Help with my 12gal nano

[clownfish45]

Well my new 12gal jbj nano has been up and running for about two months and am now getting alot of brown alge and brown hair alge. Im not sure why im getting this I also have alot of bright green alge growing on the glass and on the rocks. But this brown stuff is out growing the green and it is all over the sand at the bottom too. I do water changes of two letters a week. I don't pre mix my water I have been using the stuff that comes allready pre mixed called blue water. I have two fish a clown and a golbie and one coral frag. So whats the deal do I need to do more water changes or what? I'm new to these nano tanks so still learning and any info would be great.
What do you guys think?

 

[Rosseau]

This is really just part of the extended tank cycling.

Most tanks will go through it. You can remove the algae but it will likely come back.

The best ways to combat it are to make sure you have lots of flow - this will keep much of the algae and nutrients in the water column suspended so they can't settle.

Check your nitrates as well, if you're overfeeding the algae has something to feed on.

Otherwise, it should hopefully be gone in a few weeks.

The brigth green film algae on the glass is inevitable and in most tanks has to be scraped off every few days.

Hope that helps.

 

[clownfish45]

thanks I feed my fish every other day. And what about water changes is it enough or do I need more. Also do you know much about blue water is it good or bad?

 

[Rosseau]

It sounds like you're doing enough water changes.

The other thing is that if the water you are using is full of nutrients which are feeding the algae.

If you use tap water for example, the dissolved minerals will cause algae to grow like crazy.

However, your pre-packaged water is probably good considering it is meant for this purpose.

 

[Rosseau]

In my 10G I get away with a 30-40% water change ever 2 weeks. I'll change the water over a course of a day.

 

[clownfish45]

So what do you think about the water changes that im doing? Do I need to do it every week or every two weeks?

 

[Shooter7]

Firstly, have you done any tests on your tank? What are the ammonia and nitrate levels? What kind of a cleanup crew do you have? What are you feeding your fish? What kind of water do you use for topoff?

 

[clownfish45]

tested water last week and levels were all good. I have three snail and four hermit crabs. I use distilled water and ro water. I feed my fish frozen brine shrimp.

 

[Shooter7]

You'll hear this a bunch of times on this site....exactly what were the test numbers that you refer to as "good"? Particularly nitrates. What kind of snails? Usually a good idea to have a mix of snails. I like astrea and ceriths, along with stomatella. Astrea cover the glass and the rock, although they can be a pain in that they fall down sometimes and can't get themselves back upright. Ceriths are good for burrowing into the sand and keeping that turned over.

When you say RO water, are you talking RO/DI or just RO. There's a difference, RO/DI water will get you to a total TDS of zero, but RO will have more dissolved solids in it which could translate to more phosphates in your water feeding the algae.

Much of what you are seeing is basically "new tank syndrome" of going through algae blooms and settling in the bacterial population. The reason I'm asking about your test numbers is in regards to your water changes you were talking about. Essentially, I would say that unless you are getting rather high nitrates, that is nitrates that are in excess of 10 (IMO), then doing water changes a couple times a week to work on bringing that number down would be helpful. If your nitrates test out less than 10 and are trending downward over time, then I would say once a week would be good. After your system matures and hopefully your nitrates work their way down to zero, then you could probably get by with biweekly water changes. But a lot of this depends on your water sources for topoff and changes, the bioload in the tank, and how much/what you feed your fish. I would say they're going to need something a bit more nutritious than just brine shrimp.

 

[clownfish45]

Ill have to test again and see what they are. And what food do you think is the best for the fish? As for the water I use distilled water and yes it is RO/DI water. If my nitrates are high I need to two or more water changes a week? What do you think about the blue water that I use allready pre mixed? As for snails I have one kind and they are astrea snails.

 

[killagoby]

Test all of the parameters of your water and post them here.

Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
Phosphate
PH
Alk
Calcium
SG

This way we can get a clearer picutre of what is going on. How much are you feeding every other day? When my tank was new I fed it a pinch once a week. On my 29 gallon tank I have a skimmer rated for a 100 gallon tank, and a 10 gallon fuge so I am able to feed it every day. Plus it has been up and running for more than 2 years.

You might want to make some good test kits (Salifert) and a skimmer your next investments.

 

[Shooter7]

I have used flake food like formula one and formula 2 before. It's supposed to be lower in phosphates, but I still had some algae problems in my bigger tank. I ended up making my own food. I just went to the grocery store one day, bought some various kinds of seafood (scallops, cocktail shrimp, a chunk of fish, etc), tossed in some frozen cyclopeeze, garlic, and nori, put all of that into a blender with a little RO/DI water and whipped it up until it was a thick liquid. Put a little bit into sandwich bags that I could press flat and placed in the freezer. Now I just break off a small chip of it and thaw in tank water and pour into the tank. Everybody eats off of this, including the corals. Have to go sparingly with it though. As mentioned above, a skimmer would be nice, but my 10g has gotten along just fine without one, but keeping to a regular water change routine.

Can't comment on the water you're using other than to say I prefer to use my own RO/DI and salt mix. I suggest the more frequent water changes in an effort to reduce your nitrates IF they are high. I would also suggest getting some ceriths for your sandbed, perhaps a few more astrea.

 

[Doglover_50]

great advice above--be patient with the new tank syndrome.

However, for now, and especially the future---water changes are the panacea for everything and anything, so in the future if you get nuisance algaes, or many other problems, frequent water changes are a good idea.

Perhaps one of the experts above could comment on how much and often they'd recommend you water change with your current algae and new tank.

 

[clownfish45]

Great but how many water changes do you guys think I should per week or month? And another thing how would I go about building a refugium for my 12gal? Any ideas would be great!

 

[Shooter7]

Tried to cover that in my previous post....the number of water changes would be directly related to your water conditions. Like I said, if you have high nitrates going right now, I'd suggest more frequent changes, in the neighborhood of 2 or 3 a week to try and bring those down. Once nitrates are down and stabilized, or trending downward, then once a week or biweekly would probably work. It will depend on how your tank goes, especially in the early months like this. Test your water and let it and the status of your tank dictate your water change frequency.

 

[Ruskin]

In my 24g I change about 4g of water a week. What is your photo-period like? I used to run my lights for 12 hours but i was getting alot of algea like yourself. After dropping it down to 10 hours I get considerably less algea. Also I dont know if it was mentioned but do you check the levels of the pre-mixed water you get before adding it? It would make sense that the levels should all be correct but I would want to know what exactly I was putting in my tank if it was me.