the algae bloom is upon me!

[the Undone guy]

in the spirit of new threads...

so i can already see that my first major algae bloom is upon me. I'm getting some beautiful purple corraline growth off of my marshall rock, but the other rock is turning a greenish-dirty-brown. (dont ask me i have partial color blindness!) Unfortunatly i only have ONE turbo who's chomping away like a madman, and one other hitchhiker that is eating the algae. So do i let this algae run its course, or do i try to remove it manually with some good ol' elbow grease? I gotta pick up more snails as soon as chris gets in some astreas!

also i have these little patches starting to grow all over my glass:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/mons00n/fish/algae1.jpg

keep it, or scrape it off?

[opihi]

scrape away good buddy!

i used to be a fan of letting things go naturally. now, i think it's best to catch problems before it becomes an epidemic.

[Bozad]

I had a simular algae bloom but it was red hair like algae in my 30g refugium. I tried to remove it by hand but I only caused it to spread. it eventually killed off almost all of the good macro algae. I gutted the refugium and started over. Check your water quality and lighting times.

[opihi]

you can spread it around if you're not careful. for best results, remove the LR from your tank for scrubbing, and rinse it before you put it back in your tank. i usually rinse it with water i've removed from the tank during water changes.

btw Bobby: how much are you loving that camera? that's a great pic, i wish my camera could do that!

[TippyToeX]

I'm with Jeff Bobby. Manual removal at this point. You have a good clean upcrew goign right? Make sure they are doing thier job and that you skimmer is kicked into high as well.

[the Undone guy]

no thats the problem i dont have a good clean up crew!! how many turbo's should i have in a 55gal? how many astreas? i only have 2 nasserous since they eat leftovers and not algae. now im confused....

1st off, i cant remove the rock, because i'll never get it back the way i like it, 2nd off, do i remove those patches from the glass? or do i let mr turbo do his job?

oh yea jeff, my camera rocks. I've been meaning to get a chance to do a full shot of my tank inside and out but i simply havent had the time recently. work has had me busy with training and such.

[LVfishguy]

I so the ol' scrape and suck method with that stuff...

[Shak]

IMHO scrape off isnt a solution, you are ready for a full clean up crew my friend, get the snails going asap! Test the water and post your parameters (phos and nitrate especially).

I have 0 problems with algae (knock on wood) at month 4, but i've kept my parameters in check, done necessary water changes, and i've had my full crew in there working since the day the tank cycled.

Nice camera BTW, im jealous!

[the Undone guy]

last test i ran i was sitting on about 10ppm nitrate and that was just before i added the cheatmorpha, havent had a chance to test it since then. I dont think i should have any phosphates since i use RO/DI water, or are there some laying around here and there? chris when are you going to get some astreas or whatever they're called in? dont make me buy the one out of your reef tank~

[Nanighan]

If you can find cerith snails, I would go with those. they eat everything including cyano which you will probably have sooner or later. IMHO

[the Undone guy]

ok here are water parameters as of 1am 7-28-04:


PH = 8.2
Salinity = 1.026
Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 15-20ppm ?~! *
Calcium = 480ppm!? **


*my nitrates actually went UP. The only livestock in there is my zebra eel (im sure he's a big contributor), and 2 baby chromis. And i have only fed the chromis twice. When does the cheatmorpha start to kick in? should i increase the flow to my refugium? (on 7-22-04 and 7-25-04 my nitrates were at 10ppm which was before the addition of the zebra eel and cheatmorpha)

** i was on a budget when i bought the calcium test, its a Nutrafin Ca test, you put like 7drops of the first solution, and 3 drops of the second one, then you count how many drops of the 3rd one it takes to turn the pink solution to purple. It took 24 drops to change the color completely. So 24x20 = 480ppm, which doesnt seem right. I havent started dosing kalk yet...and on 7-22-04 it tested @ 400ppm, maybe i screwed this one up ^shrug^

besides a better clean up crew (how many snails should i be getting for a 55 gal?)....what else can i do to remedy this situation, those damn patches are starting to get out of control, and you guys scare me with talk of spreading it...

[LVfishguy]

As many snails as possible! No astreas this week. the people we ordered from only had turbos...hopefully next week.

and having phosphates can also come from feeding your fish.
And the macros will work in time but it is not a quick fix.

[the Undone guy]

ugh the algae on the rocks and sand is beginning to look horrid. should i just leave the lights off until i can get to the store for more snails? i'm stuck in training until saturday night=(

[the Undone guy]

here's an idea of how bad it's getting:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/mons00n/tank%20showcase/algae2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/mons00n/tank%20showcase/algae3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/mons00n/tank%20showcase/algae4.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/mons00n/tank%20showcase/turbogoinatit.jpg

[LVfishguy]

I do have some of those nassaraus snails. they should help with you sand bed...

[opihi]

those are regular brown diatoms. pretty normal in a new tank. you can siphon it out when you do your water changes.

IME, the nassarius snails will help only in stirring the sand bed. they will not eat the algae.

[Shak]

I agree with Jeff, diatoms, typical of a new system. Not much you can do, stir up the sand bed, siphon out with water change.

On the brighter side, you do NOT have an algae problem, very typical and usually a good sign that your tank is maturing nicely. Keep up with the water changes, and testing, and just relax bro.

[TippyToeX]

Good ol' diatoms. :D

Don't worry, it will go away in no time. Keep skimming, water changing and feeding only what is needed. All normal and part of the fun of a just cycled tank.Ok, ok.. not fun but it is normal! ;)

[LVfishguy]

Should have those asteas this week bobby. Got one of the people to hold like 25 of them for me.

[the Undone guy]

let me knw when you get em in. so far i have 3 astreas, 3 ceriths, 2 turbos...they're doing a pretty good job but i dont know how many more i need...

[LVfishguy]

Will do.

[trodder]

IF you start to get a bad hair algae problem i recommend getting a couple maybe even as many as 4 emerald crabs.... they are absolutley amazing as far as containing or in my case emliminating hair algae. I don't belive they will do much for you diatom outbreak but most snails will help as well as hermit crabs. If this is going to be a reef rather than a FO then I recommend sticking with scarlet reef crabs...blue legged hermits are okay as far as coral goes but will be a possible burden for your snails. I would go with about 50 snails in all to start...mostly ceriths an d astreas. HTH

[the Undone guy]

i cant get crabs, my eel will eat them~