Algae

[Darrell]

Hi all, im in need of a bit of advice. Have just set up my first marine tank after keeping freshwater tropicals for a few years. I have a juwell rio 125 with an extrenal canister filter to suplament the juwel internal. I currrently have 6kgs of live rock two. True Percula clown fish, a royal gramma, one hermit crab and 7 bumble bee snails. The tank has had fish in it for about 6 weeks and nitrate and nitrite are almost nil. However the algae will not stop growing. i am cleaning the aquarium glass every three days otherwise i cant see my fish. the algae is growing all over my liver rock and seems to be killing all the coraline algae and other things on it. I cant even see my sand anymore, its like a carpet of hair algae. I keep pulling it out but as soon as its clear it just grows back again. I keep the lights on in the aquarium for 8 hours a day to try and stem this growth.

This post is from a friend of mine in need.

 

[Stonker]

I'm only new to the marine side of things, but I think that the experts may ask you to include some anti-phos of some kind in the cannister filter.

Am I right?

 

[Darrell]

Thanks, i asked my friend and he has something called Phos Guard in.

 

[amstar15]

what type of water are you using for top offs and water changes? is your tank near any windows? what type of lighting are you using and how long is on during the day?

 

[steelhealr]

Hi...almost all tanks will go thru algae phases during start up and this is normal. Diatoms are usually first and sometimes can be followed by hair algae and cyanobacteria. They all will usually regress with good water 'husbandry'. Excess nutrients are usually the cause of more difficult cases of algae blooms. The questions that 'newbie' posed are correct:
11) what type of water are you using?
2) adding a phosphate binder may help
3) what size is the tank? is 6kg LR enough? sounds light
4) tested for phosphates?
5) how often are you feeding?
6) skimming?

SH

 

[Darrell]

i will ask him these questions and get back, thanks

 

[Darrell]

Hi, right i spoke to him.

he tops the water off with DI water. his tap water is soft to start with.
he has a phos guard in and gets a reading of 0.25 mg/l
his tank is about 125 litres, yes with 6kg LR
he feeds once a day with low phos food
he has a prism deluxe thingy with some sort of surface skimmer

Thank you.

I will tell him to join and post in this thread

 

[JJ1234567]

What kind of cleanup crew has he got in there? is that sufficent to the task. in a tank of that size I would think it would be safe to throw in a turbo snail or two and let them goto town (ontop of the reg clean up crew)

 

[steelhealr]

First off...I"m not sure if DI means RO. Deionized is not necessarily reverse osmosis. His phosphates are hi and I think this is the primary cause. Something is adding phosphates to his water. He may want to invest in a phosphate test kit and test his water or have the local lfs do it. Feeding once a day sounds a bit heavy. Some species require it. Most feed every other or even less.

If I convet correctly, recs are 1-1.5lbs LR per gallon of tank. Hmmmm..is that 2.2-3.3 kgs per 4 liters??? Am I crazy or is there supposed to be 60 kilos of rock in there? I'm sorry if I am not the greatest with the conversions. If a 125 liter tank is about 30 gallons US, there should be about 30 lbs of LR (2.2kgs/lb). His cleanup crew does seem light:

1-2 snails/ 2 gallons
1 small crab per 3-5 gallons

If my conversion is correct, he could have about 10-15 snails, 1 'large' crab or 2-3 crabs and a shrimp or 2 or 3 in there. Just some thoughts. SH

 

[JJ1234567]

Even using distilled RO water, I almost have 1 snail per gallon, and they only just keep up with the algae. Definitly up the count. if you dont have alot or rock to knock over i stand by the Turbo snail comment, those things are MONSTERS, eat more than plecos, and those guys are cows!! LOL

 

[Darrell]

Hi, right i spoke to him.

he tops the water off with DI water. his tap water is soft to start with.
he has a phos guard in and gets a reading of 0.25 mg/l
his tank is about 125 litres, yes with 6kg LR
he feeds once a day with low phos food
he has a prism deluxe thingy with some sort of surface skimmer

Thank you.

I will tell him to join and post in this thread

he has a phos guard in and gets a reading of 0.25 mg/l

Hes has a phos kit, as i said in the previous post hes reading are above.

 

[steelhealr]

Ask him to test his water that he is topping off with. Otherwise, phosphate is getting into his tank and contributing to algae growth. The most LIKELY culprit is probably overfeeding. SH

 

[Darrell]

Good point steelhealr, i will ask him that, he has cut down on feeding to every other day so it doesn't upset the fish.

He still hasn't registered i see time to kick him outta bed

 

[Darrell]

Hi, i aked him about the topping up of water. His reading is 5mg/l of phosphate. We have found the culprit!!!!