I admit. I haven’t taken the best care of my tank for months now. I’ve lost some fish and cuc. I was not in a good mental place to even think about it and my tank started suffering. But now I’m feeling better and want to get rank looking vibrant and add fish. But first. Algae. I haven’t test levels in quite a while son I’m sure they aren’t the best. I could use some help bringing my tank back.
Algae
- Thread starter Knamei
- Start date
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Mastiffsrule
Where ever you go, there you are, so be nice 2 you
Start with testing all your parameters and posting a few pics!glad your feeling better!
+1
Glad you are feeling better. I would not stress about the tank too much. Use the time fixing the issues to help relax.
I tell my wife I am playing fishies and spend an hour plucking out turf algae. I pull some out turf, a little cleaning and testing. Slowly it looks better and I enjoy it more than looking at it as a chore. I have also been dosing vibrant and microbacter to help
Keep us posted.
I hope this picture is good. I am having trouble posting pictures from my phone. As you can see I'm dealing with what I'm guessing is hair algae on the overflow box. But on the rocks I'm dealing with a film of algae that is making the rocks a light brown color.Start with testing all your parameters and posting a few pics!
Mastiffsrule
Where ever you go, there you are, so be nice 2 you
The overflow doesn’t look bad. I would manually remove it. Hard to see the rocks clear for my bad eyes. I think you’re tank is past the diatoms stage. Maybe a cyano?
Not sure, could you get a few more pics of the rock? How we doing getting the parameters hemmdog mentioned?
Not sure, could you get a few more pics of the rock? How we doing getting the parameters hemmdog mentioned?
Ca 385. Kh 9.8. Mg 1360. Po4 0.01-0.02. All of those are Red Sea test kits. My nitrate one expired unfortunately so it didnt read [emoji17]. So I had to resort to my api liquid test kit. Nh3 looks like 0.25-0.5. No2 0. And no3 0. Keep in mind that my tank is over a year old. I understand that po4 and no3 can be 0 because algae is using it as a nutrient. So considering the amount I have means that they are truly high? Ammonia I’m guessing because a fish is missing and I have not found it.
As I’m sitting here waiting for my water to mix, I’m considering 2 options. Option 1, take the sand out and just be bare bottom. Is that smart? My head says I can clean the detritus that has built up from algae and such better because I can see it and it’ll bother me. But, what about my snails? They hide in the sand, if there’s no sand will that stress them? Option 2, completely restart take. Take fish out and put in temporary tank, and clean the tank, rocks, put whatever to clean the algae from the pipes (if any). But if I miss any the algae will just grown back no? Or I’d have to start the cycle over again and go through the algae phase any way.
Mical
2500 Club Member
Personally, your tank doesn't look that bad. I would do a good healthy (20%) water change and leave everything as is. Taking out sand will stir up detritus and more than likely cause a mini-cycle. Starting over will stress current inhabitants. If anything Cal could be a little higher.
I Had a hard time getting rid of GHA and finally decided on a reboot of Tonga branch let’s say. Fought it well over a year. Tried different methods, you can find these on my posts. The tank is BB, tried different snails, Vibrant, etc. I ended up pulling the Tonga, good time to rescape, now it’s very sturdy, cleaned it, bleached it, reinstalled. The best decision ...still clean. Granted this way might not be for everyone but it definitely worked for me.
Mical
2500 Club Member
A couple of things you might try. First lower tanks temp to around 78 degrees and bump magnesium up to 1500 that'll slow down algae. Yes algae sucks but as anything else in this hobby - it takes time & patience.
Mastiffsrule
Where ever you go, there you are, so be nice 2 you
lewisriverfisherman
Active Member
How many gallons is your tank? What do you have for flow? What is your lighting cycle and what light?
lewisriverfisherman
Active Member
How many gallons is your tank? What do you have for flow? What is your lighting schedule and what light?
It’s a 55 gal display. I have hydor pumps. 2 I think 240gph and 2 425gph. My light schedule I have been slowly making shorter but right now is 7:30am-6:45pm. The lights I just got from amazon. I can’t remember what they are called right now but they aren’t like kessil or any brands that I feel like people normally have
