Algae Control for my Nano

Hey everyone ,

So i started my tank out, by having huge amounts of hair algae. I then got a sea hare, that got rid of it all within a week. I then took the sea hare back to the store (Since they have a refugium full of caulerpa, and sea hares LOVE caulerpa). After i got rid of the sea hare, i managed to get a few blue-legged hermit crabs. I got 3 of them and 2 of them died without me knowing exactly how, but my theory is that my clarkii clownfish might have eaten them when they came out of their shell (Since clarkii eat all critters that can fit in their mouths). So i got one hermit crab that is cruising around the tank, but hes not really helping ANYTHING. I then got 3 tectus snails. They lived for about a week. The reason they died, was because they had this thing, where they apparently had to fell off the glass at night when i was asleep. And as you guys now, tectus snails can get themselves back up, so i had to help them. But when i was asleep, it was sadly too late. I still have one left. But tectus snails mostly clean the glass and nothing else...

I also tried to get some nassarius snails, where one of them died when it got shipped and the other one dug itself under the sand, and i have never seen it since i got him. So i think hes dead. He was a big guy, so he probably also caused some nitrate problems, because diatoms are forming once again. I'm testing my ammonia, nitrite and nitrate every day, but they are all at zero. Although i do not have any serious algae growth anymore as before, but those diatoms start to freak me out. I also hate the mysterious unknown wierd green algae thats growing on my glass. Whenever i scrape it off, it comes out like flakes. Anyway, i have tried to search in EVERY store possible around my area (Which is like 3 stores that keep saltwater). They only got tectus snails and nothing else. I do not know what to do anymore. Since i'm from Denmark, we of course dont really got any websites like Liveaquaria and stuff i can buy it from. Since i cant control the algae with a clean up crew, i'm getting kind of frustrated.

So i've heard of Vodka dosing, which sounds to me like a bad idea. I went to read on it and it said it was hard to dose vodka in nanos, and your tank was mostly prepared for the ethanol in the vodka, when the tank was mature (Like 6 to 7 months old). So guys, what can i do? I've ran out of ideas, and i'm loosing the interest in this hobby Is there any manual ways to remove this algae without tearing the whole tank apart?!

 

Quick update:

I'm soon gonna make a diy refugium in my tanks design. There is actually a sump in the back, where i can make a refugium without any problems. I'm trying to see if i can grow some Halimeda and Red algae or Caulerpa. I'm trying to get rid of these "invisible" nutrient spikes... I dont even know if there is nutrient spikes, but it will probably help to get a refugium anyway...

The frustration that i get from the hobby right now is intense. I've never been able to keep any fish for longer than a couple of weeks due to parasites. I bought these fish from the same store, and i think its time to change... I've been waiting for over a month now, and i'm just hoping the parasites spores are gone... Medication is ILLEGAL for your home aquarium here in Denmark, so i cant medicate ANYTHING... Also, i get even more frustrated when i see my beautiful frogspawn getting teared apart by my peppermint shrimps. Its so sad to see, since this frogspawn had been growing ALOT. Its my favorite and most expensive coral. Luckily, only one head got damaged out of six. But i just hope that it will grow back again... I had these peppermint shrimps, since they did a great job cleaning off the aiptasia outbreak in my tank. I had TONS of them once, but now all of the small aiptasias are gone. I'm trying to remove the bigger once with lemon juice, but with no success. Now i also see majanos appearing.... Sigh... The aiptasia will probably spread once again, and i've now lost the interest in getting peppermint shrimp again. I just hope i can get rid of these algaes so that i can get atleast a little motivation on moving forward with the tank. Although a big thing that is good in my tank, is that corals are thriving. Even sps corals thrive in my tank. I seriously dont know whats wrong, but everything just goes downhill with the livestock. But as you guys have told me many times, patience is key, and i'll try to keep it that way. Anyways, just want to show you guys how much this will help me get further on in this hobby. Thanks for reading btw

 

First, diatoms are usually caused by silicates. It's typical of a newer system to have an outbreak, but once the silicates are used up, it dies off on it's own.

The algae that comes off in flakes, is it hard to scrape loose? Could be coralline. If not, it's probably film algae. Fairly typical of any tank, unfortunately. Personally, I like to keep it growing on the back glass. That reduces the amount of growth on the front, but still provides a food source for my snails.

Invisible nutrient spikes- yes, if you have algae, it's common for nutrient tests to read zero, as the algae is feeding on the nutrients in the same manner that our bio-filter feeds on the ammonia in our tanks. IOW, algae keeps the water clean while we find and fix the issue. A refugium with macro algae would definitely work; it's helps even more to run the fuge light at night (some never turn theirs off and claim good results, as well).

 

Yes, i've heard newyorksteelo saying that keeping the light on 24h in a refugium will prevent the coral from going asexual. What the plant does, is that it dies off to release seeds, to get even more plants. Which is good. But the bad thing, is that it realeses phosphates and nitrates into the water, which may result in some bad issues. This process only happens at night. A refugium is what i'm gonna go for, gotta buy some leds