Dealing with Green Hair Algae and Cyanobacteria and lots of questions for my Saltwater tank.

I first off want to say I am new to this hobby. This is my second month of having my tank. I had bought fish from my local Petco and brought two clownfish home, within a week they had ich and I went to back to Petco and they recommended herbtana to treat it. I am starting using the right dosage every day, but a rookie mistake I made was never taking the carbon out of my filter so herbtana was not working assuming it would've worked seeing there are many medications out there.



Long story short I found out Petco were dealing with ich at the time and did not even bring it to my attention... The fish died from ich sadly, but I made sure not to slip up again. So, I raised the temperature up to 88 degrees for 4 weeks while treating with herbtana. I went to another good reviewed LFS and they treat their tanks with copper, so I ended up leaving they are with another 2 clownfish since they are the hardier fish. They have been in my tank for 10 days now and they have been looking great! I feed them twice a day w/ a small number of pellets and flakes and sometimes Mysis shrimp. I must say they do very odd thing sometimes but after reading up online clownfish do very weird things.



I provided pictures of my tank. I have a 20-gallon tank, with a tetra whisper HOB filter. I also have ceramic rings in the filter. I also have a circulation pump with my heater in there. Is that all I need to have a successful 20-gallon tank? I hear so much other stuff like canisters, refugium’s, protein skimmers, etc. I used to buy the carbon filters for the HOB filter, but I was advised to go to purigen, and it has been about 4 days, and everything seems to be fine. Here are my levels from 2 days ago,

Ammonia-0

P.H. 8.2

Nitrate-0

Nitrite-0

Phosphate-0



I've taken algae off the rock but it seems to be spreading not really too bad but I know algae will always be in the tank and I know algae is good but I don't really want to see the excess hair strings in my tank. Is there a way to kill it all? Get a CUC? Or do I need remove it myself, but wouldn't it grow back? My levels are fine when I tested just wondering how to approach green hair algae.



Also, I am dealing with cyanobacteria, in the pics it does not look bad, but it tends to disappear more at night than in morning. Another rookie mistake was putting my tank in the only room the house that gets the most sun... but I did however run out to the LFS and bought a covering and covered the back and side of tanks so no sunlight can get in the tank.



***Only reason why I had my lights on was I was taking these pictures at 2am and had the lights off. With dealing with cyano, I have had the lights off basically all day unless it is nighttime and I want to watch TV I will turn on the lights for a couple hours. I have read that light should be turned off, people have different opinions, but should I continue keeping my lights off or should I medicate?



I hope in the next couple of weeks if the clownfish look parasite free and look healthy, I want to get more fish or a CUC. Since I go the LFS that treats with copper in their tanks do I have to quarantine the fish? Am I just taking my own risk if I do not? If I need to quarantine what is sufficient? A 10 gallon with a HOB filter, an aerator, and some PVC pipes for the fish to hide or do I need to add sand. I heard turbo start 900 can cycle a tank within a week so I would get that for the QT to speed up process also buying salt water already packaged at my LFS.



I know I asked a lot of questions and to whoever read this whole thing I really do appreciate it I just really want to have success in this hobby, want to be happy at looking at my aquarium (which I already do except seeing the hair strains of the green algae and cyanobacteria and I also want my fish happy.

Hi and welcome to the forum

I'm having trouble following everything you wrote, but you seem to have concerns about blue green algae. The red algae on the sand is a red form of blue green algae (Cyanobacter bacteria). You can't get rid of it with chemicals so don't even try.

Blue green algae loves nutrients and does well in tanks that gets lots of dry food. It is also common in newly set up tanks, and tanks that have lots of red light. If your light unit has a K rating (K is for Kelvin), then post the numbers for it. You want light with a 6500K rating for marine tanks.

The red algae should go in a few months when the tank settles down.

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Did you cycle the tank before adding fish?
Sea water has a high pH (8.4) and any ammonia produced becomes very toxic in this pH.

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The safest way to treat white spot is to raise the water temperature to 30C/ 86F and keep it there for 2 weeks. The heat kills the free swimming parasites and you don't need chemicals.

re: The new shop you are going to and their copper. Do they have copper in their tanks all the time or only when they are treating fish?
If they have copper in their tanks all the time, the fish are more likely to suffer from kidney damage. Copper and other chemicals should only be used as a last resort and for as short a time as is necessary to fix the problem. Long term exposure to chemicals is harmful to all aquarium inhabitants.

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You need some more live rock in the tank. If you can't afford live rock, then get some dry limestone/ sandstone from the beach or pet shop and use that. In 6 months time it will be live rock.

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Having sunlight come in through a window onto a tank is not necessarily harmful or bad unless it is hot and causes the water temperature to go up. The extra light can be beneficial for plants/ algae growing in tanks.

Tanks should have lights on for the same period each day and from the same times each day.

Stress from tank lights coming on when the room is dark can be an issue. Fish don't have eyelids and don't tolerate going from complete dark to bright light (or vice versa) instantly.

In the morning open the curtains or turn the room light on at least 30 minutes (or more) before turning the tank light on. This will reduce the stress on the fish and they won't go from a dark tank to a bright tank instantly.

At night turn the room light on and then turn the tank light off. Wait at least 30 minutes (or more) before turning the room light out. This allows the fish to settle down for the night instead of going from a brightly lit tank to complete darkness instantly.

Colin_T said:

Hi and welcome to the forum

I'm having trouble following everything you wrote, but you seem to have concerns about blue green algae. The red algae on the sand is a red form of blue green algae (Cyanobacter bacteria). You can't get rid of it with chemicals so don't even try.

Blue green algae loves nutrients and does well in tanks that gets lots of dry food. It is also common in newly set up tanks, and tanks that have lots of red light. If your light unit has a K rating (K is for Kelvin), then post the numbers for it. You want light with a 6500K rating for marine tanks.

The red algae should go in a few months when the tank settles down.

--------------------
Did you cycle the tank before adding fish?
Sea water has a high pH (8.4) and any ammonia produced becomes very toxic in this pH.

--------------------
The safest way to treat white spot is to raise the water temperature to 30C/ 86F and keep it there for 2 weeks. The heat kills the free swimming parasites and you don't need chemicals.

re: The new shop you are going to and their copper. Do they have copper in their tanks all the time or only when they are treating fish?
If they have copper in their tanks all the time, the fish are more likely to suffer from kidney damage. Copper and other chemicals should only be used as a last resort and for as short a time as is necessary to fix the problem. Long term exposure to chemicals is harmful to all aquarium inhabitants.

--------------------
You need some more live rock in the tank. If you can't afford live rock, then get some dry limestone/ sandstone from the beach or pet shop and use that. In 6 months time it will be live rock.

--------------------
Having sunlight come in through a window onto a tank is not necessarily harmful or bad unless it is hot and causes the water temperature to go up. The extra light can be beneficial for plants/ algae growing in tanks.

Tanks should have lights on for the same period each day and from the same times each day.

Stress from tank lights coming on when the room is dark can be an issue. Fish don't have eyelids and don't tolerate going from complete dark to bright light (or vice versa) instantly.

In the morning open the curtains or turn the room light on at least 30 minutes (or more) before turning the tank light on. This will reduce the stress on the fish and they won't go from a dark tank to a bright tank instantly.

At night turn the room light on and then turn the tank light off. Wait at least 30 minutes (or more) before turning the room light out. This allows the fish to settle down for the night instead of going from a brightly lit tank to complete darkness instantly.

Click to expand...

Hi Colin I appreciate the response. I actually purchased dry rock a week ago and put it on top of the two live rock pieces, only reason why I haven't got more live rock was because of possibly bringing parasites? If I were to buy live rock best way is to QT it?

Yes I believed my tank was cycled when I added my two clowns. When I had my first two clowns I just started the tank and petco said to help speed up process you can bring in clownfish to your tank and thats when they had ich and died. After I treated is then when a month later I checked my water levels again and then went out to buy two new clowns. Some people have said I should've waited longer for ich and not too sure if I should hold off on getting new fish in the next couple of weeks and wait to see if the clowns get ich.

The lights I purchased was an Aqueon Optibright + LED Aquarium light. They have a 30 minute gradual dimming of lights for the fish to easily settle down or when turning on in morning.

Colin_T said:

Blue green algae loves nutrients and does well in tanks that gets lots of dry food. It is also common in newly set up tanks, and tanks that have lots of red light. If your light unit has a K rating (K is for Kelvin), then post the numbers for it. You want light with a 6500K rating for marine tanks.

Click to expand...

Also I'm not sure how many Kelvins I believe 6500k because of the other product that looks the same as mine says it is but when I pressed this link to look at the specs it does not say. https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/aqueon-led-optibright-light-fixture-5067660-1