Nuisance Algaes

Frankie

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
Thanks for he reminder. Time to change out the reactors. Man, this thread go's back a few days!
 

fishmama67

Member
should i be running carbon in my tank????:smack:

The answer by someone esle was YES 24/7 but now I am confused. I am using chemipur and was told that chemipur was better than carbon because it lasts longer and does more o what carbon is meant for such as collecting and eliminating all sorts of "bad" stuff from the water. Am I making a bad choice by using chemi pur in place of carbon? SHould I go back to carbon? use it as well as the chemipur? HELP!:eek:verhere:
 

Basile

Well-Known Member
I'm glad even the pros get algae, i don't feel so isolated lol. I had hair algae but my turban snail when on it like a lawnmower. in 3 days it was all gone; no pics sorry. Thats my 2 cents worth.:wave:
 

fishmama67

Member
I'm glad even the pros get algae, i don't feel so isolated lol. I had hair algae but my turban snail when on it like a lawnmower. in 3 days it was all gone; no pics sorry. Thats my 2 cents worth.:wave:

So why is it that the guys at the fish store are saying that snails won't touch hair algea? I got a sea hare (a relative of the slug family I think though if Slugly is a member of the sea slug family he is DEFINATELY the ugly cousin!) and Slugly is doing ok but it is taking a LONG time for him to clean up. My tank stinks like a dirty fish pond, I can hardly see through the glass and I don't want to scrub it again as that seems to make it worse. I was thinking I would get some snails so they could help him out. Yet the fish store guy said snails will not eat hair algea. Who is full of it here? I really am upset my tank is so yucky looking and am at a loss as to how to fix this.
I read another addition to this thread in which the author said he scrubbed his LR but won't that kill all the good microbs and stuff? I am just strting my tank (in my 4th month) and really don't want to start the cycle over again.
I could REALLY use some help on this.:jabber:
 

Basile

Well-Known Member
So why is it that the guys at the fish store are saying that snails won't touch hair algea? I got a sea hare (a relative of the slug family I think though if Slugly is a member of the sea slug family he is DEFINATELY the ugly cousin!) and Slugly is doing ok but it is taking a LONG time for him to clean up. My tank stinks like a dirty fish pond, I can hardly see through the glass and I don't want to scrub it again as that seems to make it worse. I was thinking I would get some snails so they could help him out. Yet the fish store guy said snails will not eat hair algea. Who is full of it here? I really am upset my tank is so yucky looking and am at a loss as to how to fix this.
I read another addition to this thread in which the author said he scrubbed his LR but won't that kill all the good microbs and stuff? I am just strting my tank (in my 4th month) and really don't want to start the cycle over again.
I could REALLY use some help on this.:jabber:

Ok, hang on; first to be able to help you properly, i need some info on your tank.

Tank size in gallons
what kind of skimmer
when do you feed
How much you feed
what do you feed
i know lots of questions but its a process of elimination here to avoid 20 posts
so
whats your bioload( numbers of fish, inverts and number of corals)
Do you add aditives to your tank, exemple, calcium, iron and so on ?
Hown long is your light on each day
Your tank parameters,; Nitrates, nitrites,amonia,phosphate, salinity,temp,calcium if you can and DK
Do you use RO/DI water?

Ok if you answer ALL these questions that gives me a picture of your set up, your habits and what could be the problem,and most of all don't panic.

Christian.
 

fishmama67

Member
Ok, hang on; first to be able to help you properly, i need some info on your tank.

Tank size in gallons
what kind of skimmer
when do you feed
How much you feed
what do you feed
i know lots of questions but its a process of elimination here to avoid 20 posts
so
whats your bioload( numbers of fish, inverts and number of corals)
Do you add aditives to your tank, exemple, calcium, iron and so on ?
Hown long is your light on each day
Your tank parameters,; Nitrates, nitrites,amonia,phosphate, salinity,temp,calcium if you can and DK
Do you use RO/DI water?

Ok if you answer ALL these questions that gives me a picture of your set up, your habits and what could be the problem,and most of all don't panic.

Christian.

I have a 55 gallon tank. Inside are approximately 50# of lr, 20#ls, two blue green chromis, two true percula clowns, two skunk stripe shrimp and one sea hare.
I feed Prime Reef once a day at about 5 PM. I give one lump about 2 mm in size to the larger clown and one a bit smaller to the smaller one. The chromis get a little tiny bit each and the shrimp get nothing. The sae hare is eating away at the hair algea of course..
I check my water on average once a week at around feeding time on Saturdays. Last check was yesterday and I had Ammonia at between 0 and .25, closer to 0than .25. Nitrates were at 50 and pH was at 8.4. I did a 20% water change after the test as it was time to do it. I use Bluewater from the fish store rather than mixing my own and worrying about all the stuff in the water as I have not purchased any RO/DI unit yet. Salinity stays at between 1.27 and 1.24 depending on how much evaporation has occurred. I usually add water (about 1 to 1.25 gallons) about once a week as evap is minimized by my hood.
As I don't have the proper lighting yet, (I am running full-spec. fluorecense) and two little moon lights, I don't have any corals, anemonis, polyps or anything like that.
My lights are on from 6:30 am to 8:30 pm so they are on around 14 hours per day but the moons are on all day and night.
The skimmer is a SR2 by CPR.
As I said before I don't have any inverts or corals so I don't add anything to the water unless I am between WCs and the pH drops too low which has only happend once about three weeks ago. I added two applications of Tech CB over a three-day period and then the following weekend did a 30% WC. Since then my pH has been just a tiny bit lower than I would like ( I am most comfy with the pH being between 8.4 and 8.6) but I hesitate to add stuff if I don't absolutely have to.
Nitrates have been on the high side for about a month but much lower than they were since I started target feeding the fish and not feeding the shrimp. Before nitrates were at almost 100. The lfs said that I was overfeeding if the shrimp were eating from me so I had to suck it up and let them act hungry. They don't even ask anymore;)
I hope I gave all the necessary info. I really appreciate your help.
 
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Basile

Well-Known Member
I have a 55 gallon tank. Inside are approximately 50# of lr, 20#ls, two blue green chromis, two true percula clowns, two skunk stripe shrimp and one sea hare.
I feed Prime Reef once a day at about 5 PM. I give one lump about 2 mm in size to the larger clown and one a bit smaller to the smaller one. The chromis get a little tiny bit each and the shrimp get nothing. The sae hare is eating away at the hair algea of course..
I check my water on average once a week at around feeding time on Saturdays. Last check was yesterday and I had Ammonia at between 0 and .25, closer to 0than .25. Nitrates were at 50 and pH was at 8.4. I did a 20% water change after the test as it was time to do it. I use Bluewater from the fish store rather than mixing my own and worrying about all the stuff in the water as I have not purchased any RO/DI unit yet. Salinity stays at between 1.27 and 1.24 depending on how much evaporation has occurred. I usually add water (about 1 to 1.25 gallons) about once a week as evap is minimized by my hood.
As I don't have the proper lighting yet, (I am running full-spec. fluorecense) and two little moon lights, I don't have any corals, anemonis, polyps or anything like that.
My lights are on from 6:30 am to 8:30 pm so they are on around 14 hours per day but the moons are on all day and night.
The skimmer is a SR2 by CPR.
As I said before I don't have any inverts or corals so I don't add anything to the water unless I am between WCs and the pH drops too low which has only happend once about three weeks ago. I added two applications of Tech CB over a three-day period and then the following weekend did a 30% WC. Since then my pH has been just a tiny bit lower than I would like ( I am most comfy with the pH being between 8.4 and 8.6) but I hesitate to add stuff if I don't absolutely have to.
Nitrates have been on the high side for about a month but much lower than they were since I started target feeding the fish and not feeding the shrimp. Before nitrates were at almost 100. The lfs said that I was overfeeding if the shrimp were eating from me so I had to suck it up and let them act hungry. They don't even ask anymore;)
I hope I gave all the necessary info. I really appreciate your help.

Ok thanks for all the info, it did help understand a bit, and there're a few leads here.

Ok , first ;

Reduce you lighting time to 8 hours, without corals and such you don't need such an extended time of light it gives that hair algae energy too grow.

Cease all additives other than food.Which may need to be changed to mysis( but thats a later topic)

I don't know when exactly you made your last water change but do 1-2-3 water changes in a row ; what ever it take to drive down the nitrates( Thats the fuel behind your algae).

The source of your nitrates mean either too much flakes are wasted and not eaten by the fishes, or they get trap somewhere. Do you have a sponge or detritus filter like floss anywhere? If so remove and clean it . Clean it at least every week. And if you can do without do so.IMO.

Your water source bothers me; do you check for phosphates in your tank, very important. Some water source contains phophates and this also fuel for the algae. Buy a test kit for phosphate and check you tank and specially the stores water( sometime they are known to be less than let say professionals)


Your trying to keep your ph stable with Kent Tech CB i would go for the super buffer-DKH Reef Depot
It will take care of both PH and Alkalinity.

Inverts; you need some, for a 55 G hold on its needed trust me.

You can get these package deal from any good supplyer. Here a list suggestion according to the tank size you have.
Saltwater Aquarium Inverts for Marine Reef Aquariums: Basic & Deluxe Caribbean Reef Packages

Now you can start with less but get some and fast. A few things about some of them;

Nassarius Snails; the best at getting left overs, they race on the sand and also churn the sand bed they're very good. get 20 get the big ones

Cerith Snails One of the best for your general cleaning algae of any kind and the glass. Get 20

Scarlet Reef Hermits Very good and pick on you LR and sand the algaes, very good tank mate not agressive, stay away from blue hermith, they attack each other and your left with one or two, waste of money.

Astraea Turbo Snails. I've put them on hair algae, like lawnmowers they whent; hair algae gone in 2 days.Finished. They take out the "roots" and everything, greatest glass cleaners. Get 20

Mexican turbo snail are very good, but one drawback; they knock things over LR and if you have too many they starve, so just get 3-4 of those.

Ok for your water; Test for phosphate pronto.

For your food; Mysis shrimp is better than flakes IMO, just rince the frozen mysis in RO water( That is something that will help also to get your RO system in the future) I ran my tank with no Ro unit for almost a year, with no problem like your so you can to for now. But make theses changes and it should help.

thats it for now keep intouch.
 

fishmama67

Member
Thanks so much Basile! I changed my water yesterday but will do so again soon. When you say 1-2-3, what does that mean? I know that is a newbie question but then I am one so that's ok. Prime reef is a frozen concoction but does that count as flake? ('Nother newbie question!) The ditritus filter is GROSS when I clean it every other week so I will indeed do that more often.
My water comes to the dealer in boxes. It says, "BLUE WAter natural pacific sea water, where your corals come from" and is boxed by Blue Life. I buy taht because as I said, I am not sure of the purity of the store water. We have a store here in town that sells filtered water from a machine that supposedly uses RO/DI filters and such but the fact is I do not know how often they clean the filters and all that and can only take their word for it that all that filtration actually is happening. WHat would be better? Should I buy jugs of water off the shelf and then use the Oceanic sea salt mix? LFS said there are usually other additives you need to put in if you use that which are already in the boxed water. Is that true?

I know I have a ton of questions and I appreciate the time you are taking to help out. This is why I wanted to do a bunch more reading before I dived into this. Well, too late now, I'm swimming.
Thanks for the lists. I will be checking into that today.
 

Basile

Well-Known Member
Thanks so much Basile! I changed my water yesterday but will do so again soon. When you say 1-2-3, what does that mean? I know that is a newbie question but then I am one so that's ok. Prime reef is a frozen concoction but does that count as flake? ('Nother newbie question!) The ditritus filter is GROSS when I clean it every other week so I will indeed do that more often.
My water comes to the dealer in boxes. It says, "BLUE WAter natural pacific sea water, where your corals come from" and is boxed by Blue Life. I buy taht because as I said, I am not sure of the purity of the store water. We have a store here in town that sells filtered water from a machine that supposedly uses RO/DI filters and such but the fact is I do not know how often they clean the filters and all that and can only take their word for it that all that filtration actually is happening. WHat would be better? Should I buy jugs of water off the shelf and then use the Oceanic sea salt mix? LFS said there are usually other additives you need to put in if you use that which are already in the boxed water. Is that true?

I know I have a ton of questions and I appreciate the time you are taking to help out. This is why I wanted to do a bunch more reading before I dived into this. Well, too late now, I'm swimming.
Thanks for the lists. I will be checking into that today.


Thats ok , i'm here to help you ask away. thing that i'm less familiar i'll tell you to contact other more experienced than me.But for now lets proceed.

Your water source, is fine for now. Before attacking all the possibilities lets try one at a time.

Ok for now , the water changes as mark 1-2-3 in a row means this.

let say you do a 50% water change, in your case 27.5 gallons. That means your Nitrates that are at 40ppm will drop only 50% so they'll drop at 20 ppm. Then you do another 50% water change, that mean another 50% drop at
10 ppm, so you need another water change until it drops to 0 nitrates, thats is why it could mean a few water change in a row to obtain your 0 ppm of nitrates. You can space them by a day, one change today and so on , its ok.

The filter, do it every day for now, just to see how much detritus is goin there. If you see lots of your food, that means waste. So you need to feed less or more precise. On that there is always waste, so...

You food, you say its frozen. ok, frozen food contains preserve and additives and what not and yes phosphates sometimes, so from now on you'll rince it into some of that water you use, let soak in , it will thaw, and then just feed your fish with it.

Ok your skimmer, no idea what kind it is if its good or not i'm not knowledgeble enough on those. But do you collect alot of gunk in its cup? if not that means its not doing well.That you could post another thread in the equipment section and lots of guys here are good for this. So do it now and wait for answers. Where doing good here. Not everything can be done today either, we got to wait for result before proceeding further so god luck and keep intouch. Christian here.
 

fishmama67

Member
OK Mr. B, one more question for now... And of course anyone who is in the "know" is welcome to answer! About the boxed water versus filtered and mixed water. Is it really true that the boxed sea water may/does contain more of the vital nitriants than the filtered and mix it yourself water? My LFS said he sells the boxed water beacuse in theend, it is just as cost effective as using the mix it yourself stuff once you have to add all the 'extras' such as trace minerals and calcium and Iodine and stuff like that which I cannot remember all the other stuff. Being as I have only fish and shrimp and a sea hair at present, am I ok to mix it myself for now? I may need to upgrade back to the boxed stuff when I get my more delicate critters perhaps?
Thanks again everyone.
 

Basile

Well-Known Member
OK Mr. B, one more question for now... And of course anyone who is in the "know" is welcome to answer! About the boxed water versus filtered and mixed water. Is it really true that the boxed sea water may/does contain more of the vital nitriants than the filtered and mix it yourself water? My LFS said he sells the boxed water beacuse in theend, it is just as cost effective as using the mix it yourself stuff once you have to add all the 'extras' such as trace minerals and calcium and Iodine and stuff like that which I cannot remember all the other stuff. Being as I have only fish and shrimp and a sea hair at present, am I ok to mix it myself for now? I may need to upgrade back to the boxed stuff when I get my more delicate critters perhaps?
Thanks again everyone.

Ok your water, listen to this; you only need pure water, no Additives of any kind! I don't know your finances, but if you can, buy yourself an RO/DI unit here This by the way is just an exemple, Purely H2O :: Aquarium RO DI :: The Optima Vision RO DI system By the way i got that one.
They provide you with Super clean water.And you can mix your own brand of salt , which contains everything you need. Another thing , change LFS if you can that one gives bad advice to sell you things. You do not need any additives in your water as of now.As for cost of the RO unit, how much are you paying for warter; you could have your free water soon with that.I don't know that kind of water you buy, but if it has any additives it may very well cause you problems.Its better if you make your own water you know then exactly whats in it .One of the best way to check your water is with test kit.You seem to have one. You need a basic one, with

Nitrates No3
Nitrites No2
Amonia
PH
DKH
Calcium
And a phosphate one, some are sold by themselves others in a package. Get these. They will inform you of your water parameters. The best IMO is the Salifert brand, very precise.


One of your question; am I ok to mix it myself for now? YES , its actually better.



On a final note if additive are so bad why do they sell them???

They are for very specific needs for very specific bioload and used BY VERY ADVANCED AQUARIST. They are used very wisely, And they are used when you know what your doing, no offence there, just stating a fact.And you do not ever add something in the water before testing for it, otherwise how do you know how much to add???? We're doing good, we're gona get through this together no problem, hang in there LOL OUff that was long.
 
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Basile

Well-Known Member
Good job Basile! I am reading along.... :)

Thanks ! I hope everthing turns out for him. Some of those LFS are really confusing and taking advantage of newbees. I was lucky to find this site to help me, so giving back is great.
 

novanosis

Member
Yeah those LFS are horrible!

You think they are helping but they really want a sale. I dont blame them but damnnnnnn, did not think if the customer had a health reef they would come back for Corals?

I remember my first LFS, this guy was selling me Calcium in a bottle and buffer when all I had was a fish and cullerpa..

He never said no to anything, even sold a queen Angel the size of a football to my friend who had a 55 gal for $110, good price but what awful advise..

He went out of business in 3 years. :)
 

Basile

Well-Known Member
Yeah those LFS are horrible!

You think they are helping but they really want a sale. I dont blame them but damnnnnnn, did not think if the customer had a health reef they would come back for Corals?

I remember my first LFS, this guy was selling me Calcium in a bottle and buffer when all I had was a fish and cullerpa..

He never said no to anything, even sold a queen Angel the size of a football to my friend who had a 55 gal for $110, good price but what awful advise..

He went out of business in 3 years. :)

I know thats why these site like this one are great, you can cross examine lol. sometimes ; some errors but for the most part no one is here to lie and sell you for it.
 
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fishmama67

Member
This is a note to everyone and anyone who is thinking of sending me advice.... please do not be afraid of hurting my feelings! I want the truth and all the help I can get. I would be mad/sad if I did not get advice from someone who was afraid of hurting my feelings rather than shootin' straight! I do need help and want it very much. One of the coolest things about RS is that I can get help from all sorts of experienced people who have "been there-done that!" so I don't have to screw up on my own!
Thanks so much for your help, everyone! and KEEP IT COMIN'.
 

Basile

Well-Known Member
This is a note to everyone and anyone who is thinking of sending me advice.... please do not be afraid of hurting my feelings! I want the truth and all the help I can get. I would be mad/sad if I did not get advice from someone who was afraid of hurting my feelings rather than shootin' straight! I do need help and want it very much. One of the coolest things about RS is that I can get help from all sorts of experienced people who have "been there-done that!" so I don't have to screw up on my own!
Thanks so much for your help, everyone! and KEEP IT COMIN'.

Hey no problem; so how is it going, any progress??
 

fishmama67

Member
So now the HA is mostly gone. In fact it took about a two week vacation and disappeared altogether. It is back in small quantities now and also I have a little outbreak of what I think is red slime. I was down at the store buying LR and mentioned it to the FSGs and as Mike is still on vacation, the other FSG is now VERY hesitant to offer me any advice as I caught him out one too many times with my BS meter! I told him there are little blister looking things on my rocks that are almost a magenta color as well as patches of red transparent patches on the glass. Anyway, he said, "Well you will have to ask Mike to be sure but I think that sounds like red slime." He recommendsd that I buy some sort of treatment-in-a-bottle but I was reading in my fish book. They say that it is part of the setting-up cycle and that if I get a couple of snails it should help with it. I would much rather take care of 'nuisence algea' and other stuff like that as naturally as possible as I think that is better for my tank in tha long run.
Here is what the book says specifically:
"In a new marine aquarium, spots of golden brown algae (diatom colonies) will appear on the rocks and sand within days of the tank being set up and may spread to cover the whole tank. The diatoms disappear a few days or weeks later, often to be replaced by films of red and green algae. These in turn are followed by green hair algae, which usually grows profusely at first, but eventually settles down to quite short turfs. If the calcium and alkalinity levels of the tank are as they should be, coralline algae will grow as well, and together these will be the climax vegetation. This process is often modified somewhat in reef aquariums compared with more traditional marine tanks, as the more stringent control of algae nutrients and more intene grazing tends to favor coralline algae over hair algae, and to hasten the succession process." THey also mention that a combination of snails, tangs and hermit crabs will function well as the necessary "control crew" and snails especially are able to be moved to the problem areas if they don't find it on their own.
Anyone have any ideas on this? Agreements? Disagreements? Other alternatives?
I have a very nice outbreak of coralline algae that haas even begun to get on the glass and all the pumps and tubing and filter pipes an things but the other red stuff is there too. Additionally there are patches that look like the coralline but are green instead of the dark pink and/or purple of the coralline. Any ideas as to what that is? Is it good or bad? I will try to send pictures so this may be a little better explained.
 
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