Algae

[prohockey86]

Hey all since upgrading from my 55 gallon reef setup to my 180 gallon reef setup everything has been going great. Fish look healthy and i have been seeing rapid growth and reproduction of my hairy mushrooms and button polyps. But with all good things there is always bad. I for some reason have a rapid growth of green algae. Its in my sand and all over my glass. If I scrape it off today it will show signs of coming back in 3-4 days. I have a sump, protein skimmer, uv light, and phosban reactor. I also have over kill for flow. Any things anyone can think of that can help me get rid of the algae. Also i went with a very fine sand this time around and have a problem cleaning it then the older larger grain sand. Any suggestions. Thanks. -Rickey

 

[ClownAquatics]

Can you describe the algae or even better get a picture of it.

Cleaning the sand is a tough one, I personally dont clean my sand in my personal tank. I just use Nass snails that will burrow in the sand and stir it when they come out to feed.

 

[thirty6]

Hey Rickey, not sure what type of fish you have. Can you add or do you have a cleanup crew? Using ro or tap water?

 

[prohockey86]

Hey i can't take a photo now becauase i am currently at work. I have a Humahuma trigger, queen angel and emperator angel. Having the trigger has made introducing a cleanup crue very difficult. But recently i purchased a lot of snails at once and introduced them to the tank. Still havent really seen a difference. The algae is a dark green algae and takes over my sand almost like a camoflauge. Spotty.

 

[thirty6]

RO? Levels?
Your tank Ever go through an algae bloom? Fairly new tank since summer maybe?

 

[prohockey86]

I make my own RO right now. THe PPM are 0 always or i will never use the water. All my levels are good the only on i have not checked because i do not have a tester is phosphate. Yah the tank has only been up since October. You ever get ur new tank?

 

[MikeC]

What we import we must export (ie excess food and detritus.)

Don't over feed and clean your poo out of you sand bed.

I would manually remove whatever algae you can to start.

Clean up crews are only so good, they also poo and eat..think about it lol

There is no test available to home hobbyist that can actually test for phosphate to the level that they become limiting for many types of algae. In fact, most phosphates tests test for inorganic phosphate, so they miss the ball twice. On the other hand, if you have algae, that means the phosphate is being absorbed into the algae before it is just causally discarded into the water column.
Just because your test kit isn't picking up nitrates and phosphates doesnt mean they aren't in your tank. Test kits can only test what is freely floating in the water, if you have a large amount of algae the kit wont pick them up before the algae use all of the "free" nitrates/phosphates.

Algae is your best test kit for those two compounds. If there is algae in your tank, there must be phosphates/nitrates. Its like a fire: algae needs Light, Phosphate, Nitrate to grow if there are none, you wont have algae.

 

[prohockey86]

algae

Well I just did a complete 40% water change on Friday and i cleaned everything including the sand and the filter bags. Saturday when I cam home from a wedding before the reception, my sand had green algae on it again. I can't figure out what I am doing wrong in this tank that I was not doing in my other tank.

 

[Jan]

How old are your lights?

 

[prohockey86]

My lights are 8-36 inch T5's and have been in since end of November. Basically December 1st. I always change lights every 6 months.

 

[Jan]

What are your nitrates reading? I'm thinking high nitrates and blue/green cynobacteria bloom, based on your description. Blue/green cyanobacteria is a tough one.

• Lights out for a couple of days may help
• Reduce the amount you feed but increase frequency of feedings
• Increase water changes.

Here's an article on various types of algae
http://www.fishchannel.com/fish-health/saltwater-conditions/aquarium-marine-algae.aspx

My lights are 8-36 inch T5's and have been in since end of November. Basically December 1st. I always change lights every 6 months.

 

[Jan]

Oh, and how much do you feed and what are you feeding?

 

[prohockey86]

I have a reef tank though how can i shut off my lighting for a few days. The feeding if i have 11 fish what would u be feeding on average. I have a 8 inch leopard shark, humahuma trigger, queen angel, emperator angel, ocellaris clown, blue damsel, snowflake eel, female anthias, yellow tang, porcupine puffer, and two cardinals. With frozen food mainly being Prawn but also PE mysis and brine shrimp on occassion, what is the amount in size u would feed and how frequent.

 

[prohockey86]

Oh i feed about a half dollar amount of prawn, and a quarter break off of PE mysis

 

[Jan]

A reef tank will be fine with lights out for 2-3 days.

Sounds like you have mostly carnivores in your tank. Feed only enough food that they will eat in no more than 3-5 minutes or less. You can feed less food more often; 2-3 times daily.

Do you rinse the food? I rinse all sefoods in RO/DI water especially if you're having issues with an algal bloom.

Oh, and heads up on the puffer. You should be adding vitamins to all that meaty food to avoid lockjaw. Puffers are prone to lockjaw on an all meat diet. They need vitamins.

Brine has no nutritional value unless it is newly hatched and even better would be gut loaded. Mysis is a lot of fat. Great to get fish to start eating and as a treat, but not so great as a staple.

I have a reef tank though how can i shut off my lighting for a few days. The feeding if i have 11 fish what would u be feeding on average. I have a 8 inch leopard shark, humahuma trigger, queen angel, emperator angel, ocellaris clown, blue damsel, snowflake eel, female anthias, yellow tang, porcupine puffer, and two cardinals. With frozen food mainly being Prawn but also PE mysis and brine shrimp on occassion, what is the amount in size u would feed and how frequent.

 

[prohockey86]

My fish dont touch my coral that i have but i can only purchase soft coral because anything hard the trigger destroys. But do you think it would be a good idea to try fighting conch and adding a few of them or adding a certain fish to sift the sand. I used to have a diamond goby but he always dropped sand all over my coral causing them to close and never open.

 

[Jan]

Read the article I posted and first try to figure out what type of algae you have blooming. Nothing really eats cyanobacteria, especially if you're having a bloom.

My fish dont touch my coral that i have but i can only purchase soft coral because anything hard the trigger destroys. But do you think it would be a good idea to try fighting conch and adding a few of them or adding a certain fish to sift the sand. I used to have a diamond goby but he always dropped sand all over my coral causing them to close and never open.