My Battle......

[6Bolt]

Hello Everyone,


I am trying to figure out what I can do with my little algae problem. My tank was set-up in October 2017 and all my critters are healthy/happy. The temperature in the tank is 78-79 degrees. I feed everyone twice a day and have seven small fish. My clean up crew is actually pretty large ( I have a thing for the invertebrates ). I tossed in a few turbo snails in the sump and in the main tank. My sump looks great thanks to the turbos. However no one seems to be interested in helping me in the main display. This has resulted in me manually removing the algae, every few days. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Rick Krejci]

Tuxedo Urchin's do nice work keeping algae at bay

 

[6Bolt]

Tuxedo Urchin's do nice work keeping algae at bay

They do? I did not know that.

 

[Rick Krejci]

Yea, they mow anything. My wife calls mine pigpen since it always has shells and chaeto wrapped around it.

 

[iC0ral]

Put a Yellow Tang or any Tang might help and blennies is good too.

 

[Vahanyos]

Your nitrates may not read accurately because of the algae... You might have higher nutrients in the tank than you think

I would try cutting back on feeding, reduce your lighting schedule, and do consistent water changes weekly and see if that helps! I've had GHA before and reducing feeding helps me every time

 

[Vahanyos]

I felt bad about Not feeding my fish as often as I did before, but I found once a day helps to keep them at bay. My algae Started disappearing as well when I started feeling less. Of course that didn’t happen in a couple days, but after about two weeks maybe three my algae was Disappearing in a very noticeable way

 

[SaltLifer]

I agree with Vahanyos. Twice a day is way too much. I was feeding once a day and still had problems. Now I feed twice a week. They don't need as much as they want you to believe. Definitely get an urchin. Or 2. Reduce your light cycle. Also, if you can spare a few dollars, get a hanna checker for phosphate. The more water changes the better.

 

[Vahanyos]

Also, do not do big or too fast of water changes like me.... I panicked and did water changes every 2 days or so to bring my nitrates real low and essentially try to get rid of the algae faster and all it did was end up stressing a few of my corals to almost death... just thought I’d share lol.

I was thinking, perhaps having TOO much cuc can help contribute to high nutrients vs taking them out. Essentially, they also take poops. My turbo snails poop are the size of my dwarf angel - I’m sure that would do some damage in big numbers... I only have about 10 hermits and 5 snails in my 60g, no algae problem but that’s mainly due to my feeding/water change habits.

You can try a Sea Hare temporarily to speed up the process, but they starve easily so you’ll have to rehome him to another reefer with an algae problem once you’re finished. It cleared up a lot of my hair algae, it’s a lawnmower lol

 

[K. Steven]

Take the food you feed in a single day and halve it or take ⅔ of it. Feed the same frequency just feed less food until you find an equilibrium between nutrient import and export. Whenever algae creeps up on me, I start trimming down the food volume, not the frequency.

 

[6Bolt]

Your nitrates may not read accurately because of the algae... You might have higher nutrients in the tank than you think

I would try cutting back on feeding, reduce your lighting schedule, and do consistent water changes weekly and see if that helps! I've had GHA before and reducing feeding helps me every time

I will give that a try. Thanks!

 

[6Bolt]

I agree with Vahanyos. Twice a day is way too much. I was feeding once a day and still had problems. Now I feed twice a week. They don't need as much as they want you to believe. Definitely get an urchin. Or 2. Reduce your light cycle. Also, if you can spare a few dollars, get a hanna checker for phosphate. The more water changes the better.

Sounds like a plan. Thanks

 

[6Bolt]

Take the food you feed in a single day and halve it or take ⅔ of it. Feed the same frequency just feed less food until you find an equilibrium between nutrient import and export. Whenever algae creeps up on me, I start trimming down the food volume, not the frequency.

Great Idea! Everyone just begs every time I go by the tank.

 

[Brian Treadwell]

You need to check your Po4