New Algae Bloom

[219mem]

I have my new and first saltwater tank for two and a half months now. It had the first big algae bloom and then it went away with no cleaning crew. Nitrit and Nitrat were ok, so was PH and salinity.

I have yet no corals and yesterday I introduced my two first fishes, two baby clowns who seem to be doing just fine. Thing is that I am starting to notice that algae are begging to grow again...

What could I be doing wrong? Is it normal to have several algae blooms until it gets stable? Will my clowns resist?

What sort of cleaning crew should I buy? Are the lysmata amboinensis good cleaners or should I go for salarias fasciatus?

 

[Len]

In the first year or so, you'll see different algaes crop up and fade away. This is normal. You should always try to control nutrients by making sure you aren't importing too many nutrients (with the use of R/O filters for your freshwater, reasonable feeding schedules, additives low in nutrients, etc.) and making sure you're exporting nutrients regularly (via skimmers, regular water changes, refugiums, macroalgae harvesting, etc.) This is help you in your fight against algae blooms. After 12-18 months, your tank should settle in and be at a good balance. Algae problems usually become less of an occurance once the tank is fully established.

The algae won't bother the clown at all, so no worries there. The problem with algae is it is unsightly, yellows the water, and can choke out corals. It is also an indication you have excessive nutrients .... not a good thing if you plan on keeping corals. But as I mentioned, algae blooms in the first year is normal.

I recommend purchasing some clean up critters from http://ipsf.com/ . They have a good selection of stuff. L.amboinensis is a good scavenger, and S. fasicatus is a good algae grazer. I'd consider getting some snails as well. I'm not a big fan of hermit crabs myself.

 

[Anonymous]

An algae bloom can be made worse by overfeeding so be careful now that you've added some fish to your setup not to add to the problem.

 

[Anonymous]

Any natural sunlight hitting the tank?

 

[219mem]

No sunlight here. And I don't think I'm overfeeding... In fact, I'm afraid I might be underfeeding, and this is another question I would like to ask. I'm feeding my 2 baby clowns with freeze dried shrimps once a day. A very small chunk that they eat totally. Is this enough?

 

[ChrisRD]

I responded to your feeding question in your other thread:
http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=706965#706965

 

[paultaylor]

My tank was infested with various types of algae for the first 3 months or so. At the time I took ChrisRD’s advice to just wait and let the tank stabilise.

Eventually, now 8 months on, I am algae free. I think this is just part of the new tank setup routine where the tank is stabilising itself with the biological filtration etc.

Good luck,
Paul

 

[Sub-Mariner]

A good clean up crew helps..I have a DSB so I bought a golden conch and a sand sifting sea star plus some snails and 2 hermits....I have no algae problem currently and my tank is 4 months old. Knock on wood. I did use some chemi clean for the cyano bacteria outbreak I had...

 

[SnowManSnow]

you'll hit blooms during the first year or so... mostly diatom and hair algaes probably. I had great success with some hermits, a few bumblebees, and a few turbo snails... BTW in the beginning.. margarita snails did a JOB on the diatoms.

Good luck
!

B. :lol: