Overgroth of alge

I had the same problem. My whole tank was green + reddish brown Algae. No matter how my times i cleaned it and did water changes, they kept coming back. Went to LFS for some advice.

I bought 20 Astria snails + 12 Nassarius snails. They licked the sand, rock, equipment and the glass clean in about a week. The sand and glass is so clean it looks like i just built the tank.

Its crystal Clear now. Except i have freaking Copepod/Amphipod bloom but the fish love to eat them so i just leave it alone.

I actually wish i had some algea to feed the snails

 

How big is your tank compared to the ammount of snails? I has pobally 40 of the turbo snails but a few have dies so I extimate about 30. the goby that is siftin sand only claims its spot and cleans about a 8 inch circle in the back corner of the tank.

 

ok Guys I just checked water a few minutes ago mag is high cal is low and kh seems to be very high at 304.3? Is that normal? there is no phosphates. amonia is 0 nitrates and nitrites are 0 ph is 8.2. So if any of this helps id like to know if im doing something wrong or what I can do to fix this ugly stuff

 

I would buy more astrea, and a lot of hermits, I probably have 30 astrea and 10 turbo snails and probably 60 or so hermits and about 10 nassarius in my 75 gallon

 

Trust me add some Astria snails and Nassarius snails they'll clean your tank...mine is spotless so to speak.

 

So is there something I can do to prevent this in the future other then just ading a bunch of snails? is this alse a problem we all have?

 

well what is your parameters? You say they are all where they should be?? but whats that?
Phosphates and Nitrates fuel and feed algae so removing these is a good way to start in preventing algae blooms. Use rowaphos to remove the phosphates, and as for the nitrates, you'll just have to keep on top of water changes.

Its possible tho, if you have tested for phosphates that the test says zero, this would be because the algae is eating it before you get a chance to test for it.

But yeh, remove those 2 from your tank and you wont have an algae problem.

 

I put phosphate sponges in the the sump and the reading are at 0 for amonia nitrates and nitrites as well as phosphates. I understand what your say abouthow they are eating the phosphates. I will look for the product you have mentioned and see if this helps. I am ashmed for anyone to see the tanks it looks like poop!

 

kh is way too high! it should be around 160 i think this is around 9dkh. u sure u were measuring kh right? are u adding a buffer?

 

I had an algae bloom similar to yours...
The good news... it can be corrected and the rocks will return to normal. However, for my 72 gallon tank... I needed to add 6 turbo snails on top of all the other cleaners in the tank... I also increased the circulation with a mag 9 pump... a big increase from my rio 1200 ... This offset and then some the loss of circulation from my chiller. The changes took about a week... and viola! The tank is prestine once again...
Bottom line: check your flow, check your clean up crew. Sometimes its the small things that make a big difference (or at least as I'm learning)
Ryan
PS karma to you!