new 55 question

[the great]

Hey everyone, i just started up a 55g reef tank, with an HOB octopus skimmer, and have a littlbe bit of live rock ( for now )....

The tank has been up for a week, but i just put the rock in there like 5 days ago and now my clown is in there, and everything is doing fine.

But there is an abundant amount of Green Algea on all four sides of the glass.

I know its normal for some algea to grow, but it seems like its overproducing. I have to mag-float it like 1-2 times a day?

Is that okay or am I doing something wrong?

 

[MeVsTheWorld]

What's your lighting? how long?is it by a window? many ?'s

 

[the great]

i got (2) 150w metal halides, maybe they are on a bit too long....
And not too close to a window.

 

[Rhodophyta]

How are you removing the algae to prevent it from continuing to grow? Get out as much as you can and use filter floss and your skimmer to remove anything floating you miss.

What are the temperature and pH swings during the lights on/off periods? Reduce the photoperiod to less than 12 hours if it's more than that now. If it's 12 or less now, shorten it by an hour for now and see if it helps. No corals? You can darken the tank for a day or two then remove all the algae you can because it may be dying.

Are there any dead spots? Green slime algae if that's what you have, does not do as well with a good water flow. Adjust the wavemakers, or add more to ensure there are no inactive eddies in the tank.

Remove detritus from the gravel with a gravel cleaner. Make your replacement saltwater with a RO/DI unit that you can depend on. You can also use a product like Poly filter in your filtration system. A phosphate remover will also help starve the slime algae, but it may contribute silicates as it removes phosphates, which can result in a plague of another color, brown diatoms. A natural way to remove nutrients that algae feeds on is to fight algae with algae, Chaetomorpha in the tank or in a refugium is popular. The Adey algae filter is a great nutrient exporter, but like any time you export nutrients from your tank, guess who still does the leg work?

Adding a clean-up crew in itself won't solve the problem, but if you can use some methods like these above or others, the clean up crew can tackle the remainders, and if the source of the problem has been tackled, they will from then on will help keep the tank extra clean.

 

[MeVsTheWorld]

Well said Dan, +1

 

[the great]

alright, ill work on that stuff. Thanks both of you.

justin

 

[the great]

Photoperiod has been cut down with no help. Lights are used and don't know how old the bulbs are. Could they really be the culprit? I can even see algae building up in the HOB skimmer. There is actually a light to darker algae buildup in the skimmer where the lights hit the skimmer.

 

[the great]

Any other suggestions?

 

[MeVsTheWorld]

Try a 3 day blackout, do a water change before and after.

 

[BrunstuckyJoe]

Sounds like new tank syndrome.

 

[Rhodophyta]

Deepen the sand bed. If it's deep enough, it will in theory begin to denitrate and remove an algae fertilizer (nitrate). I have a bag of new marine sand. Still in the bag, but the bag had a hole in it at the store so it may not be a full 25 pounds but I would guess close. I paid a buck for it.

 

[sohal1025]

What about some substrate from another tank to deepen the bed or is that going to release too much nitrates and other stuff if added.

 

[sohal1025]

Any other suggestions????????

 

[Jeff Trout]

established sand and rock would help but it sounds like its just doing its cycle.I wouldnt dig deep into the other sand bed.That where the stuff bluilds up at.
if there is no coral which I dont think there should be I would do the black out thing to get rid of the bloom.I do the blackout thing every couple of mounths anyway.
I do have them small ckunks of live rock that I said you can have?I would like to get them out of my sump soon.