guys, I have a major algae problem. I'll admit it. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I have a 55 gal tank with probably a good 30 hermit crabs in there. I have a long spine urchin that eats alot of algae, and an emerald crab and a boxing crab somewhere. Also i have a tiger watchman goby (he does great with the sand but the sand isnt my complaint) (this isn't my whole tank run down... that would take hours) I have a cowrie snail, some harlequin bubble slugs, a cleaner shrimp, about 6 turbo snails and 2 redfoot or whatever theyre called snails. The algae is horrible! It makes my whole tank look bad when in reality i have some great rare fish in there, and i'd like to show my family that since they all laugh at my tank (im the baby of the family) hehe still in middle school. I just wanna enjoy my tank. My levels are good, too. It gets no extra, direct sunlight. I do have very strong lighting, but nothing over the top. I guess it would be considered "high" lighting if you were qualifying it for coral and anenomes. It was recommended though and my light if anything is under ran (we cut back because the normal amount of light was also creating more algae)
It used to be normal. Then it turned to some hair algae. This turned into a mix or severe bubble algae and hair algae. now its just a crap load of hair algae and every other type of algae known to man. It's on my rocks, my filter, it even clogged my protein skimmer!! IT'S ON MY SNAIL'S SHELLS MAKING THEM LOOK LIKE THEY HAVE GREEN AFROES! it even attacked my tree coral, star polyps, and orange tree sponge, and is starting to go after my xenia. it's not very noticeable on the walls or the sand. infact, the sand looks great, its just on everything else.
I dunno what to do. im still a kid, and im starting to get frusterated. i love my tank and this hobby, but i am honestly doing nothing wrong. I have tried taking the algae out with my hands but it seems like it just grows back more rapidly than before and im tired of it. I guess this is part venting, part looking for some help. If anyone has any suggestions, please be dead honest and tell me the truth because im willing to do whatever it takes.
(no camera either, i guess that goes with the whole being a kid thing)
PS I thank anyone who has taken the time out of their day to read all this junk and help me out.
:help:
 
sly

sly

Active Member
What kind of filter setup do you have? Are you using any mechanical filter such as filter floss or foam padding?
Have your lights been changed within a year? If not they may be getting old and causing algae.
What ARE you water parameters. I know you said they are good, but what are the numbers? Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, pH, SG, temp...
I can tell you some more of what can be done once you tell me what your setup is like
 
dmc888

dmc888

Member
Algea feeds off of nitrates and phosphates.
Best thing is to try to lower both.
Try to use ro if not distilled water for no phosphates.
Phosphate remover is also available.
And try to keep the nitrates low with water changes.
Also how bout some macro.
It will compete with the nuisance algea .
A refugium would help out alot.
 
jimmy234

jimmy234

Member
i forget my exact numbers, but i'm pretty sure my nitrates and nitrites were at 0. My pH was at 8.0 my alkalinity doesn't give a number, it just says if its normal or high or low. Mine was normal. My amonia, if i had to guess, was probably at about 0.01. It is supposed to be yellow after all the chemicals are added, but is was a greenish shade of yellow. The "decoder" like thing goes from 0 to 0.25 so its hard to tell. my salt level is a little bit high but that's because of all the water evaporation (because of my high powered lights). My temperature is 75-76 degrees.
i have a fluval 304 filter. It does foam padding and charcoal.
The lights were new in about June of 2004.
 
unleashed

unleashed

Active Member
are you using the bio pellets in the fluval?you temp could prolly go up to 80-82 degrees and your ph should be higher.when you do tops are you adding salt water or fresh it should be fresh water treated for chlorine and chlorimine.only add salt to water changes.i dont know what test kit you are using but your nitrates should be 0 nitrites 0.ph should be closer to 8.4 always depending on the stock you keep. amonia 0. your salt gravity should be around 1.024 1.026.no higher unless species require more. start off now by doing a 25 % water change then check your levels .all this algae will eventually kill off your corals and pollups..one parimeter can throw your whole system off balence.you may find you have over stocked your tank and the biolaod is just too much for this system to handle.you have more cleaners in your 55 than i have in my 55 and 125 combined
 
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