Mystery green film algae and cloudy water

[EvanSPS6]

Hi all,

 

Sorry for the long write up but I'm new to the reef keeping hobby and just trying to provide as much information as I can.

 

I have a 20g AIO tank which finished cycling a little over a month ago (started with dry rock and sand). Since then I have added a clean up crew, a bicolor blenny, clownfish and a cleaner shrimp. Recently my water has become  cloudy (I suspect a bacterial bloom) and I now have a decent amount of what looks like green film algae on my rocks. 

 

My parameters seem to be all in check so I don't understand why I'm having so much algae

Ammonia: 0ppm

Nitrites: 0ppm

Nitrates: 5ppm

Phosphates: 0.03ppm

 

My clean up crew consists of:

6 small turbos

1 trochus

3 nassarius

 

Recently though, i can only count 3 turbo snails in my tank. I have a theory that maybe 3 have died and is causing the algae outbreak and bacterial bloom however I checked for Ammonia a few times and it has read 0.

 

I can also add that the cloudy water and algae seem to have gotten a little worse after my most recent water change when I vacuumed the sand a little and turkey basted my rock. During this water change I also added carbon into my media rack. Not sure if all this had anything to do with it or if it's just a coincidence.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks!

 

Edit**

I forgot to add that I'm running a reef glass protein skimmer and I have been doing weekly 15-20% water changes.

I'm also running the lower intensity saxbys light schedule on my ai prime HD

[WV Reefer]

1 hour ago, EvanSPS6 said:

Hi all,

 

Sorry for the long write up but I'm new to the reef keeping hobby and just trying to provide as much information as I can.

 

I have a 20g AIO tank which finished cycling a little over a month ago (started with dry rock and sand). Since then I have added a clean up crew, a bicolor blenny, clownfish and a cleaner shrimp. Recently my water has become  cloudy (I suspect a bacterial bloom) and I now have a decent amount of what looks like green film algae on my rocks. 

 

My parameters seem to be all in check so I don't understand why I'm having so much algae

Ammonia: 0ppm

Nitrites: 0ppm

Nitrates: 5ppm

Phosphates: 0.03ppm

 

My clean up crew consists of:

6 small turbos

1 trochus

3 nassarius

 

Recently though, i can only count 3 turbo snails in my tank. I have a theory that maybe 3 have died and is causing the algae outbreak and bacterial bloom however I checked for Ammonia a few times and it has read 0.

 

I can also add that the cloudy water and algae seem to have gotten a little worse after my most recent water change when I vacuumed the sand a little and turkey basted my rock. During this water change I also added carbon into my media rack. Not sure if all this had anything to do with it or if it's just a coincidence.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks!

 

Edit**

I forgot to add that I'm running a reef glass protein skimmer and I have been doing weekly 15-20% water changes.

I'm also running the lower intensity saxbys light schedule on my ai prime HD

Can we see some pics of the algae?

[EvanSPS6]

19 hours ago, WV Reefer said:

Can we see some pics of the algae?

 

here are a couple of pics. Water is still cloudy, any ideas?

[seabass]

If it is a bacterial bloom, it should work itself out in a few days.  I might also consider snails from Reef Cleaners.  John could hook you up with a crew which could help with the algae.

[EvanSPS6]

14 hours ago, seabass said:

If it is a bacterial bloom, it should work itself out in a few days.  I might also consider snails from Reef Cleaners.  John could hook you up with a crew which could help with the algae.

Maybe I'll pick up more snails this weekend. The one trochus and 6 turbos I currently have don't seem to be going near the algae.

[sadie]

You want to get some sand sifting snails too.  Reef Cleaners sell packages for certain size tanks and he throws in all kinds of snails for great prices.

[mcarroll]

Don't see the green film algae.  A closeup would help a lot.

 

Did you find the dead snails and remove them?  (Don't touch them with your bare hands or you'll never get the smell off.  Use a plastic bag like a glove.)

 

How long have you had those nutrient levels?  Did you check before the snail death by chance?

[EvanSPS6]

3 hours ago, mcarroll said:

Don't see the green film algae.  A closeup would help a lot.

 

Did you find the dead snails and remove them?  (Don't touch them with your bare hands or you'll never get the smell off.  Use a plastic bag like a glove.)

 

How long have you had those nutrient levels?  Did you check before the snail death by chance?

All good now! Cloudy water went away. No dead snails and the algae turned out to be green hair algae which I bought a couple of hermit crabs for. Tank is looking a lot nicer now.

[mcarroll]

On 10/19/2019 at 8:15 AM, EvanSPS6 said:

All good now! Cloudy water went away. No dead snails and the algae turned out to be green hair algae which I bought a couple of hermit crabs for. Tank is looking a lot nicer now.

Excellent news!!

 

I would put a hard limit on the number of hermit crabs -- for me I'd have no more than one or two in a tank that size. 

 

I would also ONLY recommend the small blue-legged hermits as they seem to stay small, limiting any damage they could do.

 

Hermits are omnivores which "also" eat algae...technically I think they are carrion scavengers in the wild and groove in the same areas as Nassarius snails, which have the same role.  They are not herbivores.

 

Stick with herbivorous snails mostly.  If your tank was big enough for an herbivorous fish, you could go there as well.  (There are several algae-eating damselfish that might work in smaller tanks like yours but I've never heard of anyone experimenting with them for this purpose.)

 

Good choices: (my fav's in bold):  turbo, trochus, astreas, nerites, ceriths, margaritas, periwinkles, etc.  Herbivores.