Sand Alge_Question

[eak77]

Good day, I am new to this forum a friend recomended it to me to help answer some questions about my tank. My boyfriend and I recently started with this hobby and have found a true love for it.

Well up and until now things have been going well. My boyfriends tank now has this layer of green alge over his sand? Can you please help? How am I suppose to clean this and prevent it.

He has a 155 gallon bow with a protien skimmer!!! In the tanks live the following:

1 Blue spotted ray
1 Moray eel
1 yellow tang
1 sailfin tang
1 spotted hawk fish
1 clarke clown
2 porquipine puffers
1 manderian goby

several hard and soft corals and anomeas, oh and a clam.


Thanks for the help and advise!!!

[vgibbens]

That sounds like a lot in a 155. Have you tested for nitrates and/or phosphates? What kind of protein skimmer do you have?

[mellen]

If I knew how to do the banner, I would, but WELCOME TO REEF CENTRAL! I'm a former Floridian, too.

One of your best sources of info here is Reef Keeping Magazine, link up top in the blue band. You can search by topic from a drop down list after entering the past issues tab.

If your tank is new, the algae may be just part of the sand bed cycling process (beyond nitrogen cycle). A miniecostem needs to establish in the sand over time to help process nitrates all the way back to plain Nitrogen gas. Try searching about DSB. Not sure how long your BFs tank has been up and running - might be too early in process to handle the fish and coral load, so excess nutrients have built up encouraging an algae bloom. There are solutions, and many folks will post suggestions of all kinds. In meanwhile RK mag and taking the tutorial on "How to search RC efficiently" at the top of the new to hobby forum topic menu is a good bet! Happy Reefing!

[frankdreistein]

Hi and welcome

can you make a photo of the algae and tell your water parameters?

[ArchAngel]

You could run some carbon, but that is really only a band-aid. You need to reduce your nutrient load. Are you using RO water? How often and how much do you feed?

[xxaquanutxx]

you need to lower your phosphates probably.

Do you have a fuge with macro ??

[eak77]

The tank was previously owned, it came with a EURO Reef Protien Skimmer. I checked the waters last night and the nitrates where high. As for the phosphates I currently dont have a home test to complete this and will need to take the water the local fish store today. Once I do I will give you the stats. I appreciate the help.

When you say nutrients what do you mean and what do I have to do?

Oh and I recently purchased a UV sterilizer should this help the problem?

Thanks,
Erin

[mellen]

eak 77
nutrients as in "one guys waste is another guys food"; Fish and other animals excrete ammonia via their gills or tissue pores, instead of producing uric acid and urinating, like land animals do. Also, fish waste (poop) and tiny leftover food particles will build up faster than the nitrifying bacteria and tiny sand and rock critters, benthic (under sand) bacteria & algae can eat & process it. Basically, life is just the pursuit of carbon based and related organic compounds for these creatures. If you do not have large macro algae "plants" to feed off the excess nutrients, or employ efficient organic chemcal absobing media (activated, carbon, polymer beads, etc.), tiny micro algae and cyanobacteria will take "advantage" of the excess and reproduce exponentially in quick order; that's the ugly slime and hair-like stuff in your BF's tank. Since it is almost impossible to replicate the kind of animal/plant/bacteria population balance that occurs in the vast volume of the sea, as aquarists we of course do things like skimming, filtration and running absorbing carbon to remove the waste excess. But when you don't allow time enough for the tank to build up a big enough population of waste feeding organisms to aid our human technology and water maintenance work - such as by adding too many high metabolism large animals like fish too quickly - the system will never stabilize or balance out the nutrient load, except through growing ugly nuisance algae. Like the old saying, "Nature abhors a vacuum"; the nuisance algae are in fact reacting to balance things, just not in a way that looks nice or is normal in the wild.

Many hobbyists are using macro algae refugiums and/ or macro algae in their display tanks to help out-compete the micro algae to keep it under control. Micro algae eating critters like herbivorous snails, crabs and sea slugs are used, too. Using a good quality activated carbon or adsorber materials like Sea-Chem Purigen beads (a special polymer) to pull out liquified waste compounds is very useful, too, and will keep the water from turning yellow-ish. The more fish and other animals you have, the bigger your protein skimmer will need to be; "good for tanks up to X gallons" means on average, so it is best to size a skimmer choice on the generous side, or use a good sized sump/refugium with plenty of macro algae in it.

The best thing of all to do, though, is not to over-stock the tank, as stated earlier. Marine tank systems are very much easier to over load than freshwater, and as you well know, it ain't cheap to constantly replace and dilute polluted tank water with water changes using RO/DI water and salt mix...Choosing fish that are naturally small at adult size is the best bet for any tank under 200 gallons, if you want a lot of fish. If you like the larger species, limit the total number of them very carefully and be sure your tank is large enough for them to feel comfortable in - bigger fish get claustrophobic, stressed out and aggressive or sickly, otherwise.