Is that what you guys call Algae?

[johnbr]

Hi fellow reefers,

It's been almost two months that I setup my first tank. Everything is doing great. Have just 2 clowns so far. Today I was cleaning the tank and looking really close I saw this in one of the rocks.


Could this be Algae? If yes, which inverts should a get to eat them and when they're gone how should I fed the inverts?

Thanks

 

[Palyzoa]

Looks like it might be diatoms which is normal for a new tank. Everything should mature with time. Do you have a CUC yet? If not I would suggest getting a variety of hermits and snails to keep up on maintenance of the tank. The amount of hermits and snails depends on tank size. They should be able to survive off of algae and scraps from feeding your fish.

 

[johnbr]

Looks like it might be diatoms which is normal for a new tank. Everything should mature with time. Do you have a CUC yet? If not I would suggest getting a variety of hermits and snails to keep up on maintenance of the tank. The amount of hermits and snails depends on tank size. They should be able to survive off of algae and scraps from feeding your fish.

They actually look like red hair LOL. Regarding cleaning crew I had 5 turbo snails and they all died I don't even know why. I'm assuming thast since I didn't have any algae they starved to death. So I'm worried if I should get them again. Just for the record the water parameters were perfect.

Thanks for the reply

 

[mcarroll]

What size tank? How long has it been set up? Besides adding rock, lights and snails, what have you done to it (if anything) so far?

Might be too early for lights and turbos might be too large for your system or five may have been too many.

Can you post a full tank shot?

 

[johnbr]

What size tank? How long has it been set up? Besides adding rock, lights and snails, what have you done to it (if anything) so far?

Might be too early for lights and turbos might be too large for your system or five may have been too many.

Can you post a full tank shot?

Thanks for the reply mcarrol,

The tank is a FUSION NUVO 30L. It's been setup since SEP-18. During the cycle I used pre-mixed water from my LFS (World Wide Corals), Microbacter7 and Filter socks. On week 4 I did my first 10% water change and added 2 clowns and my protein skimmer. the lights that I have are the AI Prime HD's that were setup by their lighting expert for the best profile for my case. The rocks are the live ones "purple something". So far everything is looking good, my clowns eat like crazy and fast, swim all over the tank. Water parameters are pretty good.

Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5-10
Alkalinity - 8
Temps - 77-80

Here's a screen from my seneye.

 

[mcarroll]

That's definitely too many turbo snails for that size tank. Get smaller snails this time – black cerith snails are my favorite, but any of the snails smaller than Turbos would be preferable. Start with a small number like 3-5 and build slowly, only as-needed.

I would at least consider un-lighting the tank until you add corals – it's not going to do anything but cause algae to grow and use all the available nutrients in the water. I'd turn on the lights when you add corals.