Help With Algae ID?

[Jasber]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but here goes. First reef tank, IM Nuvo 16, 11lbs of live rock, 10 lbs of live sand, clown pair, green mushroom coral frag and zooanthid frag. No cleaning crew. Test levels 2 days ago (before adding second clown and frags):

Ph - 8.4
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Salinity - 1.022

Started see algae growth yesterday and need to know what to do! Help!

 

[NanaReefer]

Well first I'd raise your specific gravity to 1.025. .022 is on the low side.
What and how are you feeding? How are you exporting your excess nutrients? I highly recommend a CUC. Mainly the algae grazing snails Mexican Turbos work good for me.


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[Jasber]

Understood on all counts. Feeding my clowns a few pellets or a small amount of frozen mysis or brine shrimp each day.

Plan to get a skimmer in the next few days.

Can you tell me what type of algae this might be?

 

[Budman's Corals]

Understood on all counts. Feeding my clowns a few pellets or a small amount of frozen mysis or brine shrimp each day.

Plan to get a skimmer in the next few days.

Can you tell me what type of algae this might be?

+1 on the cuc
Looks like hair algae,hard to see can you get a closer up pic.

 

[Jasber]

This is as close as I can get

 

[Budman's Corals]

come on you got to get a underwater camera..lol jk
them some pretty good pics though


http://www.reefcleaners.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54&Itemid=60

This place has great cuc and also helps id algae

looks like start of hair,but others will chime in

i think a couple turbo with some hermits that stuff would be toast.

 

[Jasber]

I have one, just too lazy to get it. Lol.


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[Budman's Corals]

I have one, just too lazy to get it. Lol.




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Well check that site out and i would definitely get some cleaners

 

[Budman's Corals]

HOw long do you run your lights

 

[Reefing Madness]

Looks like a Diatom Bloom. You just change you lighting intensity?
You don't need to up your SG levels if your only keeping fish. The range for Fish Only is 1.017 to 1.027

 

[emeraldeyes_bc]

Looks like diatoms to me... I'm no expert, but just went through a full new tank bloom. Yours looks a lot like it

 

[glb]

A few crabs and snails will happily take care of your algae for you.


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12g Nanoreef. Zooanthids, Ricordia, Star Polyps, Acans and two clownfish. CF Lighting, 75% actinic blue, 25% 10,000k white.

 

[Jasber]

I run daylights from 8am to 8pm and moonlights from 8pm to 8am. Tank is only a couple weeks old.


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[Cichphreak]

With the tank only being a couple weeks old, that is most likely the reason for this algae bloom. Most new tanks do this. When I started my tank in October, I had a bloom of green hair algae during the cycle and it shortly went away after introducing a clean up crew and a seahare ( Which I eventually traded in because it ran out of food to eat ) I haven't seen a single bit of green hair algae since then until lately and noticed it is mainly because of the extra light coming in from outside due to the extended summer days. In your case, I would consider dropping the light time down to 8 hours instead of 12. This is a very long time for lights to be on during the day. Moonlights aren't really an issue for algae production unless you're going crazy on the amount of moonlights. lol. Combine the clean up crew (After you're done cycling which usually takes 4-8 weeks) with the shorter light period and you should be good to go.

 

[Cichphreak]

On a side note, I personally hate turbo snails because they just plow over anything in their path that happens to not be glued down or super secure. (had one that killed a smaller clam by ripping it off it's feet multiple times) Blue leg hermits, margarita snails, and some use emerald crabs but I don't recommend because some can go rogue and eat your corals. (I had one eat on my xenia and frogspawn like they were candy) Sea hares are also good at eating hair algae but they eat a lot and fast. So only do it if you have other tanks with hair algae or friends that would have use of it too because you can share it with them. Otherwise it will starve to death like a lot of them do. Hope my info helps.

 

[Jasber]

Thanks to all for your input!!! Greatly appreciated!

 

[jservedio]

New tanks are going to have algae - it always happens. It'll disappear as quickly as it came in a few months as long as you have a CUC. Feed sparingly (a little goes a long way), keep your photoperiod around 8 hours, and be patient. I had microalgae all over my rocks for the first 4 months. Suddenly, as quickly as it came on, it went away over the course of a few days. Haven't seen a spot of green algae in my tank since! Keep your nitrates and phosphates in check and be patient.

Glad to see your nitrates are testing at zero - keep it up! If you are currently testing with API test kits, whenever you buy new kits don't buy API - get better ones like Red Sea, Salifert, Elos, etc. - they are MUCH more accurate. I use Salifert tests and for nitrates the low range kit tests all the way down from 0.2ppm to 2ppm. You might also want to invest in Alkalinity, Calcium, and Magnesium tests - since once you get any corals that have a skeleton or coralline algae, it'll start being depleted and you will want to monitor it. Again, stay away from the API kits or the dip-strips and buy quality tests.