Interesting growths

[StangGuy99]

Ok here is the deal. This is my first attempt at saltwater and it has been great! i bought myself a 14 gallon bio cube and added a media box and protein skimmer for filtration. The tank has been running close to 3 months now. I had cyano bacteria in the very begining but i havnt had it for over 2 months now. Just recently i started adding corals and recenlty my brown algea has been popping up really bad. the tank went trhough its cycle period a long time ago and i havnt added any new stock recently. I also am noticing bright red orange, what looks like coraline algea, but it has white tendrals coming shooting off of it. I need help to figure out whats going on....

INFO

stock

-A pair of Ocelarious Clowns

-cleaner shrimp

-4 hermits

-4 snails

-serpant sea star

-tiny frag of green star polyp

-frag of zoas

-two tiny frags of xenias.

Water changes

-i do 2 gallon water changes every week on sundays and clean everything. scrub live rock, sift the sand everything. This may be my first time but i do everything by the book. RO water only.

-i also have both test kits for this tanks and all my levels are perfect so idk whats going on.

 

P.S. i did recently have a firefish disapear but i have had no proof of death.

[CronicReefer]

What are your phosphate levels? And if a firefish died in the tank you may not see it but it could lead to an algae bloom since its putting a lot of extra nutrients into your tank.

[ndrobey]

Try vacuuming the sand when you do the water changes. That should get rid of detritus and lower the nutrients the algae feed on.

[StangGuy99]

Chronic- My phosphate levels show up as zero but that doesn't mean they are not present. The algea could be consuming it fast enough so my test doesn't show a positive level. and i did vacuum the sand just two days ago... should i do it again and with more water?

Thanks for the input!

[cju84]

Perhaps more CUC would help. I have twice the amount you do, but in a 5g. Dwarf Ceriths might help and the Nassarius Snails will help with the algae on the sand bed.

[Deleted User 8]

3 month old tank is still new IMO. Could be your sand has some phosphate in it that is leeching out. Get more cuc and keep doing what you are doing. Don't add anymore livestock. How much and what do you feed the tank? Do you rinse the food that needs it?

 

Buzz

[StangGuy99]

Ok I will head out this afternoon to get more of a cuc? any advise on numbers that i should get? I have 4 blue legged hermits crabs, 3 astrea snails and 2 nassarious snails already plus the brittle star.

Buzz- I only feed at night and i go back and forth between flake food and frozen brine shrimp. I only feed enough that they all can eat in about 2 min. And I watch them eat to make sure i put the right amount in. Sinse this is my first sw tank im very attentive especially to feeding.

Thanks everyone for the advise btw!

[KissMyDSM]

Perhaps more CUC would help. I have twice the amount you do, but in a 5g. Dwarf Ceriths might help and the Nassarius Snails will help with the algae on the sand bed.

Excellent sand stirrer or scavenger. Will pop out of the sand when they smell food, or you are feeding the fish. Contrary to popular belief these snails do NOT eat algae. In reference to the Nassarius eating algae-

[cju84]

You could probably get 50-100 dwarf ceriths.

 

Just get the package from Reefcleaners.org.

[StangGuy99]

Ok I will probably do that then. Thanks for all the advice!