hi i have a 55 tank that i set up about 2 months ago and just got lights on it about 2 weeks or so ago and well with the lights on it now the tank is starting to grow brown algea was wondering how to possibly keep it down… its not bad yet… just some on the rocks and a little on the gravel. as for glass i clean it daily with the magnet thing. i have only seen about 4 little spots on glass so far but i know their is algea that builds up that u cant see so thays why i clean it daily! if anyone has any suggestions please let me know! as i said im a beginner! :SURRENDER
Welcome! I’ve seen you surfing the board, glad you posted!
First a few questions. This will help everybody help you better.
What kind of lights did you have on before?
What kind of lights do you have now?
What type of photosynthetic creatures do you have (what needs light)?
Any snails?
What kind of feeding schedule?
What do you feed?
I would cut back on the light period a bit, that will help to slow down the algae as well as keep your feeding in check as high nutrients will lead to high algae growth. When I upgraded from my standard flouresants to 4 T5s, it took about a week or so and the algae starting slowly and then took off like a rocket. My steps for dropping the algae (and some cyano) were:
Lowering the lighting period and changing to a dusk/dawn setup so I was using more actinic and less full lighting.
Cutting down on overfeeding.
Snails (make sure you acclimate them correctly)
Some phosphate filters.
Better tank cleaning (siphoning out the poo, hair algae and such)
Note: I can’t say exactly what of the above helped the most but the combination dropped my algae problems to something much more manageable. Some, all, or none might help out your situation.
PS don’t loose hope, I know how fighting the endless algae problems can feel.
you are going through your cycle. i am not the sharpest to explain the chemistry of it but i am sure someone will explain it too you so you understand how it works we all have been there and sometimes still go though smaller cycles. answer all the regular questions. like tank test results ect. tell us more about tank and it will help.
Its a diatom bloom. Its not a bad thing. Your tank is cycling and will go through a few stages like this. You can start to add a clean up crew to help (Clean up crew = snails, crabs and some conchs)
Are there any fish in this tank? Are you using RO, RO/DI, or tap water and a dechlorinator?
RO = Reverse osmosis
RO/DI = Reverse Osmosis/ Di-ionizer
EDIT I see a few post happened when I was busy. Lights can be on up to 10 hours, less if there is ambient light in the room. I would not reduce the light duration unless you are over 10 hours.
It is an algae bloom brought on by nutrients in the water breaking down . ALL TANKS GO THROUGH THROUGH THIS. The difference is how long and how bad. Maintaining a balance in what is put in and what is removed through filtration, water changes and quality source water will determine how long/bad
well since it was my first tank setup i didnt not have any lights on it until i put the 2 t5’s on it… i think their high out put (not sure on how 2 tell ) bought them for dirt cheap >LOL< pretty much its just the reflectors and the bulbs with wires that i had to hook up to the ballast and than had to hook up the wires to the cord for the ballasts (seems 2 me 2 look like a possible fire hazzards but eh im poor and it will be parents house that burns down seeing as though im still and highschool and do not own my own ) >LOL< i dont think anything in their needs light right now i feed them the marine s pellets (seems to be small enough to fit in the damels mouth ) all i have in my tank besides live rock is 2 small hermit crabs 1 xl electric blue hermit crab ( hes got like 3 feather dusters growing off his shell) and 3 snails not sure on what kind but i knwo they have a triangular cone shaped shell. fish wise i have 2 blue devil damels 1 black percula clown 1 false percula clown and 1 yellow head sleep goby that i seem to not be able to find in the past 3 days. the algae isnt terrible… its just on the rocks and a little on the gravel. i heard it tends to happen when you first introduce lights to a tank. the only thing that would even be close to corals that i have in my tank are just sponges on the rocks ( i went trough and picked out the pieces that had sponges on them cus i thought they looked neat ). as for test wise well ive done the basics ones at work ( i work at petkare on 40 ) ive done ammonia ph nitrate and nitrite and ive also done copper and phosphate and calcium. my fish manager said everything looked good except for calcium so he suggested purple up. i used tap water with super water condition.
A quality salt should have enough calcium since there is not a large calcium drain. The snails will use some for there shells but very little. At this point I would not add purple up as itit will be a waste. You have 4 fish in 2 months which I would say is fast for a new tank (opinions will very). I would not add any new fish for a bit and let the tank balance.
As for the missing yellow head sleep goby check the sand bed as the Sleeper Goby will often burrow. FYI they are know to jump out of a tank.
my first thought was that he jumped out of the tank but i cant seem to find him on the floor and i lifed up the live rocks and didnt see him under them but idk if he would burrow under the sand itself?
I just got one of those golden headed sleepers and he’s already got a network of tunnels. I can find him by following the smoke screen of sand he kicks up while sifting it.
Ditto on the purple up being a waste for now, but if you are testing for it you could play with raising calcium and other params. You don’t need purple up as there are cheaper, more potent options. I wouldn’t add anything unless you plan on testing before and after you add.
yes they burrow in sand and if you are not careful moving rocks…squishhhhhh!!! once landscape is set the way you want it i would leave it alone as much as possible. also purple up is waste. do weekly 5 to 10 % water changes and that will keep numbers right on par more thaan you think
Hey, I’m glad you found your way on. Sorry I didn’t get a chance to answer your e-mail before now. I think we’ve talked a little bit at my work, DPA, one day.
“ive done ammonia ph nitrate and nitrite and ive also done copper and phosphate and calcium. my fish manager said everything looked good except for calcium so he suggested purple up. i used tap water with super water condition.”
If you plan on keeping this tank alive for more then a couple more weeks and are seriously interested in this stuff you really need to know for yourself what those numbers were and not just that they were in acceptable ranges.
I would also have to disagree with adding purple to bring the calcium up, there are better ways to do this. Before you start playing with you’re calcium though you should really get an idea of what your Mg and Alk are at. If your Ca up too far and your Mg is low it can have no effect or even negative effects on your aquarium inhabitants. If it helps for time being you might just leave this stuff alone until you get more into hard corals.(I would recommend trying some hardy soft corals like mushrooms, zoas, yellow polyps, and green star polyps first)
I’ll second what Al said on a good quality salt. Most of us don’t have a lot of animals which use up Ca and Mg and if you do your water changes with a good quality salt you’ll be fine. Some of our members use “Get Tanked†salt, others use Tropic Marin Pro.
Finally I would look into RO water in the long run or get used to the algae. You can spend:
$120 on hermit crabs, snails and a general clean up crew(they add up quick)
$60 on a fish to eat hair algae
$35 dollars to eat bubble algae
$15 on a chemical once a month to dissolve red slime
And could probably easily be talked into 20 more animals and chemicals trying to deal with you’re algae problem.
Orrrr… you can hold off and buy a good quality RO unit for $100 bucks from one of a sponsors.(There are some discounts if you are a paid DRC member)
Just my opinion.
well i can get ro water at work once we get it up and running or even at like premium aquatics. as for the levels i know the ph was 8.2 nitrate 0 nitrite 0 and ammonia 0
[quote=“Gordonious, post:10, topic:1020”]
Finally I would look into RO water in the long run or get used to the algae. You can spend:
$120 on hermit crabs, snails and a general clean up crew(they add up quick)
$60 on a fish to eat hair algae
$35 dollars to eat bubble algae
$15 on a chemical once a month to dissolve red slime
And could probably easily be talked into 20 more animals and chemicals trying to deal with youÂ’re algae problem.
OrrrrÂ… you can hold off and buy a good quality RO unit for $100 bucks from one of a sponsors.(There are some discounts if you are a paid DRC member)[/quote]
This is quite true. While I have seen sucessful SW tanks that use tap water, they are few and far between. I think changing over to RO water and feeding less were the 2 biggest things that helped me combat hair algae on my first tank. It sounds like you are having a diatom bloom, which like everyone said is a normal thing when lights are added.
You sd that u tested for copper. Did u add copper in your tank?
le-frog
no i did not add copper but i heard it can seep in with the tap water thays why i checked it… i also did a silicites test and my manager said it was suppose 2 be like a clearish color and well mine was a bright blue and he said that is really bad any ideas on how to keep that down? he said that is one of the main reasons that the algea is growing quickly.
Just out of curiosity - who’s your manager? Where do you work?
the brown algae is just as described above - diatoms - everybody gets them. it’s often referred to as “New Tank Syndrome”
A good RODI should keep your TDS at zero, if not mistaken this should include silicates.
even a 13 filter from lowes can do a great job till you get a ro /di. they are push in style for icemakers. change this every 6/16 months depending on water load.
[quote=“Cdangel0, post:15, topic:1020”]
A good RODI should keep your TDS at zero, if not mistaken this should include silicates.[/quote]
Correct
i work at petkare and i was thinking about buying an ro unit but im not sure where i should get it from and what kind is good and what isnt? about how much would a decent one cost me from like premium aquatics? and what brands should i try to find? what should i try to use to hold the ro i already dont have much room and my house and parents are getting upset saying im taking up to much room as is! hehe
[quote=“xwhatmeworryx, post:18, topic:1020”]
i work at petkare and i was thinking about buying an ro unit but im not sure where i should get it from and what kind is good and what isnt? about how much would a decent one cost me from like premium aquatics? and what brands should i try to find? what should i try to use to hold the ro i already dont have much room and my house and parents are getting upset saying im taking up to much room as is! hehe[/quote]
OK - thought that might have been you. I was in talking to you a couple weeks ago.
I make my rodi in to a 5 gal bucket as ned. if you look at some of the sponsor pages you can find some really good prices on RODI units. Several sponsors carry them. You don’t need much, a 50 gpd unit would be plenty.
I personally bought mine (as did several other people) from Air Water Ice and have been pleased with the performance. make sure you get something with or purchase seperately a float switch and an auto-sut off valve. It’s too easy to forget about it and flood the basement floor.