green algea

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.

vsnsofadrgn

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Sep 16, 2005
Messages
1,066
Location
Tampa, FL
can anyone tell me what will get rid off green algea. im sorry i dont have a pic of it, but its bright green and most of it is on the ls, its not a distinct shape, its just like a coating...........will snails and hermits get rid of it?
 
questions: do you use RO water, how old is the tank, is it slimey, or hairy looking, how often do you feed, what are your phosphate readings, mabye a case of cynao

ok to sort out my mess of reply the alage issue if to many phosphates are abundant in your tank snails will not do the trick because it will grow faster than the snails can eat unless you throw in a bucket full. once your phosphates are close to zero snails can keep the little bit that grow cleaned up. and the other questions i asked have to be right to or they will cause this nasty stuff
hope that helps i will check back so if have any more questions just post them, i use to have the same problem
 
u can try keep ur lights out or limit the time that u have your lights up....
the algea will go away and i am sure your coral will not die cuz a short timw without light.
but yeah R/O is highly recommanded
 
im sorry, really dont know what RO water is...??? i use the real ocen water from petco for water changes, but i started it with water that lfs sold by the gallon. the tank has been up since feb 2005. i feed once a day, flake food. its not hairy at all, and is not real slimy, but a little, and its a true green color. i dont have a phosphate test, should i get one? i have the kit that comes with nitrites, nitrates, ph, and ammonia. i guess my light is on for about 14, oooo thats alot huh, guess thats prolly the problem, ill cut back to 10-12 and see what happens. its a 20 gal with 17 lbs LR, 18 lbs LS, 2 powerheads, protien skimmer, heater, 2 perc clowns, a few hermits, and 1 snail. i need to get more hermits, i had a bunch, but theyve disappeared somehow and im only left with 2. need some more snails too. this algea just started a couple/few months ago. its got to be the light thing, i never even thought that it was on that long, just get up turn it on, go to bed, turn it off.......duh!!! do you think thats what it is, too??
 
RO water stands for Reverse Osmosis, which is a purifying process. Tough to tell how pure the ocean water is that you use but it doesn't hit me as the likely cause.

Your food however does, flake food is very well known for being high in phosphates and if you are not exporting enough it could be building up quickly and fueling the nuisance algae. Algae on your sandbed can also easily be too little of water flow causing dead spots.

If you wish to continue with the flake, I would analyze the following:

Export--Do you use a skimmer, if so, what kind? If not, how often do you do water changes...do you siphon the rock or just remove and replace water?

Water Flow--What kind of system do you have in regards to filtration and water movement (filters, powerheads, a sump, etc.).

Stocking--What size tank do you have, what livestock do you keep?

Water Parameters--ammonia, nitrite, nitrate levels as well as salinity/specific gravity, alkalinity, and calcium if possible. Sometimes just a few of these out of whack can help nuisance algae proliferate.

These answers will help get you going, and new ones will come out of them as well. One thing I would not do is really cut down on your lighting (a few hours down to 12 may be fine though, I timer helps make things accurate and easy each day). Yes, it may reduce the algae, but you are also removing the light source needed by more desirable algaes (most notably coralline) that can outcompete nuisance varieties. It also does nothing to solve the problem, if you return to a normal light period the algae will simply come back because the source of the problem has not been reduced or removed.
 
i would say the light cutt down, and what type is how many watts ?? is it just a strip fluroecent light ? and the feeding i would cutt down to three times a week at the most. that what i do for feeding i use to feed like you do know and it only cause a heep of problems, and trust me my fish are just as plump now as they were then.
 
It sounds like cyno to me. Get a phosphate test kit and test your water. You use ocean water for water changes, what do you use to top off?
ro is fine but ro/di is better and is the recommended water to use.
When doing a water change siphon out the algae off the SB. If it sucks up easy and looks like it is coming up in small sheets I would say its cyno. A pic would help a lot.
IMO start with a phosphate test kit. Any amount of PO4 is food for algaes/cyno bacteria.
What type of lighting and how old are the bulbs, when bulbs get old the spectrum changes and this can help cyno grow. Also low water flow allows cyno to grow.
Test the petco water also..
 
ive got 2 powerheads, protien skimmer, heater, 17 lbs LR, 18 lbs LS, 2 perc clowns, a couple hermits and a snail. ive tried frozen food with them, but they wont eat it :( . when i top off, i use fresh water from my tap. i bet thats where the phosphates are coming from... i have a 5 gal container that i let sit out at lest overnight, to get the chlorine to evaporate, and i just top of as needed. when i do water changes, i go into the LS, and clean as much as i can. the algea is stuck to the LS, it doesnt come of easily at all. i cant get a clear shot for a pic, sorry. my light is jsut what the lfs told me to get, some 50/50 something or other, im going to get a new one for when i start corals, but my flow is very strong, sometimes, my fish catch the current, lol. should i move my poweheads closer to the bottom?? ill get a phosphate test and test.......if it is high, how do i lower it???
 
well i am not sure on the powerhead issue i will let someone else tell that knows better. but the phosphates can only really be lowerd by water changes over a period of time. And or if here are some other ways that you can use if they are pretty low on the charts: phosban, chateo ( its a green miro alage that grows and take up the extra nurtirents) you usually stick this in a sump so you dont have it in the main tank so you may not want to use this,and there are other things that say they will take care of low concentration but have not personal had luck with them do anything noticeable.
i have used in a tank with fish and live rock this new item called phos buster it does exctaly what is says it eliminates all phosphates in your water either tap water your adding or using it in your tank. however i have heard it increase your silicate in the tank but i dont have any hard evidence in this.
however i do not use this in my reef i use only ro/di from the start to current
but the safest way is water changes and start using at least ro or ro/di water and eventually they will decrease to next to zero.
also you could try soaking the food in garlic and see if they take a notice to the food.
hope that helps
 
as soon as i get some new photo software on my pc, i will get a pic of this algea, but thank you EVERYONE for helping me try to figure this out :D. i know this is a silly question, but can i buy ro/di water?? if so where???
 
sure can usually your lfs store has it and if not you could always looking into a ro/di unit for yourself it will pay itself. i just got a 6 stage ro/di with a 4 gal tank from ebay they have all kinds on there and if you play the bib game for a while you can get one pretty cheap compared to some of the stores that sell it.
here is the one i got and also i purchased a inline tds meter so i will be able to see when filters need to be changed / flushed and make sure the unit is working properly

http://cgi.ebay.com/AQUA-SAFE-100GP...categoryZ20684QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting
 
You can buy distilled water by the gallon in jugs at your local grocery store. This is expensive imho. Buy a small RO unit if you can afford it.
I have purchased a 4-stage RO unit a few years back. My wife now makes coffe only from RO water. We use probably 2 gallons a day of it for non-aquarium needs (drinking mostly). It tastes amazingly nice, way way better then any bottled water you can buy. Corals do not complain either.
It will let you make your own sea water from inexpensive salts (like instant ocean) - much easier then carrying water from the store.
Hermit crabs are overrated as algae eaters. In my experience they prefer other foods. Get a sea hare - it is a true algae eating machine. If you get a couple, they will also make lots of eggs, that hatch into a planctonic larvae that feeds polyps and small fishes really nice.
 
Garlic is like your favorite seasoning that you put on your food because it just adds that flavor you can't resist. Thus, this is how gralic is used in saltwater, not only as a taste enhancer but also immune system booster. I've used this method several times to convience my tangs to eat nori of the clip. But i'm really surprised that you have any problems with frozen food, my fish go nuts when they get their frozen treat compared to the flakes.
GOOD LUCK!!
 
well, i tried the frozen again with the garlic and it worked. i didnt feed for three days, lol.... as it turns out, my tap water is horrble, along with feeding flake food, my nitrates are sky high, so im going to have to buy a ro unit. can anyone recomend a good size unit for a 20 gal??
 
I have a 125 gallon a day unit and since my water pressure isnt up to par it takes longer and i do not get the 125 a day out of it,and this waste alot more water. Mine only produces a few gallons an hour depending on how good the water pressure it is. Just make sure to get an ro/di this is the best and i wouldnt waste my time on just an ro when you can buy them together the first time. The less gallon per hour the longer it will take you to make a gallon. There are several on ebay that sell for much much less then lfs stores sell them for.
 
Oh mine RO/DI is the Aquasafe brand, i also bought a inline TDS meter which allows me to see the water before and after levels of ppm so i can make sure the unit is working properly and or if i need to flush or replace filter media.
 
Back
Top Bottom