Green algae

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JLH-l3ioCub3

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Jul 4, 2011
Messages
313
Trying to keep green algae under control in my 29 biocube. Its getting to the point where I have to scrub the glass every day because it gets completely covered and the snails can't keep up. Now it's really bothering me because it's growing over the nice purple to red colored coraline algae on the rocks. It doesn't look like green hair algae but honestly I'm not sure. Maybe the hermits and snails are just keeping it down enough. Any suggestions as to what I'm dealing with and how to control it will be appreciated! I know some people who battle it and some who never get it at all! What is it caused by??
 
It's caused by excess nutrients in the water. Cutting feeding down and lighting can help. If you can scrape it off and siphon it out during water changes that works as well.

I have had some algae issues in my cube but its due to overfeeding. :-( I recently added a bag of phosphate remover to my cube and believe it or not the algae is alot better. I'd try the first two items and see where it gets you before trying chemicals.
 
Are you using tap water? If so, either buy a small RO/DI or use pre-made saltwater or distilled water to make your salt water. You can buy distilled water at walmart for less than a dollar per gallon.

If you are using good water, get your feedings and water changes under control. Feed less, avoid flakes for every feeding and do more water changes.
 
Affordable Aquatic said:
Are you using tap water? If so, either buy a small RO/DI or use pre-made saltwater or distilled water to make your salt water. You can buy distilled water at walmart for less than a dollar per gallon.

If you are using good water, get your feedings and water changes under control. Feed less, avoid flakes for every feeding and do more water changes.

I am using RO/DI water. Seems like even after the weekly water change, two days later I have green scum all over the glass and the majority of algae on the rocks is green and I'm sure it's not coraline but I guess I could be wrong? The tests have shown no phosphates. Only one time a few weeks ago I had high phosphates but I'm sure it was from over feeding. Honesty, I don't let food get to the bottom. I feed frozen Mysis shrimp once daily that I put in a container of the tank water and suck out bits with a dropper and feed small doses careful to not feed anymore until all is consumed. Nitrates have elevated a little and I'm thinking it's because of the "Mysis brine water" I'm adding when feeding as i do keep it in the fridge for a couple days to keep from wasting food. Not sure what else it could be. I would think that the cheda in the fuge along with the coraline algae in the tank should soak up excess nutrients. Could it be a lighting issue? Another thing I'm thinking is a possibility is that the tank is positioned between two windows both no more than a foot away. I keep blinds closed but maybe some sunlight gets through and is causing the algae to thrive. Dont think this is a phosphate problem. I run carbon 24 hrs twice a week to soak up excess nutrient and control nitrates as well. What else do you think it could be?
 
You may be reading 0 phosphates cause the alage is eating it up as food. :)

I agree, add some water changes, maybe go a bit more than usual and try to cut your lighting back if you can. Whats your lighting schedule?
 
Actinic comes on at 6:30am and whites on at 7:00am. Whites goes off at 4:00pm then actinics go off at 4:30 and moonlights turn on, then go off at 8:30. I believe the algae may be growing like crazy because I'm getting sunlight to the tank. Have a small apartment and not much else place to put it away from a window. I've thought about trying to put aluminum foil on the sides of the tank to see if it makes a difference before I try rearranging the house to relocate the tank. What do you think?
 
Is there a way to put curtains up? They make blackout curtains which let like NO light in. I have them in my bedroom for those bright sunny mornings LOL
 
Also to add: I had a couple weeks where I saw the big jump in algae growth at about the time my bulbs went out on the fuge light. Not sure if that had an impact. Doesn't cheato soak up phosphates and nitrates? I just got the new ones yesterday so it's back up and running. I have been doing more water changes and yesterday's water test showed no phosphates or nitrates. Just did another water change today. Again, algae was really bad and I just scrubbed the glass two days ago. Should I try the aluminum foil on the sides to block sunlight?
 
carey said:
Is there a way to put curtains up? They make blackout curtains which let like NO light in. I have them in my bedroom for those bright sunny mornings LOL

I'll run that past the wife... She already feels like she's in a dungeon because she can't open the blinds lol!
 
It's worth a try. if that works then you know you might have to do some re-arranging. And yes, chaeto soaks up excess nitrates and phosphates some of the contributing factors in algae growth.
 
Carey, don't you save some sort of Fuge mod on your Fluval can?
 
Nope, just on the biocube. I dont use the 55g anymore except for qt purposes.

I just keep mostly biomedia in the fluval on it.
 
My bad, I thought I read you had chaeto & small led light in the foam side.
 
carey said:
Nope, just on the biocube. I dont use the 55g anymore except for qt purposes.

I just keep mostly biomedia in the fluval on it.

What is a fluval and how is your cube set up? If there's a better way to set up my fuge and back portion of my 29 cube I'd love to get some ideas from you. Also, what is the "foam portion" lol I've noticed some foam at times in the fuge- not sure if that's what your talking about....
 
Fluval is an external canister filter for mechanical, chemical & bio filtration. The foam part is where you place foam filter pads for mechanical filtration.

I read somewhere, really not sure where now, that you could take out the foam & replace it with chaeto lit by a led light inside.
 
I have a fluval 305 on the 55g sw tank that i used before going up to the 125g.

The cube has these mods

BioCube 29 Package Deal - Aquarium Filtration Upgrades & Supplies
JBJ Nano-Glo

The light attaches with a magnet so you can light the fuge area which i so far only have cheato and mangroves in, I paln on adding some live rock rubble too. In the media chambers I use chemipure elite, then purigen then a filter pad on top. Here's a picture of the setup from the top view.
Both the fuge and media tray take up the entire center chamber and you cant see it but the far left chamber is empty now. I tried a biocube skimmer but it was garbage. So the flow is directed to a filter pad, then goes down thru the other media and flows into the fuge area and then into the return section.


img_1523164_0_71bf447742a0f9f49ded50b9bd1196cd.jpg
 
Wow! That's a lot of help thank you! Awesome setup! One question.. There's a tray that separates the the fuge area in half. Should I take that out? Is it removable without cutting it out if I should? Right now small strands of cheato have made it through that tray into the bottom and started growing, now they've grown into large balls but no way I can get it out if I needed to. I wanna look into doing mangroves in there... Wouldn't I need to be able to utilize that lower portion if adding mangroves?
 
I broke out the bottom tray so everything sits on the very bottom. I have the stock sponge still in there so it keeps any free floating chaeto from getting in the return pump. I do occasionally clean out the cheato tray so I ahvent had any issues with it slipping through to the bottom.

As far as the mangroves, mine are really small still. They were only about 3-4 inches when I got them. I stuck them as far down as I could and the chaeto kinda holds them in place.
 
Cool. I'm gonna order that kit. Im sure it will help out a lot! IMO I think they should have made that tray removable.... Thanks again for the info!
 
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