- Location
- Far Rockaway 11691
from the pictures and your description of your algea on the rocks as "red algae" seems like you have cyanobacteria. a tang will not eat the cyano. you will have to cure the root of the problem with patience
Algae problems!!!!
- Thread starter ReefRookie08
- Start date
- Location
- Far Rockaway 11691
Thats great just be sure to keep reducing your phosphates and nutrients and you will be in good shape.
I have the marc weiss phosphate magnet and seachem de*nitrate running for about a week or so now.. I hope that helps, do you guys think cutting the lights off will only work for a few days than the cyano will come back?
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I find it interesting that you had gotten an algae bloom like that.
I have been using tap water for my WC and have yet to come across anything like that. The most that I see is that I get some browning on the glass, but this comes as food for my snails and limpets.
Could it quite be that your tank was still undergoing its cycle and the immediate rush of livestock created the excessive nitrate build up and cause the bloom?
Might also want to invest in some hermit crabs. Zebra hermits are supposed to be really good for eating cyanobacteria. Since your in Queens, I'll be more than glad to give you one of mine.
Word of warning... they grow quickly and tend to be aggressive towards snails. So it's I guess the downside of certain crabs.
I have been using tap water for my WC and have yet to come across anything like that. The most that I see is that I get some browning on the glass, but this comes as food for my snails and limpets.
Could it quite be that your tank was still undergoing its cycle and the immediate rush of livestock created the excessive nitrate build up and cause the bloom?
Might also want to invest in some hermit crabs. Zebra hermits are supposed to be really good for eating cyanobacteria. Since your in Queens, I'll be more than glad to give you one of mine.
Word of warning... they grow quickly and tend to be aggressive towards snails. So it's I guess the downside of certain crabs.
*Quick up date* most of the red slime has gone away I still have a decent amount on one of my rocks but it seems to be going away slowly....I've had my lights off for a day and a half now and it seems to be working. umm....skene I think you have a point I'm not a patient person at all...
I added a fish per week after I let my tank cycle for about 3 weeks. ( not the best idea) I had another clown fish other then my current one but was killed by the one I have now. I didn't even think about that possibility... and it seems like I did add fish to quickly. I've been wanting to get rid of the clown fish anyways for a while now.... skene I'll be more than happy to trade my clown for hermits
I added a fish per week after I let my tank cycle for about 3 weeks. ( not the best idea) I had another clown fish other then my current one but was killed by the one I have now. I didn't even think about that possibility... and it seems like I did add fish to quickly. I've been wanting to get rid of the clown fish anyways for a while now.... skene I'll be more than happy to trade my clown for hermitsskene,
Do you have a reef tank? I'm curious since I also live in queens and use tap water for my water changes. I don't have any corals as yet and so far I have no problems with algae (just the brown stuff on the glass which is food for the snails). I'm going to start adding some soft corals. I use water from a Pur faucet mount filter and use Seachem's Prime water conditioner.
i have a 5.5g and i use tap water to top off. now i stoped, but ive never had an algae bloom. i have 5 snails and 1 hermit. but never under estimate what you snails can do. and im amazed that your having that problem with more water volume than me. but yea keep cutting back your light and try to get some snail 6 at lease. and a varienty of hermits may be 3 medium sized ones of difrent sorts. thats what there made for. hope your tank get better.
I don't think TAP water was the single (if at all) culprit here.
Cut back on your lights, do a water change, feed MUCH MUCH less and put in some carbon along with PhosGuard in your filter.
2 questions.
Do you have a skimmer?
Do you have a refugium?
Cut back on your lights, do a water change, feed MUCH MUCH less and put in some carbon along with PhosGuard in your filter.
2 questions.
Do you have a skimmer?
Do you have a refugium?
- Location
- Baiting Hollow Long Island NY
Don't get crazy, that little bit of algae you have in there is perfectly normal and does not mean you did something wrong.
I also boubt your tap water had anything to do with it. If you live in Queens I think it is still supplied with water through the 100 year old cobblestone lined water tunnels which is great water. When the new tunnels are put into full operation I would not use the water as they will be full of silicates and everything else that leaches out of new cement.
Algae is not a disease and you can't cure it. It grows on every healthy reef in the world and if it does not grow, something is wrong.
You don't see algae on reefs because at night armies of urchins cover every inch of the rock and they scrape the areas that the tangs cleaned in the day.
I have many times dove at night to see this.
It is not nitrate or phosphate that is causing this although those substances will cause it to grow larger and faster. We all have enough of these pollutants in our tanks to grow algae but algae needs special conditions to grow and sometimes our tanks just don't provide them.
Our corals need these substances also to nourish the symbiotic algaes in their tissues.
Algae is self limiting and will only grow when it has all of it's needed elements, as soon as one element is gone, it will stop growing.
If you could manually remove it with say a tooth brush and filter out the pieces that would hasten the process.
It is only a problem if it starts to overrun the tank, what you have is natural and healthy. Probably healthier than someone's tank where no algae will grow.
If it bothers you look at this very old picture of my reef. You don't have to look too closely to see the hair algae covering anything. Now this was a problem. Want to know how I eliminated it?
I reduced feeding and let it grow. All at once, when the nutrients ran out, it died overnight and I sucked the dead algae out with a canister filter.
My reef is almost 40 years old and this has happened a few times. Always with the same result, it disappears so don't get crazy.
I know all about the dozens of algae "cures", the hermits, snails, sea hares, urchins, tangs, phosguard, and grenades.
Time and patience will eliminate it and it will leave on it's own. Just feed much less to hasten the process.
Now I am going to say something that will elicit huge negative responses.
Don't change the water until the algae disappears.
Yes I know all about changing water but it is the water you are adding that is fueling the algae. Let the algae absorb the nutrients until they are gone and it dies or you manually remove it, then change the water with RO water.
After the algae dies, don't let it rot in the water or it will return.
Good luck
I also boubt your tap water had anything to do with it. If you live in Queens I think it is still supplied with water through the 100 year old cobblestone lined water tunnels which is great water. When the new tunnels are put into full operation I would not use the water as they will be full of silicates and everything else that leaches out of new cement.
Algae is not a disease and you can't cure it. It grows on every healthy reef in the world and if it does not grow, something is wrong.
You don't see algae on reefs because at night armies of urchins cover every inch of the rock and they scrape the areas that the tangs cleaned in the day.
I have many times dove at night to see this.
It is not nitrate or phosphate that is causing this although those substances will cause it to grow larger and faster. We all have enough of these pollutants in our tanks to grow algae but algae needs special conditions to grow and sometimes our tanks just don't provide them.
Our corals need these substances also to nourish the symbiotic algaes in their tissues.
Algae is self limiting and will only grow when it has all of it's needed elements, as soon as one element is gone, it will stop growing.
If you could manually remove it with say a tooth brush and filter out the pieces that would hasten the process.
It is only a problem if it starts to overrun the tank, what you have is natural and healthy. Probably healthier than someone's tank where no algae will grow.
If it bothers you look at this very old picture of my reef. You don't have to look too closely to see the hair algae covering anything. Now this was a problem. Want to know how I eliminated it?
I reduced feeding and let it grow. All at once, when the nutrients ran out, it died overnight and I sucked the dead algae out with a canister filter.
My reef is almost 40 years old and this has happened a few times. Always with the same result, it disappears so don't get crazy.
I know all about the dozens of algae "cures", the hermits, snails, sea hares, urchins, tangs, phosguard, and grenades.
Time and patience will eliminate it and it will leave on it's own. Just feed much less to hasten the process.
Now I am going to say something that will elicit huge negative responses.
Don't change the water until the algae disappears.
Yes I know all about changing water but it is the water you are adding that is fueling the algae. Let the algae absorb the nutrients until they are gone and it dies or you manually remove it, then change the water with RO water.
After the algae dies, don't let it rot in the water or it will return.
Good luck
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