Some Kind of Algae???

tall_90

Member
i have dark green patches of green at the bottom of my 90 gal display tank. the are almost black and are all over. Any help would be appreciated.
 

autofreak44

Active Member
a pic would help. most algae problems start from too much nutrients in the water aka overfeeding. also from having an insufficient clean up crew.
few questions.
how much and how often do you feed?
how long each day do you run your lights?
what does your clean up crew consist of?
what are your water parameters?
what are your current tank mates?
how old is the tank?
 

tall_90

Member
i was feeding 1x per day. now i have gone to 1x every other day.
i have mh lighting and have them on 8 or 9 hours a day.
i have about 10 turbo snails, 2 sally light foots and 2 emerald crabs.
the tank is 6 months old.
i have a wrasse, coral beauty, 4 blue damsels, 2 maroon clowns some corals.
i usually take my water to the lfs for testing, i do not have the current readings, am going to test tomorrow.
thanks for any help.
Originally Posted by autofreak44
a pic would help. most algae problems start from too much nutrients in the water aka overfeeding. also from having an insufficient clean up crew.
few questions.
how much and how often do you feed?
how long each day do you run your lights?
what does your clean up crew consist of?
what are your water parameters?
what are your current tank mates?
how old is the tank?
 

vpotts28

Active Member
Tall, sounds like you are going through the same thing I am. It sounds like Cyano. You did the right thing by cutting back feedings to every other day. I might shorten the amount of hours of light by two hours. Make sure there is enough flow running through those areas. I could be wrong though. Apparently this is par for the course on new tanks.
 

michaeltx

Moderator
sounds like cyno to me aswell.
increased flow less feeding and a spectrum check on your lights, and time the lights are on will help it out.
mike
 

vpotts28

Active Member
Originally Posted by MichaelTX
sounds like cyno to me aswell.
increased flow less feeding and a spectrum check on your lights, and time the lights are on will help it out.
mike
I'm not an anyway trying to hijack here, and maybe the poster would want the same question answered. For the future, how would you do a spectrum check on lights? This is good info, no harm, and I apologise if I have offended.
 

michaeltx

Moderator
with a lux meter they can be expensive though. The best thing is if your lights are within the change out dates to change them out.
6-8 months on PC
6-8 on VHO
8-12 on MH
and I beleive T-5 is the same as VHO lighting.
these are all estimates on life of the bulbs. some manufactures suggest more or less on their bulbs.
now some bulbs last longer but sometimes you can see a shift when the lights start to look dull. this means the spectrum has shifted and wil still give you good color but will also start the algae growth going strong so thats another indicator if everything in the water parameters is good but you start having a growth spurt and you lights are getting close to the change out times.
HTH
Mike
 
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