Frustrating algae

[GeekTee]

hello all I'm about a year into the hobby and have learned things but not all. I'm having trouble with a lot of algae growth. I try not to over feed but I want to make sure my dragonette , clowns and four chromis live.

I've got an additional power head on my 29 gallon biocube but the flow is to strong for the fish at times do it doesn't stay on all the time. I've tried to reduce the amount of white light but I still have outbreaks of fuzzy algae on the rocks, red slime algae and brown algae. I do water changes at least once a week and do daily maintained on the rest of the tank. Any advice I welcome! .

 

[jay0705]

Do you have any snails? How often do you do water changes? Have you looked into macro alage?

 

[lmforbis]

Have you tested nitrate and phosphate. You have algae because you have nutrients the algae needs to grow, nitrate and phosphate. The only way to reduce algae is to reduce nutrients. This can be done by water changes, filter media for phosphate, macro algae, decrease feeding, etc.
are you using tap water to make your salt water? This is a big source of nitrates and phosphates. You should always use Reverse Osmosis Deionized water(RODI).

 

[geridoc]

Don't get frustrated if your tests for nitrate or phosphate read zero - if algae are growing then those nutrients are there, it is just that the algae itself are using the nutrients, so you don't measure any in the water. As others have said, do regular water changes, you can add a chemipure to your system, or use algae scrubbing (my personal preference).

 

[beaslbob]

fwiw nitrates and phosphates come overwhelming from the bio load not the input water.

And cannot be maintained at low levels through any water change schedule with any input water change levels doable by the average person.

IMHO you need to consume the nutrients through things you like so the things you don't like die off. Algaes in a turf scrubber, macros in a refugium, corraline algae, and hard macros in the display plus setting light schedules are what is needed.

once the tank favors the good stuff it will all seem like a long lost bad dream.


my .02

 

[GeekTee]

Thanks everyone ! So yes I have snails and crabs. I do test and they always comeback in normal range. I do already use chem pure. What is algae scrubbing?

 

[beaslbob]

algae scrubbing is using turf and other algae to scrub the tank of nitrates phosphates co2 and so on. Called an algae turf scrubber, you grow the ugly algae on screens then every so often clean off the screens.

Along the same lines is using macro algae in a refugium. Again the idea is to grow algae (in this case macro algae) to consume the nutrients.

my .02

 

[santamonicahelp]

You may try using an algae scrubber, they are quite useful. Do you have any filter feeder animals?

- C. Smith