yOyOYoo Posted August 18, 2003 Share Posted August 18, 2003 Ok so I am on my 6th day of cycling. Ph seems fine. There is very little to no ammonia in my tank. No nitrites and 5ppm of Nitrates. Already I seem to be getting a steady increase of all sorts of algae daily. 1. There are brown spots on the sand (diatoms I assume) The patches get slightly bigger daily 2. There is this thick dark redish slimey stuff that seems hairy. (I assume they are cyano bacteria) 3. There are patches on my Live Rock which have what looks like green grass strands of hair. (I'm pretty sure this is green hair algae) 4. On some rocks there are white strands. It's like hairs. Another type of algae? Well I've read plenty of posts about getting rid of this stuff. Everything from getting turbo snails to emerald craps to getting a mangrove plant to getting macro algae. My basic question, is since i'm still cycling (plan to give it 3 more weeks to fully stabilize) should I just leave everything ALONE and hope that it goes away? Or should I be worried and invest in a clean up crew right away? bear in mind my cycle is not over yet. Please tell me this stuff is going to go away soon! My new tank is starting to get ugly!! Link to comment
eddie29 Posted August 18, 2003 Share Posted August 18, 2003 What kind of water did u use? Tap, RO...?? Eddie Link to comment
yOyOYoo Posted August 18, 2003 Author Share Posted August 18, 2003 RO of course! Its the RO thstI use for drinking water. I haven't had it tested for phosphates though... Link to comment
dreamweaver_gcotb Posted August 18, 2003 Share Posted August 18, 2003 I may be WAY off here but if you've already had your ammonia spike, the nitrite spike and you just have nitrates now and algae is starting to grow, I think that means your cycle is pretty well finished. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong but that was my understanding of things. Link to comment
adinsxq Posted August 18, 2003 Share Posted August 18, 2003 post a picture of the tank/algae not your ro unit lol,chris. Link to comment
Vincerama Posted August 18, 2003 Share Posted August 18, 2003 Hang in there! Patience young Jedi! Alot of that stuff will pass. Try not to get too stressed, but here is my advice... plan an appropriate sized cleanup crew to purchase when your ANN cycle is complete. After the cycle is done, go get the crew and put them in (acclimate them properly or you will lose all your snails!) I suggest a few blue leg hermits (1 per 2 gal) a red leg hermit (one per 5 gal) some trochus snails (1 per 2 gal) (GREAT for algae!) and some nassarius snails (1 per gal?) for detritus. Astraea are OK, but if they fall down upsidedown, they basically die. (Add other snails for variety as well!) Mexican turbo snails are algae eating machines, but also huge (gold ball sized) and can't get to all places. If they die, it's bad mojo for the tank. Acclimate them before putting them in. What I do is place the bag in which I bought them in a bucket. The I use an airline tubing with a valve to slowlyh drip tank water into the bag. Set it to drip for 3 hours (!!) so that the water mixes well and the snails have time to acclimate to the salinity of your tank. Then place them in your tank and ditch the mixed water (YOu don't want water from the LFS tank to mix with your tank...just in case) Good luck! Wait it out...all good things come to those who wait... V Link to comment
Blownpony Posted August 18, 2003 Share Posted August 18, 2003 Originally posted by Vincerama I suggest a few blue leg hermits (1 per 2 gal) a red leg hermit (one per 5 gal) some trochus snails (1 per 2 gal) (GREAT for algae!) and some nassarius snails (1 per gal?) for detritus. Astraea are OK, but if they fall down upsidedown, they basically die. (Add other snails for variety as well!) This is a pretty big clean up crew. I was thinking my 10 wouldn't need that much. Would you add all of them at one time? Or a couple each week? Link to comment
yOyOYoo Posted August 19, 2003 Author Share Posted August 19, 2003 omg the tank is just getting worse and worse. I get back from work today and the amount of diatoms has doubled! The amount of red hairy slime and green hair algae is steadily increasing as well. What do I do? A reefkeeper buddy of mine suggested that I shut off the lights for a few days and put in a phosphate sponge. Do you guys agree? He said there really is nothing that needs light, however I hear that some things on live rock/sand do need the light. Help?! Link to comment
yOyOYoo Posted August 20, 2003 Author Share Posted August 20, 2003 Some more replies please! Okay I did a water test. Ammonia: 0 Nitrites: 0 Nitrates: 5 Phosphate: 0.2 which is really strange I don't know why I have all this algae. I think there was quite a bit of die off on the live rock, could the die off be feeding all this algae scum?? Do I 1) wait it out for another week with a LOT less lighting (1-2hrs a day) or 2) if my cycle is complete, go ahead and get a cleanup crew? Link to comment
NanoBound Posted August 20, 2003 Share Posted August 20, 2003 If your cycle is complete, get the cleanup crew in there. Vincerama has the right idea for the cleanup crew...follow his suggestions. It will take a couple of days for them to get the diatoms and algea under control. Don't worry about the diatoms, they go away on there own. I had diatoms bad for about 2 weeks before the cleanup crew was added. You will have a very very small cycle when you add the cleanup crew, but that is normal. Oh, and don't be surprised, the crabs and snails are major pooping machines!! But I just take a turkey baster and daily blast the crap off everything. This is were the nassarius snails come in handy. But I would add more than 1 per gallon, possibly 2 per gallon. They are very small and have alot to cleanup. Yes. your buddie was right about adding a phosphate sponge or even ChemiPure to your HOB filter. I faithfully keep on in my tank 24/7, and change it with my weekly water change. But it isnot necessary 24/7, just run one in it for a few days. The hermit crabs will take care of the hair algae for you. As for your lighting, I wouldnot cut it down, let alone leave off your lights. The reason I'm saying this is because it is not beneficial for your live rock. Your coraline needs the light as well as anything else that may have come on your rock in order to live, such as sponges, corals, shrooms, macro algae...etc. Leaving the lights off will cause die off. Well these are just my suggestions and I hope it helps you to better understand. Good Luck Link to comment
going to see the oracle Posted August 20, 2003 Share Posted August 20, 2003 i heard that if you leave your lights on longer it will actually burn off the diatoms. i have had the same problem with my 2.5 g but then once it cycled, which your tank looks, i put in to astrea snails. they are doing great on the green hair algae(maidens hair), i plan on getting a cerith snail tommorow for the algae and detrtus in the sand. i leave my lights on for abou 14-15 hours a day and do not have to much diatoms. the best thing you can do is to just have patience. i the algae ges to bad you can laways just pluck it with your fingers. oh and by the way ifyour tank is small enough try to get distilled water as it is a little purer than RO. hph, Reed Link to comment
yOyOYoo Posted August 20, 2003 Author Share Posted August 20, 2003 Thanks ORacle guy! Anyone else hear of leaving lights on longer to burn away diatoms?? This is a very new idea that i've never heard of in my 2 years of reading articles. If it kills off the diatoms great, but will it make my green hair algae and red slime algae worse?? Link to comment
Vincerama Posted August 21, 2003 Share Posted August 21, 2003 Don't sweat the diatoms, they will go away. The crew will handle the green hair, but you have to get it managable for them first! Pluck some out with your hand. I even went in and gabe my rocks a haircut with some scissors! I also had a HOB filter WITH a filter cartridge AND NO STRAINER. I turned off the other water movement things, then started trimming the hair with scissors and pulling at it with my fingers. Then I took a turkey baster to suck the algae and direct it into the HOB filter input. Then I cleaned the filter and let it remain as the only source of water movement for a while so that it could suck up the crap. I'd occasionally blast the sand around with the baster to pick up sunken algae. YOu should have seen my hell tank. THere might still be a posting floating around here titled "My tank is a hellish nightmare" You should see the tank now. Just a few tufts of algae here and there...just enough to keep the crew fed. I was so frustrated that I took out all the rocks and scrubbed them with a toothbrush! The crew REALLY helps... V Link to comment
1979camaro Posted August 22, 2003 Share Posted August 22, 2003 I had a similar problem in my tank...first diatoms (which went away) and then hair algae on the LR...this was immediately after my cycle...I got a clean up crew much like the one mentioned above and they have the rocks cleaned off, but hair algae is now growing on the glass...any thoughts on that? would it be best to scrape it off? leave it be? something else? Link to comment
NanoBound Posted August 22, 2003 Share Posted August 22, 2003 1979camaro When you do your water change, turn off your power heads and scrape it off the glass while holding the hose up to the area your cleaning. This way you can just scrape and suck it straight out with the old water. Thus eliminating the possiability of spreading it even worse. Seems like it just might work......thats how I would do it. Link to comment
1979camaro Posted August 22, 2003 Share Posted August 22, 2003 hmmm....good plan...i will be doing a change tommorow so ill let you know how it goes... kb Link to comment
Sahin Posted August 25, 2003 Share Posted August 25, 2003 Diatoms are no problemo. Just part of the initial tank startup algae bloom. It takes a few weeks and then everything settles down. The stuff I worry about is cyano and hair algae. Astrea snails love this stuff. In my tank they devoured the stuff within 3 days of adding the Astreas. Link to comment
1979camaro Posted August 25, 2003 Share Posted August 25, 2003 well, i got most of it out as best i could sucking it up with the tube, then ran a hob from my fw tank over night and its all gone as best i can tell cept a bit in some crevices/rocks...will see how it holds up Link to comment
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