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Help! Brown and Green Algae


jamesnsd

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Help, I have a 24 gallon Nano Cube that has been overtaken by what I believe to be algae. My Turbo Snails have stopped eating and some of them have died. Everything in the tank is covered in this mess. I think its killing the coraline algae on the back too. My mushrooms have died and my Clowns are agitated. I've tried water changes and Eco Phos with no luck.

 

pandh.jpg

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Huskerguy84

I have used "chemiclean" red slime rimover, from lfs and it works great, cleans up all my bad algae fast. Make sure and follow the instructions close. Some don't like adding chemicals to their tanks but it sounds like an emerg. and i have had great luck. Also check your lights, if they are old they could cause this, or nitrates.

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I have used "chemiclean" red slime rimover, from lfs and it works great, cleans up all my bad algae fast. Make sure and follow the instructions close. Some don't like adding chemicals to their tanks but it sounds like an emerg. and i have had great luck. Also check your lights, if they are old they could cause this, or nitrates.

 

Is it cyanobacteria or algae? It is brown in color.

 

how long is your tank been running?your tank looks like new!

 

 

The tank is almost two years old. This is the first time i've had a problem of this sort.

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when's the last time you did a water change? have you recently used different (tap conditioned) water?

 

i would look at your water first if the tank's been up for two years. stay away from chemical treatment because it will not get rid of the cause of your outbreak. the algae will likely return shortly after treatment.

 

if your snails are dead you might have wicked nitrate levels. must do water changes. i suggest 25% daily for a week or so, matching temperature, pH, and salinity.

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Since this problem started almost all life in the tank is dying. The little white spiral corals died, then the white sponges died. Even the population of coplepods have taken a hit. All of the green or leafy vegitation died. see older picture below (from 1 year ago) DSCF0003.jpg

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when's the last time you did a water change? have you recently used different (tap conditioned) water?

 

i would look at your water first if the tank's been up for two years. stay away from chemical treatment because it will not get rid of the cause of your outbreak. the algae will likely return shortly after treatment.

 

if your snails are dead you might have wicked nitrate levels. must do water changes. i suggest 25% daily for a week or so, matching temperature, pH, and salinity.

 

 

I do 25% water changes every three to five weeks. I live in San Diego so I have access to sea water from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. They draw sea water from the end of their pier and run it through various filters. Whatever water they don't use they give to the public. Many people in SD use "Scripps" water. I don't have access to the water everyday and I can't store that much water because the tank is in my office. Any other practical options?

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What has changed since things started dieing?

 

Do you monitor water chemistry? If your nitrates are climbing slowly, I would expect to see algae blooms before levels get high enough to kill things. But once the first tank inhabitant dies, that raises nitrate levels even more and can lead to a spiral of death.

 

Or something else has changed in your tank that causes animals to die. Best to start doing more frequent water changes - like 25% or more every day or every other day to dilute whatever might be in the water that is causing problems. If it is some other kind of contamination that precipitated this, poly filters may help to clean it up. Carbon or purigen (or similar) might also help.

 

good luck!

 

-hank

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What has changed since things started dieing?

 

Do you monitor water chemistry? If your nitrates are climbing slowly, I would expect to see algae blooms before levels get high enough to kill things. But once the first tank inhabitant dies, that raises nitrate levels even more and can lead to a spiral of death.

 

Or something else has changed in your tank that causes animals to die. Best to start doing more frequent water changes - like 25% or more every day or every other day to dilute whatever might be in the water that is causing problems. If it is some other kind of contamination that precipitated this, poly filters may help to clean it up. Carbon or purigen (or similar) might also help.

 

good luck!

 

-hank

 

I do monitor the water chemistry regularly. The tests are good, nothing off the charts, although I admit I did not test the water after the turbo snails died. I'm sure the nitrates went up. I changed 25% of the water two days after the die off.

 

The lights are almost two years old. I read that this could be a contributing factor.

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mascencerro
The lights are almost two years old. I read that this could be a contributing factor.

 

.

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I do monitor the water chemistry regularly. The tests are good, nothing off the charts, although I admit I did not test the water after the turbo snails died. I'm sure the nitrates went up. I changed 25% of the water two days after the die off.

 

The lights are almost two years old. I read that this could be a contributing factor.

 

The tests cover the biological filtration so it seems that is in order. You mentioned that this is an office tank.Did the problem start following the weekend or holiday? Do they turn off the A/C at those times? Could temps have spiked over a weekend? Might they have even turned off power to perform some maintenance on the building electrical system? Could they have come in and sprayed pesticides or done some major cleaning? If tank parameters are good, I'd be looking for environmental problems next.

 

I would imagine water from Scripps is beyond question, And anyway, if the unthinkable happened and they had a problem, it would have affected a lot of reefers and you probably would read about it here.

 

I've heard that old bulbs can lead to algae problems and failure of corals to thrive, but I doubt that things would suddenly start dieing.

 

I happen to think maroon clowns are cool looking fish so I hope that one is still OK. :(

 

HTH,

hank

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The tests cover the biological filtration so it seems that is in order. You mentioned that this is an office tank.Did the problem start following the weekend or holiday? Do they turn off the A/C at those times? Could temps have spiked over a weekend? Might they have even turned off power to perform some maintenance on the building electrical system? Could they have come in and sprayed pesticides or done some major cleaning? If tank parameters are good, I'd be looking for environmental problems next.

 

I would imagine water from Scripps is beyond question, And anyway, if the unthinkable happened and they had a problem, it would have affected a lot of reefers and you probably would read about it here.

 

I've heard that old bulbs can lead to algae problems and failure of corals to thrive, but I doubt that things would suddenly start dieing.

 

I happen to think maroon clowns are cool looking fish so I hope that one is still OK. :(

 

HTH,

hank

 

The Maroon Clowns and the Tang in the picture are not mine. I just held them in my tank for a few weeks while a friend was moving his tank. They were really cool. I just have two regular clowns.

 

So I gather that I need to replace the bulbs and change the water more often. How do I get rid of the algae before I start the new program. The back of the tank is totally covered in layer of algae and the rocks are getting really bad now too. The last time I changed the water I scrubbed the back of the tank--got like 70% of the algae off--but it comes right back. It's a son-of-a-#####.

 

 

25% every three to five weeks seems a little lax.

 

Realistically, how often do people change the water on these 24g nano cubes? I have never changed my schedule and things were fine for over a year. I think things went to hell after the time I really stirred up the sand during a water change. Must have released all the nutrients all at once. I did several water changes, like one week apart, after that with no success.

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regarding the weekends temperatures in my office, yes they do turn off the ac, but I have a chiller/heater on my tank. I noticed that the water temperature will increase by two degrees when the AC is off. Normal temp is 74 so the temp goes to 76 on the weekends. Pretty sure no pesticides in any significant quantities could make it into the tank. And no power outages because the "skimmer" thing would have fallen off if the pump is not running.

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vike50brian

James, I have a 24g nano-cube that turned 2 in April. I do a 5 gallon water change every friday. I also vacuum the sand every week so I dont have much experience with nutrient build ups, but that may be the reason for your algae bloom. If that was the first time you disturbed the sand bed in a long time, you probably released a large amount of nasties. Frequent water changes should remedy the problem. At the very least I would do weekly water changes as long as you have your friends maroon and tang in there. Four fish is a lot of bio-load for a tank that size. Especially if you dont have any additional forms of filtration other than what comes with the tank.

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I'm hearing a lot of replies to the effect that I should change the water more often or reduce the nurtient load. I have no doubt that this will help long term, but anyone know how to first get rid of the algae I currently have? Short of starting to cycle a new tank I'm at a loss.

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