ZMan Posted May 9, 2005 Share Posted May 9, 2005 Ok so I have my tank and it's been setup for 1 month now. It fully cycled and I added some crabs and snails to clean up some algae. Well One rock has some algae that is out of control. I mean green grass looking algae that extends about 1 inch off the rock with some strands 3 inches long long. There is also some small brown hair algae with a few long out shoots and some little 3mm long small round 'sticks' that are poking up now. How can I get rid of this algae. I need to add new snails because they are doing a good job just not enough of them. The crabs seem worthless so far. I had 4 blue leg and 2 red legs. Unfortuantly one of the blue's decided he liked the red leg's home. I can just turn off the lights for a week and kill everything but won't that be bad for the tiny amount of coral line algae that is growing? Thanks for the advice. ZMan Link to comment
artarmon42 Posted May 9, 2005 Share Posted May 9, 2005 Originally posted by ZMan How can I get rid of this algae. Algae grow because of nutrients in the water. Nitrates and phosphates are typical the source. Find out what's causing it, and eliminate the root cause. Being it's 1 month old, I'd say either: 1) You're over feeding, which results in excess food decomposing 2) Something's dead and decomposing in the tank 3) You're not using RO (or RO/DI) water, and the nutrients are introduced with the water. Link to comment
ZMan Posted May 9, 2005 Author Share Posted May 9, 2005 Hmm... Can't be over feeding. Nothing to feed Nothing alive is in the tank so nothing could be dead. Unless there is something in the crevis of a rock I don't know about. I buy water from the grocery store. The most expensive drinking water they have. Not bottled water but the gallon jugs. It's DI, I'm not sure about RO. I was thinking about doing a 4-5 gallon water change with water from my LFS this week. Tank is only 12 gallons with 15lbs of live rock and 15 lbs of live sand. 4-5 gallons should take care of almost everything I would think. Right? ZMan Link to comment
artarmon42 Posted May 9, 2005 Share Posted May 9, 2005 Originally posted by ZMan I buy water from the grocery store. The most expensive drinking water they have. Not bottled water but the gallon jugs. It's DI, I'm not sure about RO. Please don't take this the wrong way, it's nothing personal... But [i}the good old "DI" strikes again [/i]/ Distilled water has alot of bad stuff in it. Amongst many other stuff, Chloramine (the chemical that has replaced Chlorine to kills germs in the water) does not get removed by distillation. RO = Reverse Osmosis (the "minimum" requirement for good reef water) DI = De-Ionization (the process AFTER RO for extra filtration) DI does NOT stand for distilled water. First thing I'd recommend is to get different water. Most grocery stores sell bottled "reverse osmosis" water. Make sure you buy the "pure" ones, not the ones with "extra minerals for added taste". Link to comment
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