Green algae help

[leftyblite]

I have a 12G nano cube that I have had running for a couple of months now. It has 1 small percula clown and 1 cleaner shrimp, plus a cleanup crew. It has approx 15lbs of live rock and a 2 inch live sand bed.. A few days ago I noticed about half of my live rock starting to grow a green algae on it and it is spreading. The clean up crew does not seem to be doing anything to it. is there anything I can do? Any help would be appreciated. :help:

 

[fishmamma]

Can you give a list of what you test for and the readings you are getting?
Is this hair algae that is growing?
Aside from determining the source of excess nutrients and doing frequent water changes you can run a something like a polyfilter and possibly beef up the cleaning crew with some extra snails. Knowing what kind of algae is growing will help determine the best cleaner for it.
You may want to take a closer look at what and how often you are feeding and water flow. Sometimes just beefing up the circulation can help reduce algae outbreaks. :joy:

 

[leftyblite]

Thanks for the help fishmamma. I'm testing for nitrate, amonia, nitrites which are all currently at 0. My PH is 8.0. My salinity is 1.024. It is not hair algae, I had that for a while but my snails wiped it out. It looks like someone painted parts of my live rock green. What is a polyfilter? I'm feeding once a day, and only a very small amount. :joy:

 

[fishmamma]

A polyfilter is a sponge that removes all sorts of organics from the water column and it won't release it back into the tank over time. They run about ten bucks and can be added to most filters. It sounds like some type of encrusting algae? Does it look like this?

 

[leftyblite]

Fishmamma, that is very similar, I have some of purple/red on the rock and the rest is green. I'll check out my LFS tomorrow for a polyfilter. Again thanks for the advice.

 

[fishmamma]

You are welcome. I am not sure there is much to do about that particular algae except promote the growth of the purle coralline so the green doesn't cover the rocks. Making sure the Calcium and Alkalinity are at proper levels will speed up the purple growth and I see a lot of people on thsi board using something called "Purple Up". Good flow across the surface of the live rock will also speed up the purple coralline getting the rock covered.