green algea?

buffett

buffett

Member
ok so 2 weeks ago i changed 10gal of water out of a 37 gal reef tank and in the process i added some more lr to the tank, this week a green algea has been growing, it started out just on the new rocks and has started to spread to the whole tank, its not hair nor is it bubble algea, but its producing a "gas bubble" i just checked the water params and as far as i can tell all is within the norms, i have a protein skimmer and a ehiem canister filter and i will do a water change this weekend
i have scrubbed some of it of the rocks and walls but ... i still have it, i did notice that my heater temp got jacked up to about 79 ive been slowly bringing it back down to 76-77
any advice ?
sorry to be long winded,going to bed
 
sly

sly

Active Member
79 degrees is not that bad. I run my tank at 82 with no problems.
I have found that algae thrives better in low salinity environments. If you are using a hydrometer to set your SG, I recommend getting a refractometer. I had severe algae once and found out that it was due to my hydrometer. It showed my SG at 1.023 but when I tested it with a refractometer I was actually at 1.017. This is because over time a hydrometer will absorb salt which causes it to float higher than it should. Once I raised my SG to about 1.025 the algae stopped growing and I was able to clean it off without it coming back.
You need a good clean up crew such as snails and urchins and you need to make sure you are using good topoff water and effective maintenance routines. If you have a lot of sludge in the bottom of your sump, clean it. Dirty prefilters... clean them.
Make sure your tank does not get any direct sunlight. Try reducing your lighting to about 5 hours per day and if the algae starts to go away then slowly raise your lighting time over the course of a week or more until the algae starts coming back. Once it starts to come back, you know that is too much light. Back it down some...
Scrubbing your rockwork only seems to spread the algae. You need something that will eat it. Get some urchins if you can. I have found that pincushion urchins are the best for eating non-stop and are the least aggressive.
 
buffett

buffett

Member
thanks for the info, are urchins reef safe?
and i forgot to mention that i did not put my uv back on it yet, would it help if i did go ahead and place it back on?
thanks ^^
 
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