Fishkeeping - green algae

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- - green algae (http://www.fishkeepingbanter.com/showthread.php?t=1821)

Ok my tank is over a month old and I have had a light coating of brown
algae on the bottom for about three weeks now. I was told that it is
not harmful to my tank so I have not worried about it. On monday while
doing my regular tanks maintenance I noticed some green algae on the
sand and I am wondering if this is also ok for my tank? If not how do I
keep it under control without adding chemicals to the tank. In all my
years of fresh water tanks I have never had any noticeable algae
problems so this is new to me.
I have read that green algae is a good food source for many animals but
I don't have anything in there now that would eat it. I keep a few
damsels and I know that there are compatibility problems with adding new
fish and since I like them, don't want to get rid of them if I don't
have too.

Any suggestions would be helpful.
Thank you in advance.
Vicki

I've been battling green hair algae for several months. My tank is 5 months
old & I started growing algae in month 3.

The problem is diminishing. So far, I've:

-Limited light from 10 hours to 6.
-Removed phosphate (using Phosguard).
-added snails and hermit crabs.
-added more water circulation (recently).

I have live rock (about 45lbs in a 75 gal tank). Nitrates are not a problem.
I'm using a wet/dry filter, and the mechanical filter part continues to fill
with algae; enough that I have to clean it every other day. The hermit crabs
seem more interested in eating the snails than the algae. I also added a
Mexican Fighting Conch, but so far, he just buries himself in the crushed
coral. I'm not using sand, but now wish I had. The tank has 4 small fish
(percula, purple dottyback, 7 line wrasse, yellow gobie) and a peppermint
shrimp. I also run a Diatom filter and do 10 gallon water changes 1-2 times
per month. Temp is a pretty constant 80.

I'm resisting pouring a chemical into the water to make it go away, but the
tank looked so good when I first set it up; I'd really like to rid the tank
of the algae. I keep reading this group and everyone says "patience." I'll
try to keep listening....

-Tom

Tom, have you read this article yet?

http://www.melevsreef.com/gha.html

Marc

TomW wrote:

I've been battling green hair algae for several months. My tank is 5 months
old & I started growing algae in month 3.

The problem is diminishing. So far, I've:

-Limited light from 10 hours to 6.
-Removed phosphate (using Phosguard).
-added snails and hermit crabs.
-added more water circulation (recently).

I have live rock (about 45lbs in a 75 gal tank). Nitrates are not a problem.
I'm using a wet/dry filter, and the mechanical filter part continues to fill
with algae; enough that I have to clean it every other day. The hermit crabs
seem more interested in eating the snails than the algae. I also added a
Mexican Fighting Conch, but so far, he just buries himself in the crushed
coral. I'm not using sand, but now wish I had. The tank has 4 small fish
(percula, purple dottyback, 7 line wrasse, yellow gobie) and a peppermint
shrimp. I also run a Diatom filter and do 10 gallon water changes 1-2 times
per month. Temp is a pretty constant 80.

I'm resisting pouring a chemical into the water to make it go away, but the
tank looked so good when I first set it up; I'd really like to rid the tank
of the algae. I keep reading this group and everyone says "patience." I'll
try to keep listening....

-Tom

--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

I battled hair algae for almost a year! Terrible hair algae, I've never
seen a tank as bad as mine was! It is now algae free except for some
valonia I can't get cleaned up.

RO/DI water helped. Manual removal - every single day by the QUART- helped.
Lessening light didn't seem to have any affect. Snails, hermits (red, blue,
scarlet), conchs, emeral crabs and urchins would not touch the stuff. More
water circulation made the algae wave beautifully in the high current but
didn't seem to have any other effect. (high water flow directly on my zoo
colonies is what finally got the hair algae out of the zoos - so it does
help for some things) Creating a DSB helped noticable for about a month,
then everything came back.

What finally fixed the problem was removal of the pre-filters in my overflow
box. I would clean them about every other day of the huge amount of algae
they would collect. Once I got rid of the prefilters the algae began to go
away almost immediately. I beleive the foam was acting like a wet dry and
manufacturing nitrates out the wazoo. I clean my overflow bulkhead fittings
about once a month now. I also had to clean my glass daily with a razor
just to see my fish. I now can use a magnet scrubber about once a week and
that is just to clean up a light "dust" on the glass.

I had zeros for NO2, NO3, NH3, and PO4 the entire time I was battleing hair
algae. I also had a UV and a skimmer running this entire time. 125G tank,
150# live rock, scopas tank, lawnmower blemmy.

So, what I am saying is get rid of the wet dry filter material! Your
nitrates and phosphates are reading zero because green hair algae is so good
at absorbing it, not because you aren't providing lots of it. Your wet dry
is making fertilizer. Nothing in your filter system should be wet and
aerobic. I don't know of any chemical you can put into your sal****er tank
that won't kill everything else in your tank.

Jim...
(like everything else - with sal****er - your mileage may vary)

P.S. Once you get the hair algae on the run, set up a reefugium. The
reefugium will help suck any excess nutrients out of your system in the
future. Oh yeah, for hermits get red leg (not scarlet) hermits, they won't
eat the snails and they won't crawl all over your coral flesh.

"TomW" wrote in message
...
I've been battling green hair algae for several months. My tank is 5
months
old & I started growing algae in month 3.

The problem is diminishing. So far, I've:

-Limited light from 10 hours to 6.
-Removed phosphate (using Phosguard).
-added snails and hermit crabs.
-added more water circulation (recently).

I have live rock (about 45lbs in a 75 gal tank). Nitrates are not a
problem.
I'm using a wet/dry filter, and the mechanical filter part continues to
fill
with algae; enough that I have to clean it every other day. The hermit
crabs
seem more interested in eating the snails than the algae. I also added a
Mexican Fighting Conch, but so far, he just buries himself in the crushed
coral. I'm not using sand, but now wish I had. The tank has 4 small fish
(percula, purple dottyback, 7 line wrasse, yellow gobie) and a peppermint
shrimp. I also run a Diatom filter and do 10 gallon water changes 1-2
times
per month. Temp is a pretty constant 80.

I'm resisting pouring a chemical into the water to make it go away, but
the
tank looked so good when I first set it up; I'd really like to rid the
tank
of the algae. I keep reading this group and everyone says "patience." I'll
try to keep listening....

-Tom

Thanks Richard,
My tank is 20g and all parameters are normal. The algae is not the
blue-green slimy bacteria stuff but an almost powdery green furry
(short) stuff. I had some of it on a piece of live rock but my turbo
snail ate it. I guess he didn't get it all tho.

I guess a better question would have been "What fish can I buy that
would eat it as a supplement to its diet?" If this were a fresh water
tank I would not have a problem picking a fish, but I just don't know
enough about salt water varieties yet.

Vicki

Hi Marc-
Yes, I read the article a while back and have employed the "manual
harvesting" method you described. It works well, but my back can only take
so much of that. My tank is an "in-wall" type of setup. I have to lean in
from the back of the tank. I was thinking of scrubbing the rock with a
toothbrush. What do you think of that idea?
-Tom

"Marc Levenson" wrote in message
...
Tom, have you read this article yet?

http://www.melevsreef.com/gha.html

Marc

...

My buddy had the same alae I suppose.
They are not as green when compared to real green-hair algae
but rather "dirty-green", with tint of yellowish-brownish... Of course
this subtle color difference is visible only when you have other
green algae close to compare. Silitary they look green too.

He was fighting with them doing mechanical cleaning. They are
soft and they do come off when you brush the rock with a clean
(new) toothbrush in some bucket of water. You need to clean all
rocks at once, to help your cleaning crew keep up with the rest
of algae in crevices, you could not get it from.

I got infested from him one day when I got some polyps from him.
The rock with polyps bloomed with this algae and I did not see
anything eating them quickly enough. I took out the rock, clean it
and put it back. When done, I noticed I left one fuzz on the rock edge.
I planned to take the rock again to clean it, but it got eaten overnight,
so I have a clean rock now. If you let them grow freely you will have
a lot of brushing work... to do not let it happen.

Of course, do not brush in the tank because it will only make things worse.

"~Vicki ~" wrote in message ...
Thanks Richard,
My tank is 20g and all parameters are normal. The algae is not the
blue-green slimy bacteria stuff but an almost powdery green furry
(short) stuff. I had some of it on a piece of live rock but my turbo
snail ate it. I guess he didn't get it all tho.

I guess a better question would have been "What fish can I buy that
would eat it as a supplement to its diet?" If this were a fresh water
tank I would not have a problem picking a fish, but I just don't know
enough about salt water varieties yet.

Vicki

"TomW" wrote in message
...
I was thinking of scrubbing the rock with a
toothbrush. What do you think of that idea?
-Tom

IME/IMO scrubbing with a toothbrush will only dislodge the algae and cause
it to spread further around the tank, if your going to scrub it, it needs to
be taken out of the tank and then brushed off in a bucket of sal****er then
rinsed well in a bucket of clean sal****er.

HTH
kc

richard screaming !!!
aaaahhhhh
/richard screming!!!

Thanks Richard,
My tank is 20g and all parameters are normal. The algae is not the
blue-green slimy bacteria stuff but an almost powdery green furry
(short) stuff. I had some of it on a piece of live rock but my turbo
snail ate it. I guess he didn't get it all tho.

post your params, normal means nothing to me, normal could mean a lot of things and I cant
tell what they mean to you, and if they were all ideal you wouldnt have bad algae growth
unless you dont like the looks of coraline :)

temp
salinity
nitrate
phosphate
ammonia
nitrite

I guess a better question would have been "What fish can I buy that
would eat it as a supplement to its diet?" If this were a fresh water
tank I would not have a problem picking a fish, but I just don't know
enough about salt water varieties yet.

furry green short stuff sounds to me like nitrates are high, post them first, do you have
a skimmer, which one, how much gunk does it pull out, another fish isnt going to be in the
solution of this algae problem, yet.

Vicki

--
Richard Reynolds

I'd prefer the idea of vacuuming it off somehow. Ideally, it should go to a
canister filter with pads to catch all the loose junk, and it should have an LED
near the nozzle end so you can see what you are doing.

Of course, I've never seen one, but I've always felt that would be the best
option. ;)

I don't do the toothbrush or scrubbing method. If you'll endure the
backbreaking manual system each day for about 2 weeks (14 rough days), you'll
end up with some really good results, ime.

Marc

TomW wrote:

Hi Marc-
Yes, I read the article a while back and have employed the "manual
harvesting" method you described. It works well, but my back can only take
so much of that. My tank is an "in-wall" type of setup. I have to lean in
from the back of the tank. I was thinking of scrubbing the rock with a
toothbrush. What do you think of that idea?
-Tom

--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

OK, Richard (and everyone else), here are the answers to your questions from
last week:
Answers are as of 8/31/03.

whats the algae look like

Green, wavey, hair-like. I can post a picture if that would help.

what are the values for sg,am,ni,na,ph,po,

SG 1.022
AM 0
NI 0
NA 5ppm
PH 8.4
PO Trace (Damn, this was 0 last week)

do you have a skimmer
NO

which one
how much gunk does it pull out every how often

and further by asking you said you have a mechanical filter you clean
daily how much gunk
is on it,
is it a thick coating or a light dusting,
Thick enough to inhibit flow (somewhat) if I don't clean it every few
days.

which wetdry are you using

Aquaclear 75 with bio balls. Using a CAP2200 pump.

The algae is continuing to diminish. Seems like the smaller hermits are
working on it.
As of this morning (8/4), I've removed the bio balls from the system.
Would you expect a change, or just a dissipation in algae?
Thanks for your help.
-Tom

[snip]

SG 1.022
AM 0
NI 0
NA 5ppm
PH 8.4
PO Trace (Damn, this was 0 last week)
[/snip]

Above parameter look ok. except for NA. The reason maybe due to your
BIOS-Ball(mechanical filter). You can convert your Wet/Dry to a DSB Sump
which will help reduce NA and also put other thing like PS so you do not
need to have it in your main tank. When you decide to get a PS later on.

[snip]
do you have a skimmer
NO
[/snip]

Then you need to get a good one like our King (Marc).

[snip]
which wetdry are you using

Aquaclear 75 with bio balls. Using a CAP2200 pump.

[/snip]

Remove your Wet/Dry, it will produce Nitrate too fast for other thing to
consume. PS will skim waste out before it can break down.

[snip]
The algae is continuing to diminish. Seems like the smaller hermits are
working on it.
[/snip]
This is good. If it decreasing, then just be patience. Feed less and more
water change w/RO[DI]

[snip]
As of this morning (8/4), I've removed the bio balls from the system.
Would you expect a change, or just a dissipation in algae?
Thanks for your help.
-Tom
[/snip]

Along algae does not get any more nutrient like A N N PO, then it will
slowly dissipate.

CapFusion,...