Algae Problem in nano reef

[Richie1898]

I’ve always had green algae on my sand. I have a decent sized clean up crew (2 certith snails, 5 astria snails, 5 blue legged hermit crabs and 2 peppermint shrimp) but the last few dayz it’s gotten pretty bad. I feed my clowns once a day and pretty sparingly. My light is on a timer from 1-9 ish. Give or take 15 mins. Any ideas guys? I do water changes bi-weekly and do freshwater top off with RODI.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Have you tried syphoning the sand bed?

 

[Richie1898]

Have you tried syphoning the sand bed?

I do that during my water change, but it usually doesn’t get this bad. The next one is this Tuesday

 

[Flippers4pups]

What type sand did you use?
What light are you using?

 

[CavalierReef]

In addition to the obvious nutrients in vs nutrient export, I'm sure the light through that patio door is one of your problems. With Summer coming on, I'm sure it will get worse.

 

[Richie1898]

What type sand did you use?
What light are you using?

It was nature’s ocean bio-actv and I have the hiparegero aqua knight 30w

 

[Richie1898]

In addition to the obvious nutrients in vs nutrient export, I'm sure the light through that patio door is one of your problems. With Summer coming on, I'm sure it will get worse.

I don’t really want to move the tank, but you’re probably right

 

[Jecksun]

In addition to the obvious nutrients in vs nutrient export, I'm sure the light through that patio door is one of your problems. With Summer coming on, I'm sure it will get worse.

I agree with this, I got green algae when my tank was close to the window but since I got new blinds and avoided direct sunlight, it just disappeared. Also had small tanks before and algae issues were always harder to control, had to do water changes twice a week just to keep up lol. But yeah maybe also test your rodi water.

 

[Flippers4pups]

I don’t really want to move the tank, but you’re probably right

I was going to suggest this as a secondary cause, but if it's not direct sunlight hitting the tank, it's probably not a factor.

 

[Richie1898]

I was going to suggest this as a secondary cause, but if it's not direct sunlight hitting the tank, it's probably not a factor.

It’s probably 15-20 feet from both windows. Ones on the left and the others a door but on the right. Would this effect it?

 

[Richie1898]

I agree with this, I got green algae when my tank was close to the window but since I got new blinds and avoided direct sunlight, it just disappeared. Also had small tanks before and algae issues were always harder to control, had to do water changes twice a week just to keep up lol. But yeah maybe also test your rodi water.

I actually have an 4 stage RODI coming in today, so that should help. I put some blankets on the tank to reduce the light before I do a water change

 

[Flippers4pups]

It’s probably 15-20 feet from both windows. Ones on the left and the others a door but on the right. Would this effect it?

If sunlight from the windows hits the tank directly, it can cause nuisance algae to grow. It would grow on everything in the tank. Glass, rocks, sand....etc.

 

[Richie1898]

If sunlight from the windows hits the tank directly, it can cause nuisance algae to grow. It would grow on everything in the tank. Glass, rocks, sand....etc.

It’s definitely not direct, but it’s been growing a little faster than normal

 

[brandon429]

.

 

[Richie1898]

Simply rip clean the tank. You can leave it in the light, that will grow coral well. The reason you have algae: if you shove a stick down into the bed and shake it a huge cloud will well up


after a rip clean, which is a disassembly cleaning of the entire system all at once + rinse out your whole sandbed, you will have a perfect tank. Rinse/repeat next time the accumulation forms, this is cyclic for us all.

So I should just do a complete tear down and rinse of the sand and everything and I’ll be fine? Could I get new sand? I currently hate the larger pieces and want finer substrate

 

[brandon429]

.

 

[Richie1898]

100% can do, it’s reef surgery. Check out Jon’s work it repeats among tanks of all sizes. Yours will take all of an hour

Swap your sand right where he was at the cleaning stage.


rinse all your rocks in saltwater to jet out clouding



hold fish elsewhere put them back

pre rinse your new sand to total, complete, cloudless condition before installing in new tank using tap water, final rinse is in RO water, new sand is now ready.

all new salt water then add back animals. If you contact no clouding to animals nothing will die, saltwater rinsing doesn’t harm live rock which is the main biofilter. What you do to sand regarding bac removal doesn’t matter. Rocks are all that matters and we aren’t harming them with a jetted saltwater mix. One guy confiscated a pressure toy water gun and jetted them that way lol

Swishing rocks in a paint bucket of clean sw casts off all the waste. Would you take pics of the castings and cleaning process we will link your work to the sand rinse thread

120 gallon rip clean

I’ve decided to perform a rip clean on my 120 with 100% new water. The tank has been running for 5 years and was battling Dino for several months. I used the bacteria method from elegant corals and worked great I haven’t seen Dino in months now. But I tried several other methods including...

www.reef2reef.com

note: nothing was wrong with Jon’s reef from the start, it’s the first preemptive model in all of reefing. Apparently he is against letting his reef misbehave lol yay—->extrapolate to challenge tanks of all sizes.

Thank you so much, I’m gonna order new sand on prime, pre mix and make my water and I’ll keep you guys updated!!!

 

[Copingwithpods]

It might be too late but those are drastic measures and if the root problem isn't addressed it will just comeback.

I don't think your tank needs a "rip clean" in fact it looks quiet normal.

 

[Richie1898]

It might be too late but those are drastic measures and if the root problem isn't addressed it will just comeback.

I don't think your tank needs a "rip clean" in fact it looks quiet normal.

Should I just do a normal water change and vacuum my sand?

 

[Copingwithpods]

Depends, what are your parameters? Might just be a nutrient issue. But yes vacumming the sand bed is always a good idea.

Reducing your photo period and nutrient input will help alot as well. Could feed every other day.

For reference I have alot of corals and run my light at 25watts for only 5 hours.