Algae Bloom. Help!

Elevate

Elevate

New member
Tank is a month or so old now, 29 gallon, and the new 135 50/50 light making the algae grow like crazy. I have reduced the lighting time to 8 hours a day, got three big mexican turbo snails for the brownish (possibly diatom) algae, and a emerald crab for the bubble algae. I also got a few blue legged hermits for good measure and a horseshoe crab to stir the sand. This is the first day so we will see how all these additions control the algae. Any other tips or advice?



I put a phosphate sponge in the back of the filter (havnt set up a sump yet). Other preventive measures?
 
With a new light espially in a new setup should be brought up slowly.You want to limit the main light time and bring up slowly to reduce algea blooms.
 
All this algae you have is normal and will go away on its own in a few more weeks. Just keep up with it and you will be fine.

Otherwise, I always tell people to never buy anything to try and remedy a problem. You have to find out whats causing it (in this case the algae) and fix the problem.

I would take the horseshoe crab out and bring it back, they get very large over 2 feet in length and end up dying. The reason for this is due to there care level which is expert, and they have to have live food in the sand bed to survive. A enclosed environment cant support the space, the deep sand bed and the food they need to suyrvive.
 
what would you recommend as a good sand sifter? I have about 40 lbs of live sand in the tank, 29g, so it is about two inches deep. heard it can trap gases if it is too deep.
 
You will have gases being trapped in the sand period, it doesnt matter how deep the sand bed is for this to happen. This is normal to happen.

I would suggest a diamond back gobie to help with the sand bed. Make sure you have your rockwork very secure as these guys like to make burrows under rocks in the sand. If the rock isnt stabile you can crush them.
 
I can tell you from my tank I have setup, an Aquapod 24 for a month, that I just use my actinic’s 95% of the time. When your tank is finishing the cycle the water is really rich in nutrients that is ready to fuel the algae bloom, if you use tap water it makes it all the worse. My tank got brown on the sand when my nitrates were high, and it went away pretty quickly after the diatoms depleted their food source. But the cool thing I noticed is that my rock I got, Tonga and Walt Smith Fiji, is starting to get some bright green algae on it, not hair but the start of coralline algae. In my many months of reading the numerous boards they say that coralline algae loves actinic lighting. I guess with out the rambling I would just run the actinics for a while till the algae is gone. Just my $.02.
 
ahhhh.finally I see an answer to the question I had on another thread. The green stuff (not hair) this is good?!?!?! Awesome, I thought it was bad!
I do have some hairy red that I don't care for forming...just in the last 2 weeks. I did a water change yesterday evening sucking most of it out. By the time I got home tonight, almost back to the way it was 2 days ago! Wow, I hate it...not sure what it is!
janson
 
that is what I figured. Thanks for the reply. I was just sitting here looking at some more powerheads on ebay!
janson
 
yes. I like those. I may use another sub. pump I have for now. I'll get some of those come tax $$$ time!
janson
 
Elevate:

I found that the Astrea Snails do a better job than some of the others that I have in the tank, Margaritas,. Also the Nassarius Snail will burrow into the sand to clean detrius and areate the sand bed.
 
awesome...gonna check into those! Seems like a lot though??? (qty not $)
I added 700gph flow this morning! WOW...the clowns seem to like it! Not too sure wbout my pulsating zenia though! I had to move him to a new place and of course he shriviled up! There was a lot of crap in my tank! It all started moving around with all that new flow :)
janson
 
I added more flow yesterday and everything is settled down this morning. Whomever sold you that Horseshoe should be fired or worse. Irresponsible. You'll wish you had used sand instead of crushed coral, which contributes to nitrates. A Diamond Goby is not the answer if your substrate is crushed coral. They take sand through the mouth and out the gills and they can't do that with crushed coral. I'm slowly taking my cc out and replacing it with sand. I had to learn the hard way. Good luck to you.
 
I intend on doing the same. My wife and I decided we like the sand better too! Thanks.
janson
p.s. I don't have a horse shoe crab! (if that was for me :))
 
Thanks guys, the horseshoe is in a bag and will soon be back at the LFS! I have sand, not CC so I might look into getting goby. There was a really nice little two spot there yesterday.

In reference to the snails, Astrae and Nassarius, how many would you folk reccommend? 29 gallon, I already have three big mexican turbos.
 
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