Green Algae growing
- Thread starter Ktexe66
- Start date
What do you run to get rid of nitrates? From experience, I’ve found that a tank can be giving you great readings, but be full of all sorts of pest algae. It’s because the green that you’re seeing is actually feeding off of the nitrates and keeping them lower. Until you replace it with another way to export nutrients, like a refugium, those pest algae are doing you a favor
Oh ok! What I have been doing is running a skimmer, in my sump. Weekly water changes and have been adding some soft coral frags but probably not enough yet to complete for the nutrients. I guess will add a few more fast growers to compete and try and do a little bit larger water change this week. Thanks for the info.
The tank looks fairly new correct? Phosphates are high as well. Try to get them from .25 down to .05. Add some astrea, trochous and mexican turbo snails. Try to find a mrmber that can give uou some coraline algae scrapings to seed the coraline. Add a tang or lawnmower blenny. And manually remove as much algae as possible and blow off the rocks with a turkey baster every day.
Coral will not out compete algae a refugium or algae reactor will.
If you are close to lithonia ill give you some cheato and coraline scrapings for free
This is what I was thinking. It’s a mistake I made early on in the hobby as well. Your best bet right now is to limit the addition of living creatures in the tank until you can tackle the nutrient control. I highly recommend a refugium in your sump. Even some chaeto in an eggcrate tray with a cfl bulb over them is better than nothing. Do you have any room to spare in your sump?
Also, another thing I can see potentially causing problems is too much rock in your display. I’m not an expert, but in my experience it can be a hub for nuisance algae.
The excess rock provides a surplus of low flow areas where algae can really take root, and then excess food that your livestock does not eat can fall into tiny crevasses where it just rots.
I had this problem for over a year starting out, so I cut my amount of live rock in half, and then began feeding frozen and pellet foods over the sand bed specifically.
Reach out to me if you have any questions. I have pictures of my tank looking exactly like this, so I’d love to help you through it. I have a ton of regrets that would have saved me a lot of money if I were to have tackled them earlier on.
The excess rock provides a surplus of low flow areas where algae can really take root, and then excess food that your livestock does not eat can fall into tiny crevasses where it just rots.
I had this problem for over a year starting out, so I cut my amount of live rock in half, and then began feeding frozen and pellet foods over the sand bed specifically.
Reach out to me if you have any questions. I have pictures of my tank looking exactly like this, so I’d love to help you through it. I have a ton of regrets that would have saved me a lot of money if I were to have tackled them earlier on.
Yes the tank has only been set up for 3 months. Added a pair of clowns after it cycled then a cleanup crew after a couple weeks. They did a nice job with the initial diatom bloom. Added a lawn mower blennie and a couple frags mushrooms, zoas, Duncan’s . Getting coralline on the rock work. Just that the green algae started out growing the coralline. I do have room in my sump to add some Chaeto. Is the CFL bulb a full spectrum bulb ?
I would definitely get some chaeto running asap then. I also don’t think coralline really is good competition for nuisance algae. CFL bulbs are just your cheapo twisty bulbs from lowes. I have a couple red/blue led bulbs that I can give you that just plug into any old clamp light. I’m in Temple which is just over a half hour from Hiram.
Just a side note: I lost a lot of coral before I finally added a refugium. I assumed that the good water parameters meant everything was fine, but little by little the algae took over and choked them out. That’s why I’m urging you to get it before it gets bad. Also, you can have a cup or so of my chaeto to get you started when you come get the lights if you want that too.
Here are a couple photos of the tank and sump to give you a better idea of how I have everything setup
Attachments
The light bulbs that I’m talking about. I used to run them in my refugium before I got my AI Prime fuge light.
Not a bad setup. Is that first chamber in your sump just rock? That’s where I’d put in the refugium if I were you. Realistically you want it and the skimmer to both get water directly from the tank, but that’s not possible with the sump that you have, so I’d prioritize the refugium first since it’s the main export of nutrients, and that way it will have its own area to keep it out of your return pump and skimmer. You could move the rock into the skimmer chamber.
If you don't mine I'll give you my two cent on this matter. Your tank looks fairly new so I would leave it alone while your tank mature more. Add clean up crew like urchin, some astraea snails and start a refugium to out compete it.
"Nothing good happens quickly in reefing"
"Nothing good happens quickly in reefing"
