Just recently had an invasion of algae growing on the glass, some green and brown spots, and the dreaded Caulerpa that was hidden in my ball of Chaeto. Is there a good way of countering the algae growth? My snails are doing close to nothing. I checked all the parameters and there's a tint of phosphate in the water. I obviously don't have the room for a tang to eat away the algae so is there anything I could do on my end along with a water change?
Algae Problem in a 3gallon.. Any way to counter?
- Thread starter duoc9119
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
mr_X
Aquarium Advice Addict
what caulerpa is dreaded? some types of caulerpa are ok to use.
how about using phosphate removal media? "algone" phosphate pads should work for you.
how about using phosphate removal media? "algone" phosphate pads should work for you.
I meant dreaded as in gong asexual and taking over the tank part. The phosphate and nitrate a removal is the upside of the invasion
mr_X
Aquarium Advice Addict
ah. yeah, but that doesn't happen if you tend to it. i used caulerpa in all of my sumps for years and never had any issues.
Yeah I'm not quite sure what caused the caulerpa to go asexual. My parameters are pretty stable for a 3 gallon. I feed every other day so ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are at a constant 0. My phosphate is usually 0 but I have no idea where this excess of phosphate came from
mr_X
Aquarium Advice Addict
i must have missed that thread. you had caulerpa in your tank that nuked it?
mr_X
Aquarium Advice Addict
yeah..i see what you wrote above, but this statement "Yeah I'm not quite sure what caused the caulerpa to go asexual" made me think it happened in your tank.
are you sure it's caulerpa? can you take a pic of it?
are you sure it's caulerpa? can you take a pic of it?
mr_X
Aquarium Advice Addict
so, that is what is growing on your glass? that looks to be caulerpa mexicana.
it's not supposed to nuke tanks like the other caulerpas do. you should be able to find crabs that will like to eat that.
http://www.saltcorner.com/AquariumLibrary/browsespecies.php?CritterID=1984
it's not supposed to nuke tanks like the other caulerpas do. you should be able to find crabs that will like to eat that.
http://www.saltcorner.com/AquariumLibrary/browsespecies.php?CritterID=1984
It was really strange. I have an AC 50 with a 20 impeller that's boxed in so light wont go into the tank at night. After I saw the Caulerpa growing in the tank, I moved the box and saw a pretty big piece of it growing out of the Chaeto. It hasn't completely nuked the tank yet but there are places that it has decided to grow from, glass, sand bed, rocks.
mr_X
Aquarium Advice Addict
it won't nuke it. it's not that unstable. just keep it pruned back. i wouldn't worry about it.
mr_X
Aquarium Advice Addict
how bad is the algae? everyone is going to get some algae growth on the glass that will need to be scraped off. do you have any snails in the tank? they do need something to eat.
mr_X
Aquarium Advice Addict
how about a mag float or blade? seems easy enough to do every so often. everyone who owns a reef tank has to scrape their glass from time to time.
mr_X
Aquarium Advice Addict
If you are running cheato and you are still seeing phosphates then i would assume that is the root of the problem, phosban or chemipure elite or GFO would help, but in a 3 gallon a large water change would temporarily fix your issue. When you grow algae in your tank (or fuge) the macros should be able to handle all of your phosphate export unless something else is leaching it into the water column
Similar threads
