Algea
- Thread starter Jayrock93
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tharbin
5000 Club Member
Close your eyes and repeat 'this to shall pass...'
Seriously a full tank shot or two (use a white light setting on your lights so that we can really see the issue) will help us help you. If your tank is very young and from your description I would say it is. There is a natural progression of life forms as the tank matures. A reef tank is a living ecosystem. Nature doesn't like empty spaces so if you have a lot of empty rock nature will try to fill it. Diatoms, dinoflagellates and algae are all opportunistic organism. If they are not predated or out-competed they will populate the empty spaces. The big trick is to start to remediate early on. Don't wait until the tank is a jungle before taking action. Pluck what you can, vacuum your sandbed, if you have one, when you do water changes and don't overfeed the tank. If the diatoms have burned out that is a good sign. Your tank is probably pretty healthy. Now you want to keep other nuisance organism under control. Do you have any clean up crew in the tank, what and how many? How big is the tank and age of the tank? The more information you provide the better the advice the members here can provide. There is no such thing as providing too much data (well--maybe there is) when it comes to a reef tank.
Seriously a full tank shot or two (use a white light setting on your lights so that we can really see the issue) will help us help you. If your tank is very young and from your description I would say it is. There is a natural progression of life forms as the tank matures. A reef tank is a living ecosystem. Nature doesn't like empty spaces so if you have a lot of empty rock nature will try to fill it. Diatoms, dinoflagellates and algae are all opportunistic organism. If they are not predated or out-competed they will populate the empty spaces. The big trick is to start to remediate early on. Don't wait until the tank is a jungle before taking action. Pluck what you can, vacuum your sandbed, if you have one, when you do water changes and don't overfeed the tank. If the diatoms have burned out that is a good sign. Your tank is probably pretty healthy. Now you want to keep other nuisance organism under control. Do you have any clean up crew in the tank, what and how many? How big is the tank and age of the tank? The more information you provide the better the advice the members here can provide. There is no such thing as providing too much data (well--maybe there is) when it comes to a reef tank.
Jayrock93
Active Member
Yes it's like a month and a half old it's a 40 gall breeder I have live sand I have 4 snails and 4 hermit crabs 2 clown 2 shrimp and 4 corals no idea what kind the diatoms came and went away now they seem to be coming back for the second time now green hair algae any ideas on what the perfect clean up crew would be
landlubber
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all part of the journey so don't take algae too personally.
one piece of advice new reefers need to hear more often is that while a lot of algae varieties may show up do not make the mistake of doing massive water changes or reducing feeding without proof that you need to (very high nutrients via testing). Its not uncommon for new reefers to feel like they need to sterilize their water which just leads to more problematic issues like dinos which are much tougher to control.
one piece of advice new reefers need to hear more often is that while a lot of algae varieties may show up do not make the mistake of doing massive water changes or reducing feeding without proof that you need to (very high nutrients via testing). Its not uncommon for new reefers to feel like they need to sterilize their water which just leads to more problematic issues like dinos which are much tougher to control.
Jayrock93
Active Member
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Jayrock93
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Awesome I just posted pics idk if they are anygood my phone sucks lol
tharbin
5000 Club Member
I saw your picture in the duplicate post (you may want to post the photo to this thread so that others that may reply can see what you are talking about). That is just common green hair algae. Nothing to be overly concerned about. Snails typically recommended to help with hair algae are Mexican Turbos (they can get pretty big and are like mini-bulldozers), Astreas, Trochus (my personal favorite) and Cerith. Nassarius will help keep your sandbed clean of uneaten food but they will not help with algae.
I just saw the photos you just posted here. I would say your tank looks very healthy. Just don't let the GHA (Green Hair Algae) get out of control by plucking it from time to time and maybe add a couple more algae-eating snails. Note that if the algae strands get really long, most of your snails won't bother going after it so try to keep it short. The main thing at this point is to not allow the algae to encroach on the corals too much. Try to keep it trimmed back and maybe use a toothbrush to clean around the coral bases if the algae encroaches too far.
An urchin can clear a smallish tank of algae very quickly but they make Mexican Turbos look like ballerinas. A small tuxedo urchin might be a nice addition.
Again though. Your tank looks very good do not sweat it or over-react. Also don't try to get rid of it over-night quick fixes usually just cause imbalance which leads to worse issues.
I just saw the photos you just posted here. I would say your tank looks very healthy. Just don't let the GHA (Green Hair Algae) get out of control by plucking it from time to time and maybe add a couple more algae-eating snails. Note that if the algae strands get really long, most of your snails won't bother going after it so try to keep it short. The main thing at this point is to not allow the algae to encroach on the corals too much. Try to keep it trimmed back and maybe use a toothbrush to clean around the coral bases if the algae encroaches too far.
An urchin can clear a smallish tank of algae very quickly but they make Mexican Turbos look like ballerinas. A small tuxedo urchin might be a nice addition.
Again though. Your tank looks very good do not sweat it or over-react. Also don't try to get rid of it over-night quick fixes usually just cause imbalance which leads to worse issues.
