Mowing the lawn..

[Aquatic Gardener]

Hey guys, new here to R2R, as well as reefing in general. My tank is almost a year old, and I'm experiencing a serious algae bloom. I ordered a HOB refugium from Bulkreef supply, however one of the mounts was broken so I'm waiting for them to ship a new one. Plan on putting some macro algae and some mangroves in there, but what else can I do to get rid of this algae? It seriously looks like I need to mow the lawn..

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

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[always reefin]

Cut back feeding if you are feeding heavy. Hand remove as much algae as you can and frequent water changes, Good luck

 

[Aquatic Gardener]

Cut back feeding if you are feeding heavy. Hand remove as much algae as you can and frequent water changes, Good luck

I need to become more religious with water changes, but I've been hand removing/scrubbing with a toothbrush for a while.

 

[Aquatic Gardener]

 

[always reefin]

Wow! If you can replace the worst rocks with new rocks a couple at a time might not be a bad idea. Don't do all at once. You can also take the rocks out and clean them in a bucket of saltwater then return would help as well. You need to get as much of that hair algae out of your tank asap. Manual remove! Then nice size water change. All it will do is continue to spread. Try to read up on lowering nitrates and phosphates, which is most likely your problem

 

[Squishie89]

Do you have a natural light/sun source hitting the tank? And how long are your lights on for?

 

[ladyreefer1983]

put tangs..after i cycled my tank,i got a hair algae bloom same a yours...after a couple weeks gone,i did help a little by manually taking out as much as i can...put a lawnmower blenny in there too,u will witness a competition the bubble algae u have to manually try to get rid of those...i havent experience having that much of bubble algae,i get a few in frags i buy but i get rid of it before it hits my tank...since u dont have corals yet,cut back in lighting.hth

 

[ladyreefer1983]

i even have hair algae in the sanbed too...i got a sailfin tang and lawnmower blenny and they do the job...

 

[Aquatic Gardener]

Do you have a natural light/sun source hitting the tank? And how long are your lights on for?

No natural light, The tank is in the basement. My lights (4 bulb aquatic life t5s with geisemen bulbs) have been kinda haywire, the controller that comes on the lights seems to have some salt corrosion, so the light cycle is off. need to replace the controller, just havent gotten around to it

 

[Aquatic Gardener]

put tangs..after i cycled my tank,i got a hair algae bloom same a yours...after a couple weeks gone,i did help a little by manually taking out as much as i can...put a lawnmower blenny in there too,u will witness a competition the bubble algae u have to manually try to get rid of those...i havent experience having that much of bubble algae,i get a few in frags i buy but i get rid of it before it hits my tank...since u dont have corals yet,cut back in lighting.hth

I've been thinking about a lawnmower blenny, haven't found one at the lfs yet. I might be going online for it.

 

[Paul C.]

Gotta love it when the algea grows on the snails.. Welcome to R2R

 

[Loki]

Cut lights back to 6-8 hours a day. An emerald crab could help with the bubble algae (I hate crabs and won't put them in my tank). Then the lawn mower blenny will take a chunk of the algae.

If your lfs has one you can rent a sea hare and it can wipe it out in a week or two. It will die if it doesn't have algae to eat so it's not a good idea to buy it.


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[cdness]

The rocks that don't have corals on them, take them out and do a 10 minute soak in hot water and vinegar... it is less harsh than muriatic acid but will kill the algaes. You have a significant amount of bubble and hair algae and I think I saw an aptasia in there. Kill it while you can.

 

[FishLipz]

When I started in the hobby, the same thing happened to me. How big is the tank? I used and algae blenny and a kole tang to get mine under control while I got religious about keeping my nutrients in check.

 

[Aquatic Gardener]

Cut lights back to 6-8 hours a day. An emerald crab could help with the bubble algae (I hate crabs and won't put them in my tank). Then the lawn mower blenny will take a chunk of the algae.

If your lfs has one you can rent a sea hare and it can wipe it out in a week or two. It will die if it doesn't have algae to eat so it's not a good idea to buy it.


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I've been reading about the emerald crabs, but I'm still trying to catch a nasty looking crab I found in the rocks a few weeks ago. I'll try to reset the timer for 7 hours, I'm about to get in there and pull some more out manually.

 

[Aquatic Gardener]

The rocks that don't have corals on them, take them out and do a 10 minute soak in hot water and vinegar... it is less harsh than muriatic acid but will kill the algaes. You have a significant amount of bubble and hair algae and I think I saw an aptasia in there. Kill it while you can.

How much can I take out an soak at one time without upsetting the biological filtration, or restarting a cycle? I'm almost considering new dry rock and a new sandbed.

 

[Aquatic Gardener]

When I started in the hobby, the same thing happened to me. How big is the tank? I used and algae blenny and a kole tang to get mine under control while I got religious about keeping my nutrients in check.

75 gallons, with 75 problems -_-

well, just algae, aiptasia, and the occasional timing of top off water when the sump runs low

 

[Loki]

Look into an ATO. It really helps out and keep everything more stable. A 10 gallon tank and an aqua lifter ~$25 for both combined with the ATO of your choice would do wonders for the tank.


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[Aquatic Gardener]

Look into an ATO. It really helps out and keep everything more stable. A 10 gallon tank and an aqua lifter ~$25 for both combined with the ATO of your choice would do wonders for the tank.


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well, funny story. I do have one of the JBJ ATOs, and was using it with a 25g barrel that I now believe had chemicals in it. After the huge water change and the deconstruction of that barrel, I haven't set my ato back up yet. I'm thinking I'll hook it up to a 55g trashcan that's new and washed thoroughly, thats coming this week from home depot. need to grab some egg crate too while I'm there