algea

[tara527]

Ok, my tank has been set up for about 4 months now. I had algea in the tank that was brown, I have done 3 water changes over the course of 4 months. Now all of a sudden the algea is green and thick. It is everywhere. I cant seem to get rid of it. I have tested the water everything is good. My nitrites and nitrates are slightly high, fish store said it was ok. I have a 100 gallon filter on a 55 gallon aquarium. Protien skimmer, air stone things on the bottom to circulate water over the sand. I leave the light on for about 8-10 hours a day. Feed the fish daily. I tried using R/O water, that just seemed to make things worse. What can I do?

 

[nerdy]

Sometimes the lighting is not right. IE. the proper spectrum!

 

[tara527]

I do use the Ro water. I have 3 dansels, 2 snails and 4 hermit crabs. I have been feeding a small pinch every day, but reading some of the posts I think I will cut back to every other day. The lights are on for 10 hours from 2pm til midnight. It is on a timer (I am home more at night so I enjoy the tank on later at night.) My test kit does not have a test for phosphates, looks like I will be picking one up tomorrow. What should that level be at?

 

[birdy]

Phosphates should be at 0, flake food is one of the worst things for introducing phosphates into a tank. I would reduce your light period, if you do not have corals then you don't need the lights on long at all, maybe 5hrs, until the algae is under control. What type of lighting do you have. Check your RO water for nitrates and phosphates, sometimes the filters haven't been changed enough and the RO water is no good. Do you have a decent size clean up crew? If not you may need to beef it up, if the algae is long and hairy you will need to pull as much of it out by hand as you can, and do weekly water changes. If you have phosphates then you need to to water changes and possibly run a phosphate sponge.

 

[tara527]

I have no corals. But by reading some of the posts my cleanup crew consists of 2 snails and 4 hermit crabs. I have a 55 gallong tank I don't think the crew is big enough. The algea is not hairy. I am going to try to get a bigger cleanup crew and keep the lights off for a longer period of time and see if that helps.

 

[beaslbob]

the fact that your algae has gone from brown to green indicates the phosphates have been removed. to control the green mat like algae I introduced 10 snales which made short work of the green mat like algae. I originally had 2 NO (3300 lumen) tubes. I added another 2 tubes (actinic) and at 6 months now I have red corraline growing.
To really control the green algae and especially with damsels, I recommend you add all the macro algae you can get your hands on. It will use the same nutrients as the undesirable algae and therefore help control it. Algae of any kind is extremely benificial to the tank. It filter out all types of stuff (especially the nitrAtes), buffers the ph, and generally results in a stable, balanced tank. the only real problem is that livestock like to eat it. To solve that problem, I set up a 20 g culture tank to grow the algae in and each week transfer a hanful to me 55g display.

 

[birdy]

I just saw in your original post that your LFS said you had some Nitrites, is this correct? Nitrates can be present without causing problems (but they will fuel algae growth), but Nitrites should never be present after the cycle, If you could test your water including phosphates and post them it would help. If the algae is green and slimey like a mat then do water changes and siphon off as much as possible, do 10% wc every week if water quality is an issue.