Please id

[Alex7845]

3 months old 250l rsm tank
Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate undetectable
Phosphate 0.1
Kh a bit low will start dosing
Sg 1025

Corals and few fish very happy
Cuc = few shrimp and about 6-8 various snails

Using hydra 26 led and saxby profile

These algae started growing last week and quickly expanding

Many thanks for the id and advice if any
Cheers

 

[reef lover]

Hair algae. Manual removal. Keep parameters stable . It should work itself out as tank matures.

 

[Alex7845]

Hair algae. Manual removal. Keep parameters stable . It should work itself out as tank matures.

Thanks very much

Thinking of a lawnmower blenny. They got some at the lfs

 

[dansreef]

Suggest manual removal as suggested above and control of your phosphates. You should be looking to get them <.03 ideally. You are high at .1 .

 

[Alex7845]

Ok will do thanks

So scrubbing the glass and trying to not let it fly in the water and cleaning the sand ok
But how you get it out of the rock?

 

[reef lover]

Once things stable out there wont be as much available nutrients and it will die off. Also that algae blenny will have it scraped down in no time!

 

[Alex7845]

Is it by doing water changes that I’ll get the PO4 down ?
Sorry quite a newbie here. And thanks

 

[dansreef]

Hi.

Suggest the following:

• reduce the amount of food your feeding and perhaps the type of food being fed. Frozen food rinsed in RO/DI water will have a less negative impact than flakes or pellets. Not knowing how much you feed and what you feed and to what you feed, my guess is perhaps you are feeding too much. I could be wrong. I would start with cutting 1/2 the amount you feed. Don't worry, your fish wont starve.
• water changes are good for exporting Nitrates and Phosphates. This also is good to keep other needed nutrients in harmony
• what do you use for water top off.... replacing evaporation. Are you using RO/DI? If not, then I would suggest you do so. Not using RO/DI can bring in nutrients you do not want.
• look at adding an algae reactor, scrubber or a simple refugium to the sump of your tank, of course, if you are using one. This is as easy or as difficult as you want to make it. You can research all sorts of possibilities. Costs vary widely.
• as a last resort, there are all sorts of chemical approaches. I tend to stay away from them as much as I can and opt for more natural solutions like an algae scrubber. NoPoX is one solution from Red Sea. Lanthium Chloride is another possible solution. There are all sorts of concoctions sold in the hobby to help drive down Phosphates and Nitrates which are the most common parameters that get out of whack. I think they all have merit as long as you are careful and controlled in your approach.

Of course, you can get a lawnmower blenny. He will devour your algae. Once it is gone he will be unhappy. Your tank is still very young. It is still going through ugly stages. Excess nutrients and algae can and will happen. We all have dealt with it...and it can be a struggle. If you can get your phosphates under .03 and keep it there, then you will see the algae dissipate. As the tank matures you will need to continue to monitor the nitrate and phosphate levels and keep them in control and consistent to be able to keep algae at bay.

Good Luck!

 

[Alex7845]

Hi and thanks for the detailed answers, really helpful

I think that it is a combination of new tank syndrome and me trying to feed that Goni. I had that beautiful goni that i was sold for an easy beginners coral. It stopped extending tentacles and then i was sold some reef pulse food for it.
This may have caused a large increase in nutrients and the algae growth

will do some manual removal and increase water changes to 10-20% twice weekly

Top ups - yes RODI water

Water changes - i use natural sea water that i buy from then LFS as many people do here in Queensland - said to be very good but maybe contains more nutrients than i think

Feeding fish - i will definitely divide by 2 and also rince in RO water - wasnt rincing at all

Sump and algae reactor - i am using the inbuilt back sump of the red sea tank for now and have made the challenge not to upgrade to a more complex system before a while. This will be a good exercise in understanding what i need and why
Was actually thinking of adding a bit of macro algae to the tank. Eelgrass and some other macro seem to be sprouting at the moment around where i live and it' be easy to go and get some sprouts, clean them and plant them in a quiet corner of the tank

PO4 binders - i will try to stay away from this kind of chemicals as it seems to defeat the purpose of having a balanced ecosystem

PO4 now reads 0 consistently, but i read elsewhere that it may be due to actual consumption by the hair algae rather than better water quality

blenny - i didnt resist it was too cute, got a baby one so not sure how much it is going to eat

Thanks

A-