Are they coralline algae or nasty diatoms?

[MK1623]

6 minutes ago, AlmightyJoshaeus said:

Happy to hear you got your RO set up

Thank you!!!!  

[Nocturnal]

On ‎4‎/‎16‎/‎2018 at 5:11 PM, MK1623 said:

I would like to ask you a question since it seems that I may have the same green algae as you.  Do you use RO water?  If so, your green algae have not gone away even with RO water?  I probably do not mind these green algae because they look pretty.  However, if it is the case, it seems that it would be almost impossible to control algae and I am a bit worried because if I get algae which I would like to get rid of, it might be extremely difficult to get rid of them even with RO water.  

You will never get rid of it all. Over time the rocks will get covered with more stuff and it will make any small amount of algae less noticeable. 

 

Side note, make sure that dispenser's valve isn't copper. Copper is fine for humans, but not good for corals and invertebrates. 

[MK1623]

9 hours ago, Nocturnal said:

You will never get rid of it all. Over time the rocks will get covered with more stuff and it will make any small amount of algae less noticeable. 

 

Side note, make sure that dispenser's valve isn't copper. Copper is fine for humans, but not good for corals and invertebrates. 

 

Oh, dear!   My freshwater tanks usually do not have algae issues even with tap water, so I thought I would have far fewer problems with RO water.  

 

Does it help, if I clean the live rocks with a brush?  Or it would not be a good idea because cleaning would stress the bacterias and disturb the course of the cycle process? 

It looks like that I need to get CUC urgently.  I need to go to a shop which is a bit far.   So, hopefully, I will get some next weekend.  Meantime,  I have reduced the lighting since I have only got live rocks in my tank. 

 

[MK1623]

On 15/04/2018 at 3:16 PM, OPtasia said:

You have two algaes going on. Your brown algae is almost assuredly diatom algae. The second is regular old green algae, some of which are coraline and some which aren't. Your variety appears to be the former. All of these algae growths are totally normal and a natural progression of NTS (new tank syndrome). 

 

What I would do is to go ahead and start doing regular 15% water changes using RO/DI water. See if you can get those nitrates below 5 ppm and then once you do, start adding members of your clean up crew (CUC) to take care of those diatoms and other algaes. I'd suggest a mix of snails and inverts. My favorite snails are cerith snails, trochus snails and smaller sized turbo grazers. 

6

I am thinking to get some snails.  But I live in the countryside and the nearest shop would not have many choices.  So, I will get anything they got but do you have any suggestions which one would be the best to get among cerith snails, trochus snails and turbo grazers?   

 

[OPtasia]

Well, you need more than one variety of snail but if you had to pick just one species, go with the trochus snails. They're a medium sized snail that will breed in saltwater tanks and they do a pretty good job of grazing algaes. Do a little homework on clean up crews for your aquarium. If you have a local fish store (LFS) that carries corals and reef supplies, ask them to help you pick out an appropriate clean up crew for your sized tank. They'll know exactly what to pick out for you.

 

Yes, you can scrub your rock with a toothbrush and if you have a bad diatom or cyanobacteria (red slime algae), scrubbing it off when you see it followed by a water change can be very beneficial to the look of your tank. Just like fertilizer for your outdoor plants, algaes and coral zoxanthellae (photosynthetic algae that lives in corals) need three nutrients in the presence of light for strong growth: Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium (N-P-K).  It's good to have SOME of all three in your tank for coral health but when you start to get an excess, you'll run into problems where the algaes grow faster than the corals and you'll have a subsequent algae bloom. You'll want to maintain your tank at or below 5 ppm Nitrates and as close to zero phosphates as you can maintain to limit algae growth. Tap water can contain all of those nutrients and more, such as silicates (diatoms love silicate). This is why it's best to use RO/DI water (or distilled) for your tank because the filtered waters won't have those nutrients in it. Remember, algae happens. So, the goal is to limit it will still maintaining coral health. The best way to do it is to do water changes weekly with RO/DI water and to use a good algae eating clean up crew.

[RayWhisperer]

Trochus are great. Ceriths are good, nerites just climb out of the tank, turbos get huge. I'd stick with a mix. Hermits can be good, just be sure they are small, reef safe types. Red legs and blue legs or scarlet reef hermits are good choices.

[MK1623]

28 minutes ago, OPtasia said:

Well, you need more than one variety of snail but if you had to pick just one species, go with the trochus snails. They're a medium sized snail that will breed in saltwater tanks and they do a pretty good job of grazing algaes. Do a little homework on clean up crews for your aquarium. If you have a local fish store (LFS) that carries corals and reef supplies, ask them to help you pick out an appropriate clean up crew for your sized tank. They'll know exactly what to pick out for you. 

Thank you!!!  I will get advice from the local fish store.  Thank you! 

 

Does it help to reduce the algae, if I clean the live rocks with a brush?  Or it would not be a good idea because cleaning the live rocks because it would stress the bacterias and disturb the course of the cycle process? 

Or can I cut all light by covering the tank?  I do not have anything except liverock, so I wonder whether I could just cut the light to reduce the algae or not.  

 

 

[OPtasia]

If you don't have any corals in the tank yet, it's totally appropriate to turn off the lights on your tank. 

 

And no, you can't scrub away enough beneficial bacteria to harm your aquarium's bacteria cycle. 

[MK1623]

31 minutes ago, OPtasia said:

If you don't have any corals in the tank yet, it's totally appropriate to turn off the lights on your tank. 

 

And no, you can't scrub away enough beneficial bacteria to harm your aquarium's bacteria cycle. 

Thank you!  No, I do not have anything at moment, except the live rocks!  There are not any creatures nor cleaning up crews, yet.   I just started my tank!   So, I may cut light first.  

 

I received the tester today and the phosphate is about 1.0-2.00 ppm. I think.  (It is a bit difficult to read these test results.)   How to reduce phosphate is by changing the water?    How much water should I change?  Last night,  I changed about 10% of the water with RO.  

 

 

[Nocturnal]

5 hours ago, MK1623 said:

Oh, dear!   My freshwater tanks usually do not have algae issues even with tap water, so I thought I would have far fewer problems with RO water.  

 

Does it help, if I clean the live rocks with a brush?  Or it would not be a good idea because cleaning would stress the bacterias and disturb the course of the cycle process? 

It looks like that I need to get CUC urgently.  I need to go to a shop which is a bit far.   So, hopefully, I will get some next weekend.  Meantime,  I have reduced the lighting since I have only got live rocks in my tank. 

 

If you have just rocks and no fish/coral then I wouldn't run the lights at all. Only clean rocks as a last resort, that should almost never be necessary and doesn't fix the problem anyway.

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

Phosphate should go down as you start using RO water for the water changes. Be careful not to overfeed because that can send phosphates up.

[MK1623]

4 minutes ago, Nocturnal said:

If you have just rocks and no fish/coral then I wouldn't run the lights at all. Only clean rocks as a last resort, that should almost never be necessary and doesn't fix the problem anyway.

Thank you.  I will stop using the lights.  I shall remember that cleaning rocks is the last resort!  Thank you.   

I will leave the tank without lights and CUC until the weekend and see how it goes.  Or would it be better to get CUC as quickly as possible?  I could go after work.  Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate all went down to 0ppm now.  

[MK1623]

22 minutes ago, AlmightyJoshaeus said:

Phosphate should go down as you start using RO water for the water changes. Be careful not to overfeed because that can send phosphates up.

Thank you!  But I do not have anything to feed yet.  But I shall remember that I need to be careful not to overfeed in order not to increase more phosphate.  

[Nocturnal]

7 minutes ago, MK1623 said:

Thank you.  I will stop using the lights.  I shall remember that cleaning rocks is the last resort!  Thank you.   

I will leave the tank without lights and CUC until the weekend and see how it goes.  Or would it be better to get CUC as quickly as possible?  I could go after work.  Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate all went down to 0ppm now.  

No need for the CUC until you have stuff to clean up.

[MK1623]

2 minutes ago, Nocturnal said:

No need for the CUC until you have stuff to clean up.

I would like them to clean the algae!  And when would be a good time to welcome the fish?  I would like to get a pair of clownfish and some snails as CUC.  No corals for now. 

[Nocturnal]

1 minute ago, MK1623 said:

I would like them to clean the algae!  And when would be a good time to welcome the fish?  I would like to get a pair of clownfish and some snails as CUC.  No corals for now. 

I went back and looked at your pics. Yeah, you can start adding them. Looks like you already cycled a bit. Go small-ish with the CUC. A lot of people recommend huge numbers of CUC members but I find when I did that many most wound up dying. Get an assortment of snails because they all eat different stuff in different areas. Hermits are cool but I don't get them anymore because they do kill snails sometimes. That's a personal choice though.

[MK1623]

I went a local fish store after the work today and I got a small turbo grazers snail and two nassarius snails.  The staff was really helpful.   Hope they will help to clean up my algae!  

 

Thank you very much, everyone, who has been giving me so useful information and help!   

 

 

[RayWhisperer]

The nassarius snails wont eat algae. They are carnivorous scavengers. You’ll need to feed them a bit of meat based food every few days. They do an excellent job of stirring the sandbed, though.

[MK1623]

11 minutes ago, RayWhisperer said:

The nassarius snails wont eat algae. They are carnivorous scavengers. You’ll need to feed them a bit of meat based food every few days. They do an excellent job of stirring the sandbed, though.

Oh, dear....  The shop assistant told me they would help me to clean the algae and recommended me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   What should I feed with them?  Fish foods?  

This is the memo which I was recommended names of the snails here and she wrote the names of snails which I got.  

 

 

[RayWhisperer]

Fish food, as long as it’s meat based, will be fine. Sinking pellets would be ideal. If you don’t have the right food, a small chunk of frozen raw shrimp will suffice. Plus, you can cook and eat the rest of them.

[MK1623]

3 minutes ago, RayWhisperer said:

Fish food, as long as it’s meat based, will be fine. Sinking pellets would be ideal. If you don’t have the right food, a small chunk of frozen raw shrimp will suffice. Plus, you can cook and eat the rest of them.

Thank you.  So, what she advised me was wrong.  I asked her to get algae eaters......  But do nassarius snails eat up leftover of fish foods rather than clean algae?  Then, probably I did not need two of them.  She said turbo grazers snail would become really big, so I bought only one.  

[RayWhisperer]

The nassarius snails aren’t bad. Most people keep them as a part of the CUC. The reasons are they make great scavengers, eating any leftover food, as well as turning over the sandbed. 

 

The other snail doesn’t look like a turbo, to me. Looks more like an astrena. I could be wrong, it is still small. If it is a turbo, it will get pretty big. 

[RayWhisperer]

This is a typical turbo snail. There are other types, from different locations. It may be you have another type. This is the type I’m most familiar with.

 

[MK1623]

4 minutes ago, RayWhisperer said:

The nassarius snails aren’t bad. Most people keep them as a part of the CUC. The reasons are they make great scavengers, eating any leftover food, as well as turning over the sandbed. 

 

The other snail doesn’t look like a turbo, to me. Looks more like an astrena. I could be wrong, it is still small. If it is a turbo, it will get pretty big. 

2

 

I see.  I might go back to the shop and may ask whether I could return one of nassarius snails because I am looking for snails which eat algae.  The shop assistant said the other one is turbo and they would become up to 10 cm!!!  So, I asked whether they have smaller snails but she said turbo and nassarius snails would be the best choices for algae problems!   

How big would they become?

[1891Bro]

On 4/18/2018 at 7:44 AM, Nocturnal said:

Only clean rocks as a last resort, that should almost never be necessary and doesn't fix the problem anyway.

Wait. What? Since when? 

I could see that being the case if it’s all covered and encrusted with coral but, bare rocks? What’s it gonna hurt? Take them out during a water change and scrub em off with whatever old toothbrush in the old water and put them back. No harm there at all.