Help with green algae

[The_Harris_co]

So I’ve been dealing with some green algae and it looks horrible.

Tank 3 months old
Started with live rock and live sand
Salinity 1.026
Ph8.2
Alk 9.5
No3 10
Cal 475
Mag 1450

Running a protein skimmer, I’ve sterlizer and chemi pure. Dosed a little pristine 3 days ago.

All my coral are doing fine and spread out during the day. None of them are gasping or sitting with mouths wide open.

I’m spot feeding twice a week with a mixture of reef roids, shrimp, fuel, And vita coral

My light run about 10 hours a day with a par of 260 at the top of the center rock and about 140-160 on the outer edges at the bottom.

I have plenty of movement in the water previously was running about 45x water movement. With heads in different directions to spread out the flow and make sure I didn’t have any stagnant spots.

Cuc is 4 pretty huge snails, 2 Halloween crabs, 1 tiger conch, 2 small nasturtium snails, and another random crab.

 

[VB313]

Not a expert but My personal opinion get more hermits cut back on the reef roids and don’t use fuel

 

[LIreefguy]

that is normal and will eventually turn to coraline algae once your tank matures more. if you notice the purple rock didnt get the algae. i would watch your feeding, thats really all you can do. nitrates at 10 arent bad, but keep an eye on them. maybe reduce spot feeding to once a week

 

[LIreefguy]

4 pretty huge snails, 2 Halloween crab

the crabs are big too. you can add a few of the smaller hermits and snails (dwaft blue legs hermits, nerite snails) if you want. not a big deal though

 

[The_Harris_co]

Not a expert but My personal opinion get more hermits cut back on the reef roids and don’t use fuel

Is there a reason you would recommend the cut back or elimination? Doesn’t seem like I have high nitrates or anything that would cause issues. I’m not going super heavy about half the recommended dose at most and I spot feed.

As for cuc I am looking into more. Though it’s only 34g with a 9g sump

 

[The_Harris_co]

that is normal and will eventually turn to coraline algae once your tank matures more. if you notice the purple rock didnt get the algae. i would watch your feeding, thats really all you can do. nitrates at 10 arent bad, but keep an eye on them. maybe reduce spot feeding to once a week

Yeah I have coralline growing on every rock. I dosed some calcium
Last week because with all the Coraline growth it dropped down.

I was debating switching to spot feeding once a week till it clears up. Today is feeding day so I’m gonna go ahead and give them the goods then cut back after today

 

[The_Harris_co]

4 pretty huge snails, 2 Halloween crab

the crabs are big too. you can add a few of the smaller hermits and snails (dwaft blue legs hermits, nerite snails) if you want. not a big deal though

I have 1 blue leg hermit. And the smaller snails may be nerite and the larger ones are Nassarius

 

[LIreefguy]

you dont need to feed your corals that much. to me is just a way to get money from us ?

i do it once a month as a treat, yours will be fine once a week

 

[The_Harris_co]

you dont need to feed your corals that much. to me is just a way to get money from us ?

i do it once a month as a treat, yours will be fine once a week

Ok. I don’t have any fish in there yet. They are all in qt so aside from the food in the reef salt they don’t get much else outside of spot feeding. But I’ll def cut back on feedings. I think I have 28 corals in the tank. Including frags. About half frags half larger pieces

 

[LIreefguy]

yes to have no fish (i didnt see any) and have 10 nitrates you might be feeding too much. dont worry more corals died from over feeding them under feeding.
remember corals use zooxanthellae for energy and food too, so they dont need to eat as much as you think. imo occasional feeding once or twice a month is all they need

 

[The_Harris_co]

yes to have no fish (i didnt see any) and have 10 nitrates you might be feeding too much. dont worry more corals died from over feeding them under feeding.
remember corals use zooxanthellae for energy and food too, so they dont need to eat as much as you think. imo occasional feeding once or twice a month is all they need

Fair enough. Thanks

 

[LIreefguy]

also i noticed you said you dosed calcium.
when dosing try to dose a 2 part solution and dose both equally

also alk is more important that calcium - there is less in water and will fluctuate more so try to test for that more

 

[VB313]

Is there a reason you would recommend the cut back or elimination? Doesn’t seem like I have high nitrates or anything that would cause issues. I’m not going super heavy about half the recommended dose at most and I spot feed.

As for cuc I am looking into more. Though it’s only 34g with a 9g sump

It’s just extra nutrients in a fairly new tank honestly let your tank get more mature to handle all that
both are great products don’t get me wrong I use reef roids about 2 times a month 1/4 tsp I have used fuel in the past but never together

 

[The_Harris_co]

also i noticed you said you dosed calcium.
when dosing try to dose a 2 part solution and dose both equally

also alk is more important that calcium - there is less in water and will fluctuate more so try to test for that more

I have the Redsea a/b/c kit I believe it is. Alk, cal, mag. I also have ph solution but only does things as needed. It’s typically not very much as the tank has been holding stable

 

[VB313]

yes to have no fish (i didnt see any) and have 10 nitrates you might be feeding too much. dont worry more corals died from over feeding them under feeding.
remember corals use zooxanthellae for energy and food too, so they dont need to eat as much as you think. imo occasional feeding once or twice a month is all they need

110% agree with this

 

[The_Harris_co]

It’s just extra nutrients in a fairly new tank honestly let your tank get more mature to handle all that
both are great products don’t get me wrong I use reef roids about 2 times a month 1/4 tsp I have used fuel in the past but never together

Fair enough. I’m gonna cut back on feeding all together. I have a mix that I make in a air tight container and refrigerate it. Then when I feed it’s all mixed in together so there’s no separate dosing.

 

[VB313]

I have the Redsea a/b/c kit I believe it is. Alk, cal, mag. I also have ph solution but only does things as needed. It’s typically not very much as the tank has been holding stable

Yeah you shouldn’t need to be dosing all that yet regular waterchanges should help with that what sat mix are you using

 

[LIreefguy]

why shouldnt he be dosing. i think he said he had like 28 corals and seems like a fair about of coraline algae. not saying he should be dosing a lot, but 5 ml of 2 part a day should be a good start.

plus i prefer to use a salt that matches the water parameters in my tank, so water changes arent as good in that case in keep the elments hight m while others use a salt higher . just my perference.

 

[The_Harris_co]

I’m not mixing all of that. I picked it up to have it on hand in case it was needed. I might have done one dose of alk and one dose of calcium after the huge coraline algae growth out break
For salt I use live aquarium professional reef salt

.

Yeah you shouldn’t need to be dosing all that yet regular waterchanges should help with that what sat mix are you using

 

[The_Harris_co]

Yeah it’s not a lot. And I use live aquarium professional reef salt. It has pretty good numbers.

why shouldnt he be dosing. i think he said he had like 28 corals and seems like a fair about of coraline algae. not saying he should be dosing a lot, but 5 ml of 2 part a day should be a good start.

plus i prefer to use a salt that matches the water parameters in my tank, so water changes arent as good in that case in keep the elments hight m while others use a salt higher . just my perference.