Help with algae in 24g Nano Cube

[littleterritoo]

I'm very new to the salt water world so any help would be appreciated!

My 24g JBJ Nano DX & its inhabitants seem to be great except that I keep getting more & more algal growth! I have lots of green hair, red & now what looks like silver beads are showing up everywhere. The tank was established 2 months ago & I upgraded the pump, but don't have a protein skimmer (I'd like to buy one, but have no idea which one will work best in my tank).

I bought an emerald crab & a sea hare to help out, but the hare leaves a lot of detritus. For clean up I have 10 sand snails, 3 turbos, 1 cleaner shrimp & 2 hermits. I do 5g water changes & flush the sponges in the filter every other week & change the carbon once a month. Am I doing something wrong?? I tested yesterday & everthing was good except for ph - 8.8. I used some Proper PH 8.2 to bring it down. I thought keeping up on the water changes would keep algal growth down. He does a great job, but I'd rather not keep the hare - he's cool, but really messy!

Also, I bought my first corals yesterday, 1 torch & 1 blastomussa. Is the torch a likely threat to other reef inhabitants?

Thanks,

Terri

 

[binaryterror]

Well, the Cyano (red slime), and hair algea are all a phase or new tanks. I had a huge outbreak, and I did 20% waterchanges 2 times a week for a month, then I did 25% waterchanges every week. I then broguht my lights down to 5 hours a day to get rid of the hair aglea (it worked too!) I also cut back on feeding since that is what cyano (red slime) lives off of. You are not doing anything wrong, you just need to do more frequent water changes, cut back on feeding, cut back on your lights, and wait it out! HTH, and good luck!

 

[littleterritoo]

I'll try that

I'll try that

Thank you for your advice! I'll try everything you suggested. Do you think my corals will survive on only 5 hours of light? My timer is currently set to 12/12.

 

[binaryterror]

Well, I had an SPS coral under the 5 hours of light. it lost some of its color, but it survived. They should do fine as long as you dont have any really sensitive corals. Keep us updated!

 

[littleterritoo]

Will do. Dumb question - what does SPS stand for?

 

[madnav87]

Small Polyp Stony

 

[Kennyboy1984]

You need more cleaners. I suggest more hermit crabs.

 

[littleterritoo]

Okay, I was following the 1 hermit per 10g rule because I've read that too many hermits can destroy a reef tank. How many do you suggest?

 

[Kennyboy1984]

I have about 10 in mine.