Green algae on live rock

[Mike4500]

My 15 g tank has been set up for about 2 weeks now. Although overnight I’m seeing a lot of algae growth on both the walls of my tank and live rock. Ammonia , nitrate , nitrite , calcium, and pH are all in normal numbers and my salinity is 1.026 at the moment. My temp is staying around 76-80 depending on the time of day / temp in my room. Any recommendations? Can I just scratch it off with a sponge? What’s causing this? 

[Mike4500]

If I had to try pin pointing what it is, I’m thinking it has something to do with the new clown fish and two new corals I got. Seems once I put them in (2 days later) this growth began, does the water just need to cycle again? 

[CCDillon]

If your tank is properly cycled then you do not need to re-cycle. Adding in the fish increases the bioload in your tank and the beneficial bacteria in your rock and sand  need to increase to accommodate. What I see is typical algae growth for a new tank. Nearly all the reef tanks I've set up have had hair algae growth on rocks and on the walls of the tank that lasted for about a week and a half before it started to dissapear, once everything in the tank was stable. Having a proper clean up crew (hermits or snails) will help greatly in getting rid of this alage but from my experience this is normal and the algae will die back or at least stop spreading after a while. Just keep it in check with a CUC or whatever algae removal you prefer. No need to overreact though. Oh, and your scape looks really nice. 👍

[Mike4500]

Thank you so much for your great knowledge and kind words! I’m watching it slowly clear up day by day. I put 6 red legged hermit crabs in there a few days back from my LFS and I’ve been acclimating a fire red shrimp I got from Petco now for about a week in a separate  tank, hoping to add him in tomorrow! I’m starting to see a little debris on the sand from the clowns and this morning I saw a little parasite running around the rock when I turned the lights on so I’m excited to get this shrimp in there soon! 

[Mike4500]

@CCDillon Added much more to my cleanup crew. I got 5 turbo snails, 1 blue legged hermit crab (found in a palm size amount of Cheato I purchased at my LFS), and 5 more red legged hermit crabs. I’ve been adding them all in slowly and it’s been working great. I upgraded my filtration to have a small refugium with cheato and a light running oppo daytime for it along with a DIY media reactor filled with phosgaurd. Also doing weekly 20% water changes. Everything seems to be in check, you were right, it’s all gone!! 

[Hunter Lang]

Glad to see it cleared up! I just went through the same thing last week! Just added a couple snails, changed filter floss, and water change and was gone in two days!

 

nice set up by the way! 

 

I have have two clowns too (orange and black) 

hope to see you update throughout the months of your tank coming together! Check out my last post too I made a journal on my first month! 

 

Best of of luck to ya.

[CCDillon]

Love it! Looks like you're in the right track to success! Your tank is looking great and I'm sure it will look amazing in the future. Good luck with everything! 

[Mike4500]

@CCDillon @Hunter Lang thank you both so much for the awesome compliments, I wouldn’t be here today without ppl like you guys helping me out!! 😁

[mcarroll]

On 1/1/2019 at 6:22 PM, Mike4500 said:

What’s causing this? 

Algae requires light, space and nutrients, which you are kindly providing.  (Just like corals.)

 

You and your cleanup crew are responsible for dealing with it, to the extent that's needed.  :-)

 

(No shortcuts....just CUC and elbow grease!)