alge problem!

[jsschlicht]

i have had my 12gallon nano for about 8months now and in the past 2 months there is so much alge it is taking over my tank. nothing is dieing but it might start. i do water changes once a week. has any one had this problem or some thing like it? what can i do?

 

[motoman]

Lots of algae problems myself, unfortunately a variety of solutions and you do not provide what kind of Algae you are experiencing. Is this coraline algae (appears as purple or burgundy splotches on rock), hair algae (looks like fine threads, brown, green or red slime algae (appears like slimey carpet on pretty much anything, rock, sand, corals etc. or any of the varieties of macro algae like caulerpa (PITA, look it up on the Internet). I have several recommendations from my past experience.

Also, need to know what you got in the tank (animals, inverts, etc.), what kind of lighting you have, how old the light bulbs are and how long they are on. How often do you clean the sponge filters, clean the intake grill and outlets and the impeller in your pump? did you buy this second hand or are you the orginal owner? Are you using RO water? Do you always buy it from the same reseller? Are you using store bought distilled water? Tap water? ( I know someone who did, really, hope you aren't)

Answer the above and I think I can help...

 

[Carl_in_Florida]

[welcome]
jsschlicht

 

[jsschlicht]

thanks for the reply. the algae is brown it is on every thing in the tank. i have 1 clown fish,1 blue tang. 2 red mushrooms, sand polyps,feather duster,sand star,3 turbo snails. as far as my tank it's only 8months old it's a brand new 12gal nano cube dx it has 2 24w110v 1000k i leave them one for about 9 hours a day. i have been doing water changes once a week thats cleaning every thing in the tank.

 

[James11]

12 gallon is kinda small to be keeping a blue tang don't you think.
What about a clean up crew, do you have any blue leggi hermits or anything like that?

 

[fantastic4]

the brown stuff is from some imbalance in your tank

eliminate by
* super scrubbing the water with great skimmer
* refugium with chaeto to eat nutrients
* clean up crew to eat growth
* your bulbs are getting old (spectrum is getting more yellow), replace

Phosphates sound like the culprit, test to confirm

The blue tang is a little cramped in a nano I agree, if you see a tang in a large tank and observe, they love the open space.

think of it as incentive to upgrade to bigger tank!

 

[Brian5280]

don't waist your time on a skimmer.
What do you have in the back chambers of your cube? Did you take out the bio balls, ceramic rings, sponges and all that? Put some filter floss in the first chamber, about a fist sized wad and change it once a week. Also, get rid of the blue tang, that fish shouldn't be in such a small tank. Go get a blue chromis or something.

 

[theop]

Let's start with the basics:

1. What are your water parameters (pH, alk, nitrate)?
2. What type of water are you using? Tap water, RO, RO/DI, etc.

Without that information, everything is just speculation. If your nitrates are not zero, and/or you are using tap water, then the problem likely is found.

One scenario could be that your blue tang has grown to a point that your bio-load is too high for your tank.

Time to trade that tang in for a neon goby!