algae

[dreamer]

Hi All,

Ok I have a 55g tank with LR and 3 feather dusters that came with the LR. I have various snails and crabs for algae control, 2 sand sifting stars, kole tang, 3 chromis, diamond goby, peppermint shrimp, and a coral banded shrimp. I have an algae problem that none of these seem to be fixing. I added the snails and crabs after I noticed the hair and brown algae rapidly growing. Then I saw those aptasia anemones so I added the shrimp. The algae cleared up for awhile, but now it is back and getting worse. I had it in my overflow box and all my tubing. I added a ph buffer and I am planning on reducing my lighting time to 8 hours instead of 12 hoping that wil help. Today I cleaned as much of it out of the overflow as I could and added another buffer. Any suggestions on controlling this and I would be greatful. My waterflow is high.

[burning2nd]

try listing full stats...

your lighting equipment. your skimmer,

sump?
anything restricting the flow of things? (nets, bio balls,)

what do you feed?

how much do you feed?
do you use RODI water?
do you rinse your food?

your clean up crew is low... i have 2 cromies and a clown... + 15 snails + 10 hermits. + sump with more snails

what are you buffer for? do you test what you buffer?

you shouldnt add anything unless you test for it regularly.

reduceing your lighting will not correct your algea,

how old is your tank?

pics?

sand sifting startfish need great amounts of food.... and from what ive red, they will die unless supply'd with food...... you might want to replace them or 1 of them with several more snails......

what are your water permeters?
alk, ph, temp, salinty, CA, Mag, ph4?

[DaveK]

Many reef systems go through some sort of algae problem the first 6 to 12 months they are set up.

While it's great to have a clean up crew, to effectively control algae the nutrients going into the system must be less that what is being removed.

The waste products from fish and other livestock, fish food and other foods, livestock that dies that is not removed right away, water changes if not using RO water, and some additives are sources of nutrients.

The nutrients that most concern us in a ref system are nitrate and phosphate. So the first thing you need to do is to get test kits for nitrate and phosphate. Once you measure the amount in your tank, you can then judge if you are making any progress or not.

Examples of things that reduce nitrate are skimming, denitrification done via a DSB, refugium, live rock, water changes, chemical removal via nitrate and/or phosphate absorbing compounds.

What you want to do is to remove or decrease sources of nitrates, and increase the removal methods.

On the source side, I'd make sure my tank was not overcrowded. (I don't think you have this problem). I'd check my feeding schedule, and likely cut that back.

On the removal side, I'd make sure I had an excellent skimmer on the tank. I'd add a refugium using macro algae and/or, optionally, a DSB. If the nitrate and phosphate levels are high, I'd make some major water changes, testing the new water to make sure it's not a source. I would also consider using the various nitrate and phosphate absorbing products, once I had those levels to something reasonable.

Lastly, I wonder why you are adding buffers. Usually, water changes can keep up with that problem, and it's something you should be doing anyway. There are people that claim that some buffers, with their massive amounts of bicarbonate and carbonate salts can help cause algae outbreaks. I'm not sure I subscribe to that theory, but since you are having a problem, I'd only add buffers if there is no other way. If you can't maintain calcium and/or pH you may have another problem in addition to algae, but that's anothe subject.

[burning2nd]

ya i dont buffer anything... a good salt and water change will be good enough.

[vdituri]

Alot of good info already. Nothing to add except one side note to expand on the sand sifting stars. I have one and I love it, but have read NUMEROUS times that 1 by itself needs a 55 gal minimum to sustain it. I trust the posters here and would return 1 to the fish store.

[lcstorc]

Welcome to RS! Glad you could join us. Looks like the others have given you some good advice. Let's see where you stand in a week or two after following it.