Algae on the sand in our tank

[bec1750]

Hello all!!! We are very new to the hobby. Our tank is about a month and a half old and its a 32 galloon biocube. We have white sand on the bottom of our tank and we are starting to accumulate some algae. In the tank we currently have 2 clowns, a striped blenny, 3 small/baby crabs and 3 snails. I am looking for advise on how to get rid of that algae. Thank you!! Rebecca

 

[billdogg]

Your tank is still very new. Various algaes are to be expected, especially in the early stages (Fondly known as the "new tank uglies").

Is your tank 6 weeks since it was cycled, or since you put water in it? Either way, you need to keep a close eye on the basic parameters, Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate. Ammonia at any level is very toxic, and Nitrite can be as well.

As for the algae, you can easily remove much if it during your regular water changes. It will continue to grow back, but eventually, as your tank matures, you will get on top of it.

hth!

 

[mcgyvr]

^^ What he said
Welcome to a new tank..

 

[bec1750]

Your tank is still very new. Various algaes are to be expected, especially in the early stages (Fondly known as the "new tank uglies").

Is your tank 6 weeks since it was cycled, or since you put water in it? Either way, you need to keep a close eye on the basic parameters, Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate. Ammonia at any level is very toxic, and Nitrite can be as well.

As for the algae, you can easily remove much if it during your regular water changes. It will continue to grow back, but eventually, as your tank matures, you will get on top of it.

hth!

Ok cool. I didn't know if maybe we were supposed to have a goby or something in there to clean the sand. It's not out of control or anything just that green color on the sand makes it look dirty which bothered me aesthetically. So new tank uglies would definitely describe it lol

It is 6 weeks since we added fish and it cycled for 2 weeks before that. We had added a bottle of something sold to us to help it cycle.

As far as the levels we have been keeping an eye on that. Before we added the blenny we had the water tested and then again before adding the 2 clowns. We did want to add an anemone last weekend and when they tested the water they told us our salinity was high. Little did we know we were supposed to be adding water. Oops. So we now have a thingy so that we can test the salinity on our own.

 

[mcgyvr]

Id avoid further purchases of corals/nems/fish,etc...until you have a bit more experience/knowledge under your belt...
Maintaining proper and stable parameters is key to this hobby..

 

[billdogg]

Id avoid further purchases of corals/nems/fish,etc...until you have a bit more experience/knowledge under your belt...
Maintaining proper and stable parameters is key to this hobby..

^^ What he said
Welcome to a new tank..

^^^This^^^:beer:

One of the very most important things you will learn in this hobby is this:

Nothing good happens fast.

Go slow, take your time. Enjoy the experience.

Ask us all the questions you want!

hth!

 

[dkeller_nc]

Yeah, I'd echo the "go slow" advice.

Presuming that you intend to keep coral (i.e., your tank's not going to be a "FOWLR" - Fish Only With Live Rock), you will need to learn at least a little bit about water chemistry.

These are the most important parameters, in this order:

Salinity
Temperature
Alkalinity
Calcium
Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate (ammonia and nitrite should always be zero, some nitrate in the 5 ppm range is OK and even desirable)
Phosphate

That list is for a tank that's intended for at least some hard corals. If you're only going to keep softies, like zoanthiids, mushrooms, and leathers, calcium is less important.

There's definitely a "sticker shock" aspect to this hobby - keeping a reef tank definitely requires more than just the tank, stand, lights, heater and pumps. So if you're considering budget and what to buy in what order to keep your tank's water parameters stable, I'd suggest:

Good temperature measurement - something like this or this
Good, easy to use salinity measurement - I highly recommend the digital instruments from Milwaukee. They're more expensive than a manual refractometer, but there's absolutely zero guessing what the correct value is, which is helpful for beginners.
Salifert Ammonia
Salifert Alkalinity
Salifert Calcium
Salifert Nitrate
Hanna Checker Phosphate

Again, not all of this needs to be purchased at once. Your most important and immediate acquisitions should be a good temperature measurement device and a salinity checker.

Following this, you may really want to consider an ATO (automatic top off) unit. This isn't quite as critical for fish-only tanks, but will be important when keeping corals.