NYCITYDAVE Posted April 2, 2004 Share Posted April 2, 2004 I have been getting alot of algae on my rocks. Green algae. I clean it every two weeks but it keeps growing back and in enormous amounts. I take the rocks out of the tank and put them in a bucket. Then i scrape it off with a brush but it seems to be getting worse. I just changed to a coralife light 90W. I dont know if it will affect the growth but what else can i do to eliminate this algae. I have about 6 turbo snails which dont seem to go near it and about 2 hermit crabs. Please help. Thanks Link to comment
joekr Posted April 2, 2004 Share Posted April 2, 2004 I have been doing alot of reading about algae in the past couple of days (but I'm still a newb) so let one of the more experienced people chime in...how big is the tank? My cycle is just finishing up and these things have started to pop up a little: is this what you have or is it hair algae? These are button algae and are bad. If you pop the top they release spores...and spread... I personally am planning on buying an emerald and about 10 little scarlet crabs sometime soon to get the cleanup started. I have hair algae as well, and my reading has lead me to these 2 choices. I won't do any snails until my params are in perfect order (hopefully a couple of short weeks)..Depending on the size of your tank, you may need a much larger crew...but I'm new so take this with a grain of salt!! Link to comment
vyger Posted April 2, 2004 Share Posted April 2, 2004 I was going thru exactly the same thing with my 30 gal reef tank until i finally tore it down and started a 6 gal nano last summer. I'm not sure why but now I have no algae prob at all. I think it may have been a combination of things. The water I was using was from an under the sink water filter Omni ll and may have been letting some bad things thru like silicates, or I was only doing a 5gal water change a month, maybe it wasnt enough. On The 6 gal I change 1 gal a week and use r/o water. I know algae needs two things to grow , nutrients and light. So you must have something in your water contributing to the algae. You don't give much info as far as tank size and amount of water changes so it's hard to say but if the water is fairly nutrient free you should not be getting that much algae. You might try getting some more smaller crabs and they might just keep up with the algae but you'll prob still get it until you find the cause.. Link to comment
EtOH_is_good Posted April 2, 2004 Share Posted April 2, 2004 what kind of water do you top off with? have you measured your phosphate levels? If your water is bad, it could be the source of yoru problem Link to comment
stan Posted April 2, 2004 Share Posted April 2, 2004 joekr.. what you have there is the beginnings of some bulbous corraline algae.. it's a good thing. I had the same thing happen when my tank cycled.. i thought it was bubble algae actually and freaked out. But i left it alone for a while... Then suddenly all the bubbles calcified over, turned white and eventually purple. I'd leave it alone. Link to comment
NYCITYDAVE Posted April 2, 2004 Author Share Posted April 2, 2004 It is hair algae and i do top offs with distilled water. My tank is an 18 gallon tank and i do water changes every two weeks. I have fiji branches in the tank. It just keeps getting worse. Link to comment
joekr Posted April 2, 2004 Share Posted April 2, 2004 stan, I posted the pic in the identification forum and the consensus was bubble...I did think they could be wrong primarily due to the lack of a real bubble on the top (looks more like an inside out umbrella to me...) I'm going to wait and see what happens with em'!! Thanks!!! Link to comment
joekr Posted April 2, 2004 Share Posted April 2, 2004 nycdave, I believe emeralds love hair algae....I was out at saltwaterfish.com and they are saying "they are voaracious algae eaters..." for my 20 tall, I'm probably buying between 4 - 7 small ones and some extra shells..... Link to comment
stan Posted April 2, 2004 Share Posted April 2, 2004 joekr - I had the identical experience.. posted a pick and everyone said "Bubble". But i left it alone and it turned out to be okay. Pick one off and see how hard it is. You might notice that it's super hard like a rock.. which probably means its coralline. Check outside of the tank of course in case it is bubble and it pops. NYC - whats your nitrate levels and how old is the tank? High Nitrate/Phosphate levels cause blooms. Young tanks also go through algae bloom phases as part of the maturity process. It could also be Briopsis (sp?) algae not hair and i believe very few cleanup critters eat that stuff cuz it tastes nasty. More water flow also seems to help keep algae in check.. dont know why but it did on my tank. Link to comment
vyger Posted April 2, 2004 Share Posted April 2, 2004 nycitydave... Are you doing water changes with the distilled water...and how many gal do you change every 2 weeks. I would use r/o water if at all possible...I am convinced that all my algae prob on my 30 gal stemmed from not enough water changes Heck I even went to a 20 gal and every thing was fine for a little while and then the algae started all over again in that tank. I was doing 5 gal a month in the 20 and I don't think now that was enough...Like I said i do 1 gal a week on my 6gal so that works out to 4gal a month which is like a 75 percent of the tank. Sounds high but I have no algae at all on the rocks.. Joekr...pick one those things up and pop it ...outside the tank ...if it pops and squirts crap out then it's bubble algae.. I had plenty of that stuff in my other tank Link to comment
joekr Posted April 2, 2004 Share Posted April 2, 2004 vyger & stan, thanks for the info! I'll gently pull one off tonight and see if it pops! (out of the tank!) Link to comment
joekr Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 it is bubble algae (unfortunately) and the red slime is definitely in the tank (although not horrible yet) Got a salifert test kit over lunch and the tank is good. I picked up 5 blue hermits, one scarlet and one emerald tonight. the blues are working the hair algae hard, the scarlet's sorta hanging out on the sand and the emerald is stacking/cleaning rock...interesting stuff! Now I have to decide what to do about the red slime...dose now or give the tank a chance...it's not bad yet... opinions valued and welcome.... Link to comment
vyger Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 Joekr... IMO...i would hold off on adding anything to the tank ,,Try some water changes if it's not that bad.. That cyanobacteria is caused from either phosphates or nitrates...And adding antibiotics to the tank has a lot of different opinions whether it's a good or bad idea. I would only do it as a last resort....I think if you get rid of the nutrients it will die on it's own, do a search on red slime algae and you'll see quite a few threads on it and some ideas on how to deal with it .... Link to comment
joekr Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 Thanks for the info vyger...I've decided I'm not going to dose anything. I'm going to wait and see what happens over the coming weeks. After re-examining the tank last night closely, the amount I have in there is not that significant...I'm buying a cheapo tooth brush over lunch and scrubbing the little bit I have off.... Link to comment
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