algea on water surface

[pspiegel]

I have a 14 gallon Bio-Cube that has been up for about 6 or 7 weeks now. My water parameters are all perfect (0 across the board, PH 8.2) and I only have two fish, some live rock/sand, crabs and snails in it.

The problem I am having, is that there is a very large window in the room where the tank is. It seems that the sunlight from the window makes it so that lime green algea gets stuck on the side of the tank and I have to clean it with the magnet cleaner a couple of times a day. Not a big deal though for me to do.

The thing that I am wondering though is that once this algea has been removed from the glass, it sort of goes up to the surface and after makes a filmy surface on the top of the water. I have tried to use a net to skim it off, but it seems to slip right through. Is there any way that you can think of that I can skim this algea off the surface of the water? Or is there anything I can do to cut down on the algea in the tank even though it gets a lot of sun? I should add that upon the suggestion of someone on here, I also cut the lights for four days. There was still algea on my return from the sunlight, albeit less than if the lights were on. I can tell its is from the sunlight because the side of the tank closest to the window aways gets the most algea on it..

Thanks so much!!

 

[Devilishturtles]

You can paint the sides/back of the glass to keep out as much sunlight as possible. Or simply cover it with black cloth or black aquarium background.

About the algae on the surface, do you run a HOB filter at all? There are surface skimmers that usually can hook up to different branks of HOB filters.

 

[pspiegel]

i wouldn't want to paint the sides since it is a bio-cube so that would look kind of funky..

i do not run a hob filter, the filter is a built in biological filtration system in the unit, its an oceanic systems bio-cube (similar to the JBJ Nano-Cube) it has a AC insert, bioballs, and ceramic rings.. can i put/fit any sort of skimmer on this type of unit? or is there an alternative?

 

[Devilishturtles]

Lol...duh. You said Biocube. I wouldn't paint that either.

I thought there was a site that specialized in nano tank mods...I'll have to surf around and see if I can find it.

 

[pspiegel]

thanks! is there anything i can do otherwise to help cut down the algea? or at least manually skim it off the surface by hand? a net seems to not be able to pick it up very easily...

 

[Devilishturtles]

Try and find a brine shrimp net, should be much much finer.

Here is the skimmer I was going to reccomend. I have one with an AC power filter, works really well! You can also connect it to pumps, so it may work for you.

http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.detail/iid/13892/cid/3869

Can you try adding a black aquarium background to the tank? That might help considerably.

Oh, and just for fun, the website I was talking about is nanotuners.com. Some pretty cool tank mods on there. Mostly for the JBJ but also for the Oceanic.

HTH

 

[pspiegel]

that is pretty neat, and for 14 bucks can't really beat it... the back of the aquarium is already black plastic, or do you mean adding the background to the side?

thanks for all the help!

 

[Devilishturtles]

I meant adding a background to the sides. That way you can always take them off when you want to view the fish. I would get very, very annoyed at all that algae, but that's just me.

 

[pspiegel]

yeah i am getting annoyed with it too.. thanks! is there anywhere else that sells that skimmer? the ordering server does not seem to work/is down on the site you sent me..

 

[Devilishturtles]

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ctl3684/cp18652/si1378627/cl0/fluvalsurfaceskimmer

Says it's for the Fluval, but I'm almost positive it'll work with anything. Looks exactly the same.

 

[pspiegel]

awesome, thanks! so this attaches to the pump that is already in my tank?

i am a bit confused as to where it goes in the whole process.. I use to have a protein skimmer for my 40 gallon but i am new to the whole nano-cube thing.. hopefully there are instructions..

 

[Devilishturtles]

It should! I'm not 100% positive, but it should definitley.

One question, doesn't the Bio-Cube have a surface skimmer on it? That goes into the overflow box?

 

[pspiegel]

there is some sort of "skimmer" that is on the top of the area that holds the bio balls, not sure if that is the overflow box or not.. but it passes through the charcol, then the water goes into the "skimmer" which is more of a diffuser i think, it just spreads out the water surface as it goes into the ceramic rings/balls.. i am not too sure if this is really a skimmer though.. it is not like on the jbj nano-cubes where there is a skimmer attachment that sits on the outside of the intake..

i got a brine shrimp net today, doesn't really work very well.. i also picked up two percula clowns, is there anything special i should know about what to feed them/etc? if i remember correctly they will take regular flake food.. just wanted to double check though

 

[Devilishturtles]

Sorry it didn't work for ya. Thought it would for sure!

Clowns should accept flake food, but if not give the frozen food a try.

Sorry I can't help about the overflow. I don't know exactly how it is set up.