Cloudy Water...Algae bloom?

ConnorG

New member
Hey everyone! For some background, I have a 1 month old Fluval Evo 13.5, stock lighting, Hydor 260 return pump, and aqamai KPS powerhead. Started with about 8 lbs of live rock and 4 lbs of BRS reef saver dry rock. Cycle took just under 2 weeks using Dr. Timms ammonia and BioSpira. After the cycle was done I added 1 Percula clown, a couple hermit crabs, astrea snails, and a nassarius snail.


Everthing was going great. Had a small diatom bloom, snails took care of it and it was gone. After a couple more days, I noticed a small bit of hair algae popping up-mainly on the sand bed and a very small amount on my LR. I also was developing film algae on my glass at a much higher rate than normal. I was having to scrape it every couple of hours. I did a 25% water change, manually removed the clumps of algae from the sand bed, and shortened my lighting period. I also added a bag of Chemipure Elite. Yesterday, almost overnight, my water got very cloudy and the algae continued to come back.


Thinking the cloudy water could be a bacterial bloom, I added some carbon to hopefully remove any contaminants that could've caused that. I turned the lights off for the rest of the day and left them off until this morning. When I woke up this morning the water was back to being crystal clear. Turned the lights on and within 2 hours, the water was back to being cloudy again. This is making me think the cloudy water could be due to algae and not bacteria--I'm thinking phytoplankton. Plus, when I was doing my waterchange, the water appeared more of a greenish-yellow color.


My question is, I understand my tank is very new and algae blooms are somewhat expected. Is this something I should continue fighting aggressivley or should I just let it runs its course?


Parameters:

Salinity-1.025

pH-8

Ammonia, Nitrite-0

Nitrate-5 (I expected this with all of the algae)

Alkalinity-6.7 (my salt mixes up to a really low kH for some reason so I am dosing BRS Soda Ash to raise this slowly)

Ca-370

Phosphate-I'm waiting for more reagents that I ordered

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Looks like bacteria bloom, let it run its course, its going to be a constant battle with your tank for the first year give or take a few months. Don't be too overreacting and keep adding chemicals trying to keep it balanced out. Its too new and it needs to mature more.

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Dm me if you have any questions or issues. I was in your shoes 2 years ago...

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Looks like bacteria bloom, let it run its course, its going to be a constant battle with your tank for the first year give or take a few months. Don't be too overreacting and keep adding chemicals trying to keep it balanced out. Its too new and it needs to mature more.

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Thanks for the help! Should I be concerned about the film algae? I have had reef tanks before and normally scrape the glass once a day. Now I'm doing it every few hours. I'm not too sure where my excess nutrients are coming from. I feed pellets (clown doesn't like mysis much at all) one time a day. Maybe a few extra fall to the bottom, but I can't see a few tiny pellets causing this much of a nutrient problem.


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I have a 32 cube and I purchased some gsp, some red macro algae and some chaeto to keep mine down. Along with weekly water changes for a couple months. I assume you wouldn't want the sight of macro algae but I don't mind my tank looking more like a refugium than a display tank.

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I have a 32 cube and I purchased some gsp, some red macro algae and some chaeto to keep mine down. Along with weekly water changes for a couple months. I assume you wouldn't want the sight of macro algae but I don't mind my tank looking more like a refugium than a display tank.

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I've considered using a section in the back chamber and adding some chaeto with a small light. However, I am not sure if such a small ball of chaeto will make a difference or if that space would be better put to use housing a bag of purigen or a different type of media.


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