Need help please. my rocks are turning green.

[sugardonut]

Hello reefers!

I am new to this hobby. I have a 10g tank, a fluvial 50 (200 gph), chinese led, and a water flow fan. I have a pistol shrimp, turbo snail, hermit crab, damsel, and a gold bar clown fish. I have zoas, a frogspawn, a duncan, a gsp, a hammer, and a torch for corals. Currently today after worked i checked my tank and my rocks are turning bright green. My tank is very new less then a month and I have acquired my salt water from a friend who has been doing this for a long time. I also acquired his old rocks that he does not use anymore. They were dead and dried up. The last time i did my water test was on april 7.
these were the results.
Magnesium - 1500
Calcium - 460
Alkalinity - 3.19 meq/l
Phosphate - .03ppm

is that green stuff on the rock ok? there are bright green and dark green colors on my rocks.
I asked my friend and he said he never had those before.

 

[sugardonut]

I tried to make it as detailed as possible. let me know if there is anything else i need to say about my tank. That is all the details i can think of as of now.
Thank you guys.

 

[LAX Noob Reef]

Normal, but I do suggest you get a live rock with purple coarline on it to get your rock started.

 

[sugardonut]

Normal, but I do suggest you get a live rock with purple coarline on it to get your rock started.

ok, thank you so much. I was worried and freaking out. I was reading other threads that other tanks had this issue also and they said that there was phosphate levels were too high.

 

[vlangel]

Its algae which isn't a big deal. I can see it on your glass too. Do you have fish? If you do, make sure you are not feeding them too much. If you do not, make sure you don't have your light cycle on too long. The lights need to be on long enough to satisfy your corals but no longer than that.

 

[vlangel]

A clean up crew, ( crabs and snails or other inverts will help greatly with algae).

 

[sugardonut]

I have a damsel and a clownfish. Yeah I'm feeding them way less. Doing twice a week. And I gave my emerald crab away. So I do need more in my cuc. I Ddnt want crabs anymore because it are my fish. I'll just get hermits and snails! Yay thank you vlangel! Really appreciate it!

 

[vlangel]

The fish would probably be happier if you fed everyday but in small quantity. Small hermits and snails are perfect. I see your tank is new. Do you do small weekly water changes, that will greatly help keep nutrients from building up in the water. Its a very good husbandry practice for any tank and you will find your corals like it too.

 

[prsnlty]

Astraea Turbo Snail worked best for keeping this type of algae gone in my tank. Even cleans the glass and they are agressive eaters IME. Once you have coraline algae growing on your rock you'll see less and less of the green stuff Just be sure your water is being made with RO/DI water! I can not stress this enough.

 

[sugardonut]

It's hard feeding my clown and my damsel as my damsel gobbles up everything so fast. I do weekly water changed every Wednesday. Should I do more?
As of now, I've been using zero water =[ I live in Santa Clara our water isn't so bad. But I think I will start ro/do water since there is a store near me that sells it.

 

[prsnlty]

Your water may be pretty good but still leach phosphates. And that is the #1 reason to use ro/di.

What kind of damsel is it? I have a yellow chromis that's a real terror to my blue damsels and anthias. And when I move everyone into the new tank he's going into the fuge. Some of the little damsels grow quite big also. You may have to separate him at some point.

Jackie

 

[RonnieBlack]

Have you checked your Phosphate

 

[Mjpisanti]

algae is not a big deal unless it covers corals. Algae itself will consume nitrates in the tank so continue feeding less but i would agree with whoever said feed once a day in small portions, its much healthier for the fish than feeding twice a week that is very low. As long as you do not feed more than the fish will consume within a couple of minutes your waste will go down and the algae will not have as much nitrates to feed off of and grow. Even if you got water from a friend all of your equipment wills till be cycling and catching up to the water and rocks in terms of bacteria build up.

 

[sugardonut]

Yeah, I will start using ro/di water just have to go to the store. I have a domino damsel and a gold bar and maroon clownfish. At first they would be picking at each other. But now they seem to like each other and always swim next to each other. they even sleep in the same small cave i made them.

 

[sugardonut]

Have you checked your Phosphate

Hey, yeah i did check it. it is at .03 ppm.

 

[sugardonut]

algae is not a big deal unless it covers corals. Algae itself will consume nitrates in the tank so continue feeding less but i would agree with whoever said feed once a day in small portions, its much healthier for the fish than feeding twice a week that is very low. As long as you do not feed more than the fish will consume within a couple of minutes your waste will go down and the algae will not have as much nitrates to feed off of and grow. Even if you got water from a friend all of your equipment wills till be cycling and catching up to the water and rocks in terms of bacteria build up.

Ok, i will definitely feed my fish less. smaller quantities everyday. thank you for the input. =]