U-G-L-Y

[LeftFootedJedi]

Tank has been up for 2 months now. It went through a quick ugly stage of brown algae growth on rocks, Trochus snail obliterated it in 2 days. Now, the brown algae has come back faster & stronger and is now on the sand too.

I know the Uglies is practically a right of passage but how do you keep it reasonably under control? Brush off the rocks? Blast the sand with a turkey blaster & wait?

Parameters are good, tank stock seems in line (2 juvenile clowns, 1 - royal gamma, 1 - yellow watchmen, trochus & nassarius snails, 3 hermits.

 

[LiveWire]

it will pass in time but being that you have no corals in the system I would sugest that you do a lights out for a while. Also posting what your parameters are will be very helpful.

 

[New&no clue]

Keep your nitrates and phosphates in-line and maybe up your CUC, depending on tank size

 

[vetteguy53081]

Never too many snails. Reduce white intensity slightly, use rowaphos or similar in sump and test your RO occasionally to assure it is not a culprit of diatoms, etc

 

[LeftFootedJedi]

I’ve got a 20G AIO, no sump

PH - 8.0
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10-20??

overfeeding perhaps?

 

[Raj]

Marc Weiss Organics Algae Magic - it worked miracles for me!

 

[reefhomie]

Snails reduce light and it will pass!

 

[LeftFootedJedi]

Reducing white lights or all lights by ___ %? 25%, 50%?

In hindsight I think I am overfeeding too. Every tank is different but this is my current regiment.

day 1: 1/2 block of brine shrimp.
day 2: 1/2 block of mysis and a few small algae pellets.

my clowns devour all the brine shrimp & spit out everything else, so day 2 is really for the gamma & goby. On screen that sounds like a lot for a 20G.

 

[IMegaSquirt]

1/2 a block?!

 

[LeftFootedJedi]

Oh wait.. sorry 1/4. Forgot I cut it 2x.

 

[Angelwolf21203]

Feeding frozen so often will definitely lead to problems, in my opinion. Do you thaw and strain it, at least?

 

[chefjpaul]

Add things that eat (fish), add thing that eat fish waste (coral), add thing that eat excess waste and the results of - (cuc - snails, urchins etc), add things that consume all waste leftovers (macros, pods, & nutrient export).. create ecosystem = time.

 

[Angelwolf21203]

Add things that eat (fish), add thing that eat fish waste (coral), add thing that eat excess waste and the results of - (cuc - snails, urchins etc), add things that consume all waste leftovers (macros, pods, & nutrient export).. create ecosystem = time.

Well said!

 

[LeftFootedJedi]

No straining. I put the brine in my feeder direct from the freezer & thaw out the mysis in a shot glass with tank water.. then target feed the goby with a turkeybaster.

I did add a bottle of copepods from LFS about a week ago.

 

[Angelwolf21203]

You don't want all the water from thawing in your tank. That will push up the nutrients and cause the issues you're seeing.

 

[LeftFootedJedi]

I’ve been doing that for nearly 6 wks, but can see that might be a contributing factor. Is the amount of food too much?

 

[Angelwolf21203]

It's the super dense nutrient content. It pushes up your phosphate and if you don't have enough nitrifying bacteria to handle it, it skyrockets fueling the algal and bacterial growth. I would only feed the frozen on occasion. Like maybe twice a week? And when you do, strain it after it's thawed and rinse a little with some more tank water, but let that go down the drain. Vary their diet with other foods like high quality pellets and flakes. You can feed several types of those foods so they will get a variety of foods and nutrients too. I feed Omega One Marine Flakes (when I can't get the Cobalt flakes), Hikari Marine A pellets, New Life Spectrum Thera+A, Cobalt Aquatics Omni Plus Flakes with Probiotics, 1 floret of broccoli daily (treating a fish with HLLE, and my tang loves it too), and only rarely do I give some of Rods Reef Frenzy or mysis shrimp. When I had seahorses, I had to feed frozen, and I ran into the exact same problems you are having. Never had any issues until I fed frozen.

 

[Angelwolf21203]

Oh yeah, and I feed my corals Hikari Corallific Delight twice a week.

I don't claim to be an expert, by any means. I'm just speaking from my own experience. I hope it helps!

 

[LeftFootedJedi]

I dimmed the whites by about 50%.. will add another snail or two this weekend & monitor feeding much closer. We’ll see if that does the trick.. along with time.

 

[Angelwolf21203]

Hope it helps for your tank! Hang in there, and remember, it takes about twice as long to fix a problem than it did to create it. So 6 weeks of brewing = 12 weeks of fighting to fix. Good luck, and hang in there!