Question

[skybird]

I added part of my CUC yesterday, i think about 20 crabs. And literally overnight i had algae blooms all over the tank and sand, is this natural, or two totally unrelated events?

 

[rolo65]

It's possibly related....are the crabs the first thing added to the tank after cycling....if so the waste they produced gave a slight rise in nitrates leading to the bloom....they will end up clearing out much of it and then it will clear up on it's own....

 

[skybird]

no, i have a clowny in there too, i guess it could just be they are eating all the crap no pun intended, and their crap is causing the bloom

 

[budsreef]

What color is the algae and how long has the tank been running? If the tank is new and the algae is brown then that is a normal seemingly overnight occurance. It seems any new tank goes through a diatom bloom that is really ugly but clears up after a while. If the tank has been running a while and the algae is green then I think it is a coincidence. Assuming the crabs are hermits, I doubt they could have had that much of an influence in less than 24hrs.

 

[jennm]

I doubt anything could cause an algae bloom in that short of time.

Probably just your regularly scheduled diatom bloom.

Jenn

 

[skybird]

im not freaking out about it, and by the sounds of things i shouldnt be, so

just a slight moment of panic, when i came down for my coffee yesterday and saw it

 

[brianjfinn]

How long has the tank been up?

 

[skybird]

two weeks...

 

[kayakatl]

Then that bloom is right on time. It will get worse befor it gets better. It is one of the necessary evils of a new tank. go get some snails to help keep it under control.

 

[trigger-happy]

Get some snails. Seriously: GET SOME SNAILS. My tank had an ENORMOUS algae/diatom bloom. I plopped five small Nerite snails from ReefCleaners.org in there, and ten hours later, all the hair algae and the diatoms were gone. Not a speck in sight.