So much green!!!!

[michaelabellz]

So my tank is covered in green algae everywhere. We’ve been having this issue for awhile now, I’d say for about a month or more now. We assumed it was gonna turn to beneficial algae like coralline but it seems to just be getting worse. So do you think we should just give it time or take some action. Read a few things about taking out your rocks and scrubbing them but it’s definitely more difficult with the amount of rocks we have.

 

[michaelabellz]

Also you can kind of see on the picture all the little white dots on my glass. They are all hydroid jellyfish. I know they say some can be fine but just 2 days ago I could only notice about 5 and now they’re almost covering my glass. Should I try scraping them off or just leave them?

 

[Fernthereefer]

I order to help you we will need:

Age of the tank (seems young)
Live vs Dry rock start?
Your parameters

From what I see it seems an ugly phase in a cycling tank, actually not that bad (seen worse).

 

[hellbullett]

Also you can kind of see on the picture all the little white dots on my glass. They are all hydroid jellyfish. I know they say some can be fine but just 2 days ago I could only notice about 5 and now they’re almost covering my glass. Should I try scraping them off or just leave them?

Hi will need a bit of information How long has the tank been running
What’s your set up
Water test results to see if it’s all good

 

[hellbullett]

Snap

 

[Nick Steele]

Seems like a new tank. If so then this is normal corse of action and those rocks should turn a purple color soon.

 

[Alex808]

I dosed a little bit of coralline fertilizers early on and used lived rock pieces to seed one of my nano set ups. Helped a lot.

 

[Jeffcb]

Do you have a UV filter. If not you might try that.

 

[michaelabellz]

I order to help you we will need:

Age of the tank (seems young)
Live vs Dry rock start?
Your parameters

From what I see it seems an ugly phase in a cycling tank, actually not that bad (seen worse).

So the tank is about 6 months old. Started with dry rock but live sand. Salt-1.025 mag-1350 ph- 8.2 alk- 12.7 (I know it’s a little high we’ve been doing water changes to reduce it I just don’t want to take it down drastically and stress the livestock) and phosphate is reading at 0 which is odd because there has to be phosphate for algae to grow. But maybe the algae is eating it too fast to even get a reading?

 

[michaelabellz]

Do you have a UV filter. If not you might try that.

We do have that. We used it when the tank was cloudy but i thought it was only going to reduce the algae in the water not reduce the algae that’s on the rocks and sand bed.

 

[michaelabellz]

Seems like a new tank. If so then this is normal corse of action and those rocks should turn a purple color soon.

Okay thank you.

 

[Tired]

That's natural. Your dry rock is a fresh new place for algae to grow, so you're going to see lots of algae growing. In fact, this is good! It's the first stage of your rock starting to mature. And doesn't it look better than all that stark white? That short green algae is beneficial algae, it competes with the pest algaes. Pest algaes are things like green hair algae and cyano (technically that's a bacteria, but it acts like algae), that grow fast enough to grow over corals and irritate them. Slower-growing algaes that stay on your rockwork and don't bother corals are beneficial, as they feed your tank's microfauna and compete with the pests. Coraline isn't the only beneficial algae.

You need to keep nitrates at 5ppm or higher, and phosphates at, bare minimum, 0.03ppm. Corals need both nutrients to survive, and beneficial algae also needs it.

Give it time. You may have some surges of pest algae once that's introduced on frag plugs or other solid surfaces. Don't mess with it. If any long hair algae appears, pull it out by hand so the short stuff is easy for the snails to eat. If any cyano shows up, ignore it or manually remove it.
Once you start having more algae on everything, introduce or increase a cleanup crew. You don't want them to reduce the algae, or they'll run out and starve, you just want them to keep the algae from spreading rapidly.

Coraline can take a long time to get established. It may not show up at all if it hasn't been introduced yet. See if you can find someone with some empty shells or frag plugs, something of that sort, that have coraline on them. Adding that to your tank will add coraline. The coraline may not spread for now, though, it likes a slightly more established tank. Dry rock takes a long time to get established- it takes years for dry rock in the ocean to really mature, and dry rock in an aquarium is at a massive disadvantage when it comes to being exposed to biodiverse organisms.

Do not scrub your rock. All that does is make it clean again and set it back to zero- which means pest algae can spread on it again. It hurts the rock's maturity, and the algae will spread back in.

 

[Jeffcb]

We do have that. We used it when the tank was cloudy but i thought it was only going to reduce the algae in the water not reduce the algae that’s on the rocks and sand bed.

I would turn it on. I run mine 24/7. Try adding more to your clean up crew. I like Astraea snails best.

 

[michaelabellz]

That's natural. Your dry rock is a fresh new place for algae to grow, so you're going to see lots of algae growing. In fact, this is good! It's the first stage of your rock starting to mature. And doesn't it look better than all that stark white? That short green algae is beneficial algae, it competes with the pest algaes. Pest algaes are things like green hair algae and cyano (technically that's a bacteria, but it acts like algae), that grow fast enough to grow over corals and irritate them. Slower-growing algaes that stay on your rockwork and don't bother corals are beneficial, as they feed your tank's microfauna and compete with the pests. Coraline isn't the only beneficial algae.

You need to keep nitrates at 5ppm or higher, and phosphates at, bare minimum, 0.03ppm. Corals need both nutrients to survive, and beneficial algae also needs it.

Give it time. You may have some surges of pest algae once that's introduced on frag plugs or other solid surfaces. Don't mess with it. If any long hair algae appears, pull it out by hand so the short stuff is easy for the snails to eat. If any cyano shows up, ignore it or manually remove it.
Once you start having more algae on everything, introduce or increase a cleanup crew. You don't want them to reduce the algae, or they'll run out and starve, you just want them to keep the algae from spreading rapidly.

Coraline can take a long time to get established. It may not show up at all if it hasn't been introduced yet. See if you can find someone with some empty shells or frag plugs, something of that sort, that have coraline on them. Adding that to your tank will add coraline. The coraline may not spread for now, though, it likes a slightly more established tank. Dry rock takes a long time to get established- it takes years for dry rock in the ocean to really mature, and dry rock in an aquarium is at a massive disadvantage when it comes to being exposed to biodiverse organisms.

Do not scrub your rock. All that does is make it clean again and set it back to zero- which means pest algae can spread on it again. It hurts the rock's maturity, and the algae will spread back in.

Okay great! Thank you so so much that definitely helped a lot. So I’ll leave the tank the way it is and as for the nitrates I was reading at about 1. So should I get something to dose or will it eventually come up on it’s own. I also do weekly water changes on my tank.

 

[michaelabellz]

I would turn it on. I run mine 24/7. Try adding more to your clean up crew. I like Astraea snails best.

Okay thanks! But doesn’t the UV kill all the good bacteria too?

 

[Tired]

Your good bacteria live on your rock, not in the water.

A UV filter will kill beneficial phytoplankton in the water, though, and won't do much about the algae on the rockwork. Which you shouldn't be killing anyway.

Hydroid jellyfish surge in new tanks sometimes. They'll go away on their own.

What do you have in the tank, and how much do you feed? Do you feed the corals? Make sure you're feeding your fish daily, as much as they want to eat. That's a good way to keep nutrients up, that and feeding the corals. Heavy feeding and appropriate water changes to keep the nutrients reasonable usually makes for a healthier tank than light feeding and light water changes. Coral reefs get lots of nutrients.

 

[plc001]

Michael,

Like others mention, yes its normal, as a matter of fact, its a good sign! I have a 40b that its over 4 moth old and I'm in the same stage. Do what you are doing and enjoy the process!

 

[Rmckoy]

Okay great! Thank you so so much that definitely helped a lot. So I’ll leave the tank the way it is and as for the nitrates I was reading at about 1. So should I get something to dose or will it eventually come up on it’s own. I also do weekly water changes on my tank.

They are testing at 1 but in theory , they are a lot higher ....

When algae is present they absorb ( not sure if that’s the right word ) phosphates and nitrates as those nutrients along with lighting is essential to their growth

 

[Tired]

That does happen, but OP isn't showing much algae in the tank, all things considered. The nutrients aren't very much higher than that. If the rocks were coated in long hair algae, I'd agree that a lot of nutrients are probably being used up, what with the larger mass of algae.

The average tank should read 5ppm nitrate and over 0.03 phosphate at all times, so those nutrients are at least somewhat easily available to the corals. Some corals prefer more nitrates. Some tanks run fine with less nutrients on the test readouts, but as a general rule, those are good minimum numbers.

 

[schuby]

As you seem to be aware, you shouldn't try to get rid of all algae or bacteria. If you did, then you would have a sterile, dead tank where nothing would grow.

Do you have any fish? Don't see any but they may be hiding. Feeding fish is the beginning of the food chain. Fish poop is very beneficial for corals. Too low phosphate and nitrate indicates the need for more fish or more fish food, IMO.

Take everything you hear on here with a grain of salt. Don't take any severe or drastic actions and you will have more long-term success. Balanced import/export and healthy biological competition are good goals.

Good luck! Your tank looks just like it should at this point.