It was time for something to happen : (

[Shawn_epicurious]

So, my tank is almost 4 months old now and things have been going very smoothly. Everything in my tanks seems healthy and happy! ...I made a small to change to my lighting. I reduced the number of hours my lights were running to 8 hours a day, but, I set up moonlight. Basically a dim white light that wasn’t ever really going completely out. Brown algae started growing on my sand. : (

I turned off the moonlight.... made a temporary adjustment to my power heads to point down and I am doing A 20% water change (40 gallons) tomorrow so that I can get some extra vacuum action going.

Am I doing this right? Any suggestions would be awesome!

 

[jerrod]

With that young of a tanks it’s expected to have algae, that is the ugly stage you will hear people refer to. You are doing what you’re supposed to, vacuum the substrate and perform water changes and invest in a few snails to help graze on the building algae and diatoms. I wouldn’t use a white light for moonlight generally you want a blue light for that.

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

With that young of a tanks it’s expected to have algae, that is the ugly stage you will hear people refer to. You are doing what you’re supposed to, vacuum the substrate and perform water changes and invest in a few snails to help graze on the building algae and diatoms. I wouldn’t use a white light for moonlight generally you want a blue light for that.

I used the one called “moonlight”. Live and learn : ) I put 40 turbo snails, 20 elephant snails, 20 hermit crabs and 10 conchs in my tank months ago. Almost all of that is still alive. The algae bloom was just on the sand and only since the change I made in the lights. (I thought I was past the ugly stage)

Thank you Jerrod!

 

[Billdogg]

With that young of a tanks it’s expected to have algae, that is the ugly stage you will hear people refer to. You are doing what you’re supposed to, vacuum the substrate and perform water changes and invest in a few snails to help graze on the building algae and diatoms. I wouldn’t use a white light for moonlight generally you want a blue light for that.

^^^This^^^

The moonlight is for your enjoyment, not the fish. Really, it probably shouldn't be on all night anyway. Go on a night dive sometime. 15 minutes after sundown it is blacker than black down there.

If it's just a brownish dusting it may be diatoms. Not uncommon at all, and as they use they available silicate they'll usually go away with little to no effort from you. It doesn't hurt to siphon them out on water change day, but won't necessarily get rid of them.

And FWIW - EVERY tank occasionally has a case of the "uglies".

 

[Katrina71]

Just another ugly phase. It's a normal thing.

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

Thanks everyone!