Algae issue

[Yamaxt660]

Hi everyone hoping some one can help with my algae issue. The tank has been up and running sine 4th December with live rock and live sand, I put fish in around second week in January (2 clowns) and stats are good. I recently put rowaphos in chamber at back and replaced lights and new skimmer. This is starting to baffle me now if anyone can suggest anything I will be more than grateful.

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[Yamaxt660]

Hi everyone hoping some one can help with my algae issue. The tank has been up and running sine 4th December with live rock and live sand, I put fish in around second week in January (2 clowns) and stats are good. I recently put rowaphos in chamber at back and replaced lights and new skimmer. This is starting to baffle me now if anyone can suggest anything I will be more than grateful.

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Forgot to add pictures

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[Oldreeferman]

Hello,
I'm seeing red cyano bacteria spreading on the substrate and some general green algae on the rocks that is/can be a normal headache of a new tank that is working out the kinks of stability and having a nutrient blossom.
From my exp i found water changes didn't help at all, running carbon didn't help at all, and running less light didn't help in the long run either it simply had to run its course.
What i did do is finally decided to run Chemiclean red cyano treatment and that completely removed it.
Had to do this 2 times during the early months of break in until DT matured and now i have had no more issues.
Its totally safe for everything in the tank so have no fear we all have been there with this issue. Main thing is follow instructions to the letter and additional areation while doing treatment is a must. Also skimmer will go bonkers so just let it overflow back into tank or sump will help aeration big time

 

[Yamaxt660]

Hello,
I'm seeing red cyano bacteria spreading on the substrate and some general green algae on the rocks that is/can be a normal headache of a new tank that is working out the kinks of stability and having a nutrient blossom.
From my exp i found water changes didn't help at all, running carbon didn't help at all, and running less light didn't help in the long run either it simply had to run its course.
What i did do is finally decided to run Chemiclean red cyano treatment and that completely removed it.
Had to do this 2 times during the early months of break in until DT matured and now i have had no more issues.
Its totally safe for everything in the tank so have no fear we all have been there with this issue. Main thing is follow instructions to the letter and additional areation while doing treatment is a must. Also skimmer will go bonkers so just let it overflow back into tank or sump will help aeration big time

Hello there!! Thank you for this useful information its a great help. I have got to the stage where I don't know what to do. I will have ago at chemiclean and see what happens.

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[Imaexpat2]

What size is this tank and is this your first foray into Salt Water tanks? What do you have for a clean up crew? How often are you feeding those fish and how much are you feeding them when you do?

Chimiclean will temporarily solve your cyno problem but its a lot like being ill and instead of treating the problem your going to be treating the symptoms of the illness, not the root cause. In my experience you get Cyno and Algae issues due to too much nutrients, inadequate biological filtration and inadequate flow. Pretty common issues in a newly set up tank.

I have a 20 gallon tank I just set up thats about the same age and I dont have these problems. I think one of the biggest reasons I dont have these issues is I started with very well cycled live rock = good biological filtration. I started off with 10 lbs of Garf Grunge for substrate = good biological filtration. My Garf Grunge came with lots of "bugs" and "creepy crawly's" (two mini brittle stars came in with it too!) that live on my substrate and rock. All good things for a tank, especially a new one! Next I stole a couple of hermits and about a dozen Banded Troches snails that were off spring from a spawning event a few months back in my main tank. I added a couple of shrimp just for good measure. I have no fish as of yet...but I am thinking about one or two in the not too distant future to be added one at a time and about a month apart to allow my system to adjust and compensate for the added bio-load. For filtration I am running a Aquaclear 70 hob filter with sponge and carbon only. Lights are a 4 x 24 inch T5HO. A very basic no frills tank set up. I have added three corals thus far...Emeralds on Fire Zoas that was 7 polyps and now has 17 polyps on it, a Single polyp Duncan coral that now has three Polyps, a Frag of Nirvana Zoa's that stated with 4 polyps two weeks ago and now has 6 polyps. Th live rock that had just a few specs of coralline algae now has about 25% coverage and specs of it popping up on the heater, the filter and the back glass. Other than an occasional powdering of green algae on the glass that I handle with a quick swipe of an algae magnet across the glass, and I have no algae issues. The corals in this very new tank havent been fed other than what they get from what the system is producing and light over the tank.

My point in this long drawn out explanation is this...What are the big differences in these two tanks in the way they have been set up and are being run? In this hobby, which I have been in for a couple of decades now, its become apparent to me that in addition to a well thought out system and plan, you got to proceed slow and steady, not fast and furious....its a journey, not a race! Think about it....did Mother Nature just pick a spot in the ocean and create a reef in 2 1/2 months or did she form that reef over a period of time slowly but surely?

 

[Yamaxt660]

What size is this tank and is this your first foray into Salt Water tanks? What do you have for a clean up crew? How often are you feeding those fish and how much are you feeding them when you do?

Chimiclean will temporarily solve your cyno problem but its a lot like being ill and instead of treating the problem your going to be treating the symptoms of the illness, not the root cause. In my experience you get Cyno and Algae issues due to too much nutrients, inadequate biological filtration and inadequate flow. Pretty common issues in a newly set up tank.

I have a 20 gallon tank I just set up thats about the same age and I dont have these problems. I think one of the biggest reasons I dont have these issues is I started with very well cycled live rock = good biological filtration. I started off with 10 lbs of Garf Grunge for substrate = good biological filtration. My Garf Grunge came with lots of "bugs" and "creepy crawly's" (two mini brittle stars came in with it too!) that live on my substrate and rock. All good things for a tank, especially a new one! Next I stole a couple of hermits and about a dozen Banded Troches snails that were off spring from a spawning event a few months back in my main tank. I added a couple of shrimp just for good measure. I have no fish as of yet...but I am thinking about one or two in the not too distant future to be added one at a time and about a month apart to allow my system to adjust and compensate for the added bio-load. For filtration I am running a Aquaclear 70 hob filter with sponge and carbon only. Lights are a 4 x 24 inch T5HO. A very basic no frills tank set up. I have added three corals thus far...Emeralds on Fire Zoas that was 7 polyps and now has 17 polyps on it, a Single polyp Duncan coral that now has three Polyps, a Frag of Nirvana Zoa's that stated with 4 polyps two weeks ago and now has 6 polyps. Th live rock that had just a few specs of coralline algae now has about 25% coverage and specs of it popping up on the heater, the filter and the back glass. Other than an occasional powdering of green algae on the glass that I handle with a quick swipe of an algae magnet across the glass, and I have no algae issues. The corals in this very new tank havent been fed other than what they get from what the system is producing and light over the tank.

My point in this long drawn out explanation is this...What are the big differences in these two tanks in the way they have been set up and are being run? In this hobby, which I have been in for a couple of decades now, its become apparent to me that in addition to a well thought out system and plan, you got to proceed slow and steady, not fast and furious....its a journey, not a race! Think about it....did Mother Nature just pick a spot in the ocean and create a reef in 2 1/2 months or did she form that reef over a period of time slowly but surely?

I have kent marine 94ltr tank about 4 years ago I gave up my 240ltr tank. I decided December last year ro start another tank in which I done everything like last time but some reason I'm experiencing this issue. Can not see where I'm going wrong. I don't have clean up crew only the 2 clowns.

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[Imaexpat2]

So your tank is about 94 Liters...thats about 20 vs 24 (if my math is correct) gallons making both our tanks about the same age and roughly close enough in size to be comprable in size. With the limited information I am seeing thus far in your post the following as possible...problems/cause and effects.

1. You current tank is about 40% the size of your previous tank or there abouts. In a smaller tank things change water quality wise much much faster than on a larger tank! It doesnt take much of a bio-load in that tank or feeding of that bio-load to send your water quality south in a hurry nutrient load wise. You can have some reasonable test results for Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates and still have pretty crappy water quality that will fuel algae growth. What you got away with in your 240 liter tank might not be adequate enough in your much smaller 94 liter tank. How often are you doing water changes and how much of a water change are you doing?

2. That tank has just finishing the cycle when you added fish to it. Granted they are pretty small fish and thats a good thing but thats still suddenly throwing a lot of bio-load at a very new tank and small tank, that hasnt really had time to stablize for you.

* Yeah I know I added corals to mine fairly quick but they are a very small bioload compared to your fish which makes it less of a load on my tank and much less of a sudden shock to my system.

3. No clean up crew. Whats in there to eat any uneaten food that makes it past your fish or are you feeding very sparingly? With no clean up crew or algae eating fish whats in there to eat algae thats going to form in your tank that the fish pooping are going to fuel?


4. Hows the water circulation in your tank? Do you have enough of it and do you have flow where you can prevent there being any dead spots where the water flow is limited? A good way I have found to test that is remove the cyno manually and if it crops back up in the same areas again in a few days then you have inadequate water flow for a healthy tank. My tank is about 76 liters and I have 1,135 liters of flow in it....roughly 15x the capacity of my tank. Thats some pretty brisk flow. It prevents dead spots and keeps detritus suspended long enough for my filter to suck most of it up instead of allowing it to collect in the sand bed or crevies in the rock work.

5. I am assuming you have substrate in your tank, if so, how often do you vacuum the gravel to remove detritus to prevent it from building up in the sand bed? I know over the years of reef keeping I was amazed at just how much Detritus will build up in a tank that just as live rock in it and a clean up crew on a bare bottom set up! It blew my mind!!!

 

[Oldreeferman]

Im also a big fan of doing partial vacuuming during ea monthly water change too, it is a bit shocking just how nasty it gets! I have noticed the substrate stays clean & white now too.
I only do about 1/4 of the bottom substrate and all the way to the bottom to get it back clean like new so the sys does not start a recycle as my DT is a small one also. Even the rockwork gets blasted all over once a month and filtered just before the water change, it gets nasty too fast on smaller systems!

 

[Yamaxt660]

Im also a big fan of doing partial vacuuming during ea monthly water change too, it is a bit shocking just how nasty it gets! I have noticed the substrate stays clean & white now too.
I only do about 1/4 of the bottom substrate and all the way to the bottom to get it back clean like new so the sys does not start a recycle as my DT is a small one also. Even the rockwork gets blasted all over once a month and filtered just before the water change, it gets nasty too fast on smaller systems!

Think I will start vacuuming my sand I will be putting some hermit crabs in there next week. I have today blasted rocks with turkey baster today and wow loads of waste coming out of rock. Done water change 10% so hopefully will get onto of this.

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[FishTankers]

Hi there,

The issue is very commonly that people are running their lights during the new tank cycling.

No lights for 4 months on a new tank is a great way to cut down on bad algae. All of the bad algae feeds on new tank organics and intense lighting compounds it.

Everyone wants lights but it can be great to wait.

Check out the BRS series on new tank cycling.

May the algae be gone!

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[Yamaxt660]

Hi there,

The issue is very commonly that people are running their lights during the new tank cycling.

No lights for 4 months on a new tank is a great way to cut down on bad algae. All of the bad algae feeds on new tank organics and intense lighting compounds it.

Everyone wants lights but it can be great to wait.

Check out the BRS series on new tank cycling.

May the algae be gone!

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Yeh I didn't have my lights on until first clown added.

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[FishTankers]

Fish don't really have a biological need for light to survive. I'm an Advanced Diver and have photographed Clownfish in very deep water in places on the reef where no direct Sunlight is ever present. The nems usually need to point toward light but Clownfish can care less.

Some of my photos below.

Anyways, I'm new on here but not new to reefkeeping or saltwater in general if that helps to know where the advice comes from.

Hopefully the light points are helpful.

Cheers

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[Yamaxt660]

Fish don't really have a biological need for light to survive. I'm an Advanced Diver and have photographed Clownfish in very deep water in places on the reef where no direct Sunlight is ever present. The nems usually need to point toward light but Clownfish can care less.

Some of my photos below.

Anyways, I'm new on here but not new to reefkeeping or saltwater in general if that helps to know where the advice comes from.

Hopefully the light points are helpful.

CheersView attachment 409552View attachment 409553View attachment 409554View attachment 409555

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Amazing pictures I thing my issue was probably not adding clean up crew. But will see what happens I did blow lots of waste off rocks other day with turkey baster hopefully this was the problem.

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[FishTankers]

I've found manual removal to be much better than a cleanup crew, unless a Tang is in the cleanup crew, so I agree that your turkey baster would have a more immediate effect.

Outside of an algae loving Tang, my experience with Cleanup crews on algae is that they mostly just eat the uneaten food and sometimes detritus, but they also add to the bioload so it's not the silver bullet.

I never noticed how much detritus comes from uneaten food and fish poop until I ran my first glass bottom tank. Picture a blueberry sized schmeg being added to your tank every day from just uneaten food and fish poo. It's remarkable.

Anyways, every challenge in a fish tank can be fun if you let it be. New tank cycling is something we all face, and it's fun to beat it at its own game.







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