Cutting Down The Amount Of Algae

[Ahoy89]

My tank is starting to get a little more algae than I thought it would get, I have 4 turbo snails in there and the majority of the water should be RO though I did originally start with dechlorinated water. All I can think of so far is just keep doing my weekly water changes with RO water and keeping the lights off as much as possible to stop the algae growing so fast. Any other suggestions?

Plus how many snails should I ideally have for a 18g? Also do I need hermits?

Many thanks!

 

[seffieuk]

Where is the algae? Glass. LR, sand? What type of algae?

Seffie x

 

[Ahoy89]

It's on the rock and in the sand, it's brown algae and there's quite a bit of the bloody stuff!
x

 

[SkiFletch]

Cyanobacteria, just a check, have you measured your RO output TDS to double check it?

 

[ben1987]

test your phosphates, how much flow you got in there?

 

[Jimyfloyd]

I have this problem too

I use only RO water - skimmer is running yet it still comes back.

I don't think any CUC eats it...?

 

[ben1987]

it feeds on phosphates and light, so cut back on the phosphates going in, rinse frozen foos after its bin de-frosted.

 

[Jimyfloyd]

barely any food in - all that's going in is a small amount twice a week to feed the cleaner shrimp...

And how do you rinse frozen foods??

 

[ben1987]

de-frost it in a cup of tank water, poor it trough a net and rinse it.

 

[lyotim88]

frozen foods contain phosphate?

 

[Ahoy89]

Cyanobacteria, just a check, have you measured your RO output TDS to double check it?

I have no idea how to test this but I get my RO from my local fish shop, they've been going for 25 years and keep loads of marines with this water so surely that is not the problem. After googling Cyano, it looks to be a lot more green than the algae I have, mine just looks really dark but it's hard to tell a definite colour because of the other good algae on the LR.

test your phosphates, how much flow you got in there?

Unfortunately I don't have a phosphate testing kit so this will be my next purchase
As for flow I've got skimmer on full blowing out and powerhead aimed towards the middle of the tank, also an airstone at the back, seems to be enough and the fish look content.
I think I may know what caused it, I was away at my bfs house for 4 days and my family have been looking after the tank, my mum said she'd fed 2 cubes of mysis shrimp in one day because she was unsure on how to feed it I specifically said just feed half a cube because they have flake also and there are only three fish in there! (aaargh!) The water was also quite murky compared to usual so I done a good 30% water change that night and then then next day I done about 20% and things seem clearer now but there's one hell of an algae bloom.

I guess I just have to keep lighting to a minimum and take precautions when feeding and remove as much waste as I can?

Thanks for your advice!

 

[SkiFletch]

Yup, cyano is a tricky one. Remember there are many different color morphs of it. Shades of green, brown, rust, and purple are the most common. Low nutrients is the key to longterm success against it. You can also bandaid the problem by switching away from full spectrum 10K lamps to 20K lamps, but you're still not fixing the nutrient issue, and the water will look really blue and your coral growth rate will suffer from the lower PAR of 20K lamps

 

[Alex Brown]

when did you set your tank up? i had this a few months after my first set up. it stayed around for a month or two. i spent loads of money and time researching into it and buying products to eliminate cyno. now, i have learnt from many other marinists and from my own experience, its simply a part of a new tank cycling. just rough it out and wait for that day when you wake up and its all gone! i was so happy when that day came.