Damn Algae Taking Over My Tank!

[Ahoy89]

It's such a shame I have quite a lot of algae in my once very nice looking tank so all rock ocean/LR has a yucky coating of brown algae on it, I could really do with some advice with what is the best way to get it cleared up asap without harming the livestock.

It's only a nano and has x 2 ocellaris clowns, x1 firefish, x1 skunk cleaner, x4 turbo snails (cone shaped shell)

I have no idea how much clean up crew I should have but any advice would be fantastic, my tank water is salted RO water and I try to feed small and often so not much goes to waste at the bottom of the tank.

Any help would be fantastic because at the moment when i'm showing it to anyone it's the first thing you notice before the fish in my eyes xD

 

[Alex Brown]

Hey, when did you start the tank?

 

[seffieuk]

sorry ahoy, I can't remember how big your nano is - but sounds like you need some more cuc, that is if your stats are all good

post your tank size and stats please

Seffie x

 

[-Nemo-]

Assuming your stats are well.

If i remember correctly, your tank hasn't been up for too long, the brown algae is a normal part of a new tank for many people. More CUC would certainly help, but from my experience, it should stop growing eventually on its own.

 

[VictorMeldrew]

How much flow do you have? Any dead spots with not help, my diatom phase seem to go on and on until i added another powerhead it dissapeared very quickly when i had more current in the water.

I think i remember reading somewhere that one snail can be added to every 5gl of water but i am not 100% on that.

Good luck getting rid, algea just sucks does'nt it.

VM

 

[Ahoy89]

Tank has been running for over 2 months, it's only a 18g nano it's hexagon shaped so the powerhead creates a flow all around the tank as it seems to bounce from each side as it goes down (you can see this at feeding time!)
Current stats are

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5
PH: 8.1
SG: 1.024

They're always quite stable and I do weekly water changes, i'm thinking it could be to do with the tank getting a lot of lighting. Maybe adding a few more CUC and keeping the lights out for a while will help clean things up?

 

[seffieuk]

stats look ok to me, how long do you keep the lights on for? But I suspect it is just your new tank, do you have any sand sifting snails or hermits? If not get some Nas and a couple of dwarf hermits the hermits will make short work of the diatoms

Seffie x

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, what kind of lighting do you have? Have you considered running a hang-on refugium?

 

[Ahoy89]

The lighting is only two LED strips, £20 in total for the two of them so they're not good enough for coral of course but are bright enough to light the whole tank up when the bedroom lights are out. I usually leave them off morning - afternoon then switch the daylight ones on from about 5pm to midnight then through the night I have the moonlight on.

I'm starting to leave out the moonlight one of a night time so it's complete darkness but I don't want to have to keep the light off on the tank, I'll grab 2 or 3 hermits tomorrow and maybe another couple of snails from the LFS and see what they do.

As for the hang on refugium the tank is small enough as it is so it would look really messy, I'll just wait until I upgrade the tank size and do everything properly!