Fish only and algea

[Cflip]

Would having a fish only tank make controlling algae more difficult? Still using live rock and a skimmer.

 

[ScottR]

I’d assume that having fish only would make certain methods easier, like long blackouts for example. Even though corals consume the same nutrients as algae does, corals probably don’t uptake enough to steal enough nutrients from the water to prevent algae. You can definitely use less intense lighting with fish only and would find yourself dosing less additives and foods for corals which will help to prevent algae. But at the end of the day, every tank has its woes and I find that my reef tank stays mostly algae free and I definitely wouldn’t do fish only any time soon.

 

[AlexG]

There can be a lot of factors that can contribute to controlling algae in a FOWLR tank. I would say the difficulty would be about the same as a reef tank. The type of fish that you are keeping can make a difference if you have predatory fish that will eat snails or urchins or if you plan to keep lots of herbivores that can help with algae control. The use of a refugium, cheato reactor, or algae turf scrubber would help in providing an ideal area for the algae to grow outside of the display tank. Lower intensity lighting over the display can also help to limit algae growth in a FOWLER tank. Just like any tank the monitoring of nitrate and phosphate levels should drive solutions if algae gets out of control. Just remember that patience is also needed with algae control as it can take weeks or months to properly resolve bad algae issues especially in new tanks where there can be an excess of nutrients present before the tank starts to mature. I stick to natural methods to mitigate algae with adding cleanup crew slowly to a tank and increasing the intensity of the lighting in the refugium. There is no magic bottle that will solve algae issues only time and patience.