serious algae problem

[pakman]

I just returned from a 6 month trip to Australia and had my girl taking care of my tank. When I saw my tank there is all sorts of moss like algae which i think i can take care of but any suggestions are good. My real problem is this dark green mold loking algae covering one of my main pieces of lr it is on two other small ones as well. I am gonna take out the two little rocks, can i bleach them and return them once dry for a few days will that hurt the tank? What can i do to fight the dark green algae any suggestions. thanx good to be back

 

[bdhough]

Well. Start doing water changes. Feed less and keep your lights on for only 8 hours if you have no corals. You can buy fish and inverts that will eat all that stuff. I would try to do something like that before completely bleaching a rock. YOu don't know whats started to grow in the rock and youd be sentencing everything on that rock to death. For the hairy stuff get a bicolor blenny or lawnmower blenny and some mexican turbo snails. For the slimy stuff you can just every now and again brush it off and keep doing water changes and rinse your filtration off too. Youll slowly starve the algae at the same time sucking it up and getting rid of it with the water changes. Given some tlc your tank will return to normal.

 

[pakman]

good lookin out man. i didnt realize that the slimy algae brushed off so easilly. well you learn something new every day. how often should i change the water i usually change it every3 weeks but how long with bad algae?

 

[bdhough]

hmmm do 25% every week till the stuff is under control. You must use properly buffered RO water or it wont work. You must also have things in there eating this stuff or it won't go away. It will be there and just subsist but not grow rapidly. Ask if you need help with the water thing....
BTW if you can do a water test for nitrates and phosphates. Im willing to bet you have one or the other, which can be gotten rid of with frequent water changes. Once the algae is under control you can go back to doing changes every 3 weeks.