Does this look normal for a 2 week old tank?

[Andreas' Reef]

A bit of an algae bloom. Does it look normal for a very new tank that’s only a few weeks old?

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Yes! Healthy!

 

[Lavey29]

Looks like normal diatom stage.

 

[Ippyroy]

I would turn the lights off. Fish don't need it and that is what's causing the algae to grow. Turn the lights off and do small daily water changes. You NO3 and PO4 are locked up in the algae. The algae will all die in a week or so and release them back into the tank. The diatoms will go away on their own. There is nothing to do about them.

The tank looks good by the way.

 

[Parker Kufel]

I would turn the lights off. Fish don't need it and that is what's causing the algae to grow. Turn the lights off and do small daily water changes. You NO3 and PO4 are locked up in the algae. The algae will all die in a week or so and release them back into the tank. The diatoms will go away on their own. There is nothing to do about them.

The tank looks good by the way.

+1 it isn’t pleasant to look at so no point of keeping lights on!

 

[Parker Kufel]

A bit of an algae bloom. Does it look normal for a very new tank that’s only a few weeks old?

is that a bio cube?

 

[Andreas' Reef]

is that a bio cube?

Why yes it is

 

[Andreas' Reef]

I would turn the lights off. Fish don't need it and that is what's causing the algae to grow. Turn the lights off and do small daily water changes. You NO3 and PO4 are locked up in the algae. The algae will all die in a week or so and release them back into the tank. The diatoms will go away on their own. There is nothing to do about them.

The tank looks good by the way.

How small would you say the water changes should be?

 

[Ippyroy]

How small would you say the water changes should be?

A gallon a day or 20% a week. It won't hurt to do a water change other than the money spent on salt and your time. If you want, turn the lights on at the lowest possible settings for a short time while you look at your fish.

 

[Andreas' Reef]

A gallon a day or 20% a week. It won't hurt to do a water change other than the money spent on salt and your time. If you want, turn the lights on at the lowest possible settings for a short time while you look at your fish.

I usually do a 5 gallons of 32 gallons water change. I'm only going to turn the lights on for feeding and to enjoy the tank. How many days should I keep the lights off. Thanks for your help.

 

[Ippyroy]

I usually do a 5 gallons of 32 gallons water change. I'm only going to turn the lights on for feeding and to enjoy the tank. How many days should I keep the lights off. Thanks for your help.

You don't need lights until you add corals. Once you add corrals you slowly ramp the lights up. After the algae dies I'd plan on a 50% or bigger WC. WC's don't affect PO4 BTW. Your rocks will leach it.

 

[Andreas' Reef]

You don't need lights until you add corals. Once you add corrals you slowly ramp the lights up. After the algae dies I'd plan on a 50% or bigger WC. WC's don't affect PO4 BTW. Your rocks will leach it.

how long would you say (in your experience) would it take for the algae to die out?

 

[Angel_V_the_reefer]

how long would you say (in your experience) would it take for the algae to die out?

From my experience , it depends on the kind of algae. It looks like some sort of diatom to me with a mix of the ‘beginner algae’ as I like to call it (super thin green algae on the rock, glass, etc. If you let the lights off and allow the bacteria to grow (grows as long as there is waste of fish) it should go away in i would say less than a month or even a week or two. You could also dose bacteria such as Microbacter 7 which will increase your bacteria population and our compete any diatom in your tank.

 

[JumboShrimp]

It’s good that you are trying to stay on top of things from the beginning. There’s no better time than when the tank is new. On the other hand, don’t be overly alarmed if things like algae gets a lot worse during the first 6 to 8 months than you had hoped. It happens to many of us, and we just keep plugging along taking practical steps until the tank matures— by trying not to feel like a failure.

 

[Uncle99]

Algae dies out when you deprive it of light and nutrients.
Work your nutrients slowly downwards to say 2-5ppm nitrate and say 0.5-.1ppm phosphate and keep them pinned their with water changes.
Algae thrives in both higher and zero nutrient levels.
You can have some light to enjoy while it’s maturing.
You’ll reach a point where the algae just goes, and anything else will be mopped up by snails mostly.

 

[Ippyroy]

This^^

 

[Ippyroy]

I got busy working 2 jobs and stopped maintaining my tank like I should. The GHA was flowing and waving like crazy. I turned off the lights for a week and changed about a gallon a day. After 7 days I vacuumed the sand very well and blasted the rocks with increased flow for a couple of days. Then I did a 75% water change. I added a new CUC and didn't have an algae problem again. Each tank will be different. You might need to feed less or you might need to upp your filtration. I would definitely get a cheap frag or something with coraline algae on it from a clean LFS once the algae has dies and becomes manageable. It will never go away. Other than the diatoms. Don't do anything about the diatoms. They will go away on their own. They eat the silicates that are in the sand. Once the silicates are done, the diatoms will die and nothing will happen other than the sand will look better.

 

[Andreas' Reef]

I got busy working 2 jobs and stopped maintaining my tank like I should. The GHA was flowing and waving like crazy. I turned off the lights for a week and changed about a gallon a day. After 7 days I vacuumed the sand very well and blasted the rocks with increased flow for a couple of days. Then I did a 75% water change. I added a new CUC and didn't have an algae problem again. Each tank will be different. You might need to feed less or you might need to upp your filtration. I would definitely get a cheap frag or something with coraline algae on it from a clean LFS once the algae has dies and becomes manageable. It will never go away. Other than the diatoms. Don't do anything about the diatoms. They will go away on their own. They eat the silicates that are in the sand. Once the silicates are done, the diatoms will die and nothing will happen other than the sand will look better.

crap now i'm seeing signs of GREEN slime. I think its some sort of green cyano. is this also normal?

 

[Tamberav]

crap now i'm seeing signs of GREEN slime. I think its some sort of green cyano. is this also normal?

ya your tank is going to have a lot of ugly stages the first 6 months to year. Just not a lot of diversity of good stuff yet.

 

[Ippyroy]

crap now i'm seeing signs of GREEN slime. I think its some sort of green cyano. is this also normal?

Don't sweat stuff yet. More "bad" than good is going to happen. The best thing to do is just develop good, solid, and consistent routines.
Keep hands out of the water
Test weekly, do NO3 and PO4 3 times each until the numbers are consistent
Weekly water changes.
Feed more or less to maintain NO3 and PO4
Don't use a hammer for every issue. Most will go away on their own
Don't chase numbers. Consistency is more important
Ask questions. The only dumb question is the one you didn't ask
Look at as many "fixes" as possible and research the one you can do, then do it

Above all, don't try to fix the problem. Find the cause of the problem and fix it. Right now your tank is new and young. Remember when you were a teenager? Your hormones were going crazy. Acne and bad facial hair and everything? Eventually it all came together. The same thing is happening to your tank. It's hormones are going crazy. There is literally a war going on in there. With time and good consistent maintenance it will all balance out. If you follow these simple rules, your tank will balance out and start to look good in a year.
For now, sit back and enjoy the ride. Don't ignore the problems, but spend more time trying to find the cause of them. The algae in your tank is growing from too much light most likely. Manual removal and lights off will help. Over feeding might be the issue as well. Cut down how much you feed. Your NO3 and PO4 might read low because they are in the algae and will sky rocket when it dies, hence the water changes and manual removal.