Algae out off control!

My pleasure.

 

i have some algae problems as well but it's not as bad as your's... I'm thinking of getting some astrea snails but don't know what kind of other chemicals i'll need to test for.. what you do guyz think? i've heard i need some calcium? and iodine? to help the snails grow?

i have brown diatom algae and beggining to get get some little green grass growing from my LR

any help would be appreciated!

 

How long has your tank been setup? Sounds new, like a week or two? Brown diatoms are part of the cycle, as well as the algae.. this is a good sign, it means your tank is balancing out. Let's see a picture. You'd be amazed how much algae a small clean up crew will devour! Astreas are very effective, but you don't want them to starve. In the early stages of a tank you need to
1. test ammonia till it's 0
2. When it hits 0 test nitrites
3. Nitrites hit 0 test for Nitrates

So unless you ammonia is at 0, that's really all you need to test for besides, salinity, and temp. So sit back relax, grab a good reef book, and read it 3x over. That was the advice that was given to me, and after 3 to 4 times I knew the basic chemisrty, meanings, and what to look for, and more. Also keep posting, we will help, even better advice, use the search function. Even google.. just use trusted sites. like of course the venerable 3Reef! Reef Central, Wet Web Media, even Nano-reef.com. There are some really smart and experienced peoples on these sites... this one by far though is the most reefer frienly.. no pun intended! So post a pic, and give us all the parameters you can test for. Your tank is young, and your salt mix should have pretty much all your tank needs for now. There's realy nothing in there to remove all the trace elements

 

Hi Aqualung,

My tank is about a month now, i have 2 clowns in it acclimating... (they've been in there for around 2 weeks now). I guess I'm just nervous because I don't want the algae to get out of control and take over my tank! I went to a LFS and they tried to sell me some kind of UV sterilizer which I thought that I wouldn't need if I just kept the lights off for a little bit... all of my tests read 0..

ammonia 0
nitrates 0
nitrites 0
temp 80
lights on about 10 hours, going to limit to around 6


I'd rather have something naturally to keep the algae in check rather than a UV sterilizer... and i was also thinking of adding some other "life" into the tank since it's just 2 clowns and LR... maybe a clean-up crew? i don't know! what do you think? do i need anything else if i get an astrea?

 

My tank is 50 gallon , has two fluvale filters one 405 with live rock rubble, one 305 with chem media like rowaphos & carbon, octopus Bh-300 skimmer, uv sterlizer, over 40 kg of live rock in the tank a tunze power head & a separt powerhead & two filter outlets at diff levels off the tank to create flow and i still managed to get high nitrates! ( prob cause off my tank crash at christmas!) but im still struggling to get rid off the cyano altho my general algea is not to bad. I am now considering using chemiclea red slime remover as jed suggested getting halemeda algea but i just realise i already have a good growth off it in my tank so now im stumped! Also should i be leaving my skimmer on 24 hours or turn it off at night as at the mo i only skim durring the day.
Thanks K

 

dun dun dun {{{{{cUrSe oF tHe CyAnO}}}} ...ahhh, I had this horrible problem...wrote a few blogs about it too...my long story short, 2 cycles of phosphate remover, no lights for a week, then 5 hours a day for another week, 1 big fat hermy (rip), 1 lawnmower blenny, 2 power heads, several water changes, plenty of hand picking, and lots and lots of patience...took a little over a month of battling, but in the end, I won! Good luck to you

 

Good luck

 

...and might I add...my tank is 75g, and I only have 1 Fluval405, and NO skimmers...

 

Thats just great that is! how come you only have one filter and no skimmer and your ok! just dont figure! oh well ill battle on;D
Thanks K

 

Now i dont no really if this is a good thing or not but today my cyano seems to be rolling back like a blanket and splitting holes in the middle so i can see freash stones again! its only in small patches but this has all happed today. Is this just normal for cyano or is this a good sign that it might be getting weaker? id love to get up in the morning and have all the cyano roled up loke a blanket at one end off the tank ready to be lifted out! (keep dreaming!) I didnt realise it had like a carpet effect that you could roll , anyway the colour is still a lush deep purple.
Thanks K:-/