algae
- Thread starter vizia2
- Start date
dreeves
Active Member
It always helps people to answer questions and offer suggestions with more information...
What kind of algea? Hair, what?
What kind of water do you use for top offs and to fill with?
There are so many variables which create conducive conditions for microalgea to thrive...you have to determine which combination is providing it...nutrients (nitrate, phosphate & silicates), lighting (improper K, age), and so on...
What kind of algea? Hair, what?
What kind of water do you use for top offs and to fill with?
There are so many variables which create conducive conditions for microalgea to thrive...you have to determine which combination is providing it...nutrients (nitrate, phosphate & silicates), lighting (improper K, age), and so on...
T
thomas712
Guest
In other words please post your test scores as many as possible including nitrates and phosphates, salinity, temp, PH.
Explain your filtration methods, UGF, powerfilters, powerheads and feeding habits.
Lighting could also be a factor, what kind of lights, K rating
What type of additives do you dose and how often?
All of these would help us to give you better answers.
Thomas
Explain your filtration methods, UGF, powerfilters, powerheads and feeding habits.
Lighting could also be a factor, what kind of lights, K rating
What type of additives do you dose and how often?
All of these would help us to give you better answers.
Thomas
vizia2
Member
my tank has been up for about 4 months, it is a 75 gal with 110lbs live rock, filtered by a wet/dry that pumps about 600gal/min and i have a power head that also pumps abut 600gal/min. Lighting is 1 48" 50/50 florecent 40w, and 48" a dual bulb 50/50 65w power compact. I use tap water that i condition. and my specs are
temp- 78
salt- .22
ph- 8.1
alk-4.5 ( also since my alk is high, how come my ph has been droping from 8.3 to 8.1)
amon-0
nitite-0
nitrate- 5-10
calcium-420
in the tank i have a blue tang, yellow tang, 2 perculas, 2 cromis, and, a 4 stripe damsel. 2 enemones, yellow polyps, some green mushrooms, some purlple mushrooms, zanthids, and some feather dusters. I feed twice a day with formula 1 and flake. and feed inverts evert other day DT photo about 5 teaspoons.
Additives havent really needed to add my calcium and buffer (kent CB ,part A&B since speces dont call for) And have been adding marc wies coral dna, reef vital a tea spoon a day for the past 2 weeks(it calls for every day for 30 days).
I think that every thing, at leats every thing that i do.
thanks for help
temp- 78
salt- .22
ph- 8.1
alk-4.5 ( also since my alk is high, how come my ph has been droping from 8.3 to 8.1)
amon-0
nitite-0
nitrate- 5-10
calcium-420
in the tank i have a blue tang, yellow tang, 2 perculas, 2 cromis, and, a 4 stripe damsel. 2 enemones, yellow polyps, some green mushrooms, some purlple mushrooms, zanthids, and some feather dusters. I feed twice a day with formula 1 and flake. and feed inverts evert other day DT photo about 5 teaspoons.
Additives havent really needed to add my calcium and buffer (kent CB ,part A&B since speces dont call for) And have been adding marc wies coral dna, reef vital a tea spoon a day for the past 2 weeks(it calls for every day for 30 days).
I think that every thing, at leats every thing that i do.
thanks for help
T
thomas712
Guest
I don't believe your snails will like the crushed coral, mine never did, they normally just used it to get from point A to point B. so you will have to vaccum it as you would with any gravel type substrate to get the crud out of it.
Your alk isn't unbelievably high I've had it that high in my 55 when it was setup with cc and it grew great coralline.
The ph sounds like a natrual swing to me, depends on when during the day that you test it. I don't see any problem there.
Your system is still considered new and these brown algeas that you are experiencing could still be going on for a while until things stabelize. Or it could be impurities that you can't test for in the tap water dispite conditioning it yourself. Could be PO4 that is feeding the algea.
If your LFS test for phosphates (PO4) then I would take a water sample down to them or order a phosphate test kit, I think everyone should have one.
If you have a protien skimmer I would run that, If not then carbon.
Finally If I had to make a call right now I would say that it is the Marc Weiss products that you are using, why? First I have used them before and wound up with algea blooms myself, stopped using it and it cleared up, started again and had algea blooms.
Second you just don't know what is in his products. In my opinion his products are not ones that I will be using. Some do use them and swear that it helps, I'm not one of them.
Try to not use any of those products for a few weeks, just maintain the calcium and alkalinity
Thomas
Your alk isn't unbelievably high I've had it that high in my 55 when it was setup with cc and it grew great coralline.
The ph sounds like a natrual swing to me, depends on when during the day that you test it. I don't see any problem there.
Your system is still considered new and these brown algeas that you are experiencing could still be going on for a while until things stabelize. Or it could be impurities that you can't test for in the tap water dispite conditioning it yourself. Could be PO4 that is feeding the algea.
If your LFS test for phosphates (PO4) then I would take a water sample down to them or order a phosphate test kit, I think everyone should have one.
If you have a protien skimmer I would run that, If not then carbon.
Finally If I had to make a call right now I would say that it is the Marc Weiss products that you are using, why? First I have used them before and wound up with algea blooms myself, stopped using it and it cleared up, started again and had algea blooms.
Second you just don't know what is in his products. In my opinion his products are not ones that I will be using. Some do use them and swear that it helps, I'm not one of them.
Try to not use any of those products for a few weeks, just maintain the calcium and alkalinity
Thomas
wrassecal
Active Member
when I had a cc substrate it always had a coating of brown and green algae. I would vacuum it with the siphon hose, to get the algae and detritus that gets trapped in it, so I think part of it is the subsrate you have just needs more maintenance. I agree with everything Thomas said, plus it seems you are adding a lot of DT's and with all the additives (don't know anything about the marc weiss stuff, but trust Thomas's opinion) you are feeding the tank, you are probably feedng the algae and making it worse. I'd stop adding any of that stuff for while, vacuum the cc really well and hopefully you'll see an improvement. HTH
beaslbob
Well-Known Member
Originally posted by vizia2
I have a reef tank, and green and brown algae is growing all over my crushed coral substrate. What can I do or get to get rid of it. Got some turbo snails and sand sifting snails in there now but they don’t seem to clean the substrate just the glass. Any ideas,
Thanks
From a later post it appears that your tank has been set up for about 4 months and has excellent parameters especially nitrAtes (5-10 ppm). My first and most important thought is that you may not want to change a thing. The brown algae may be consuming any remaining phosphates And will disappear when the phosphates are removed. In my 55G the corraline started spreading at about 5 months and displaced most of the green algae. The algae you have is consuming nitrates, reducing the carbon dioxiide, buffering the ph, and is probably a large factor in maintaining the excellent parameters you have. So removing the algae my be very detrimental to your tank. Besides, the tang probably likes grazing on the algae.
You could try some macro algae or marine plants. Once established, they use the same nutriants as the green/brown algae. Therefore, they would help in reducing the other algaes.