help!!! Green algae and Diatoms ruling my life

S

sinder255248

AC Members
Oct 11, 2005
43
0
0
45
England
Hi,

I've got a serious problem with Green Algae and Diatoms on the Sandbed and rocks. I've tried everything that I can think of but still can't cure it. The tank has been up and running for about 3 months now. I use RO water for topoffs and water changes, the skimmer is working great. Tank readings are as follows:

Nitrates: 0
Nitrites: 0
Ammonia: 0
Phosphates: 0.03 (salifert test kit)
Salinity: 1.025 (refractometer)

Lighting:

2 x 150w 10k MH with 2 38w flourecents power-glo's (power-glo to be replace with 2 x 55w T5 Compact Actinics in the next couple of days)

The tank is a 72gal bowfront. The lights are currently working:

Power-Glo: 6:30 - 10:00 / 18:30 - 20:00
MH: 9:30 - 18:00

I have tried running on just the Power-Glo but this made no difference, and I have added some Calupera to the main tank in hopes of it out competing the ugly stuff :)

At the moment there are only 5 fish and 2 cleaner shrimps in the tank. I have tried cutting back on feeding as much as possible. When feeding frozen food I place it in a cup of tank water and let it defrost in that, then siv it though a net and put the food in via the net. I very rarely feed flake any more which I thought might help.

Cleanup crew consists of 7 hermits (blue and red), 5 Turbos (picking up another 6 today), 8 Cerith snails, and 8 of these little ones that come out when there's food.

I appreciate any help you can give as this is driving me up the wall :duh: .

Thanks

Brian
 
i read that my rosy barbs eats hair type algae :)

If you need some cool new fish then there ya go.
 
If it were just diatoms I would say check silicates, some RO filters do not have silicate removal media. I think however, a more substantial cleanup crew would help, the current one seems kinda weak.
 
Reply

reefrash,

What would you recommend as a prefered cleanup crew given the size of the tank and the ones I already have in there?

Thank

Bri
 
I would think the snails you're adding will be enough in the long term.

After dealing with apparently intractable algae blooms, I can still say very little specific to help you out. Here are things that may help:
-Adding a DI cartridge to your RO. It may help get the phosphate closer to zero.
-Increasing circulation. In my tanks, hair algae was happiest in areas where flow is lower, allowing detritus to collect. Increased flow will also help keep debris suspended until the skimmer can deal with it.
-Time. There are nutrients in that tank, allowing the algae to grow. It may simply exhaust itself at some point. I can't tell you how many threads I have read where an intractable algae bloom simply faded away. That was the case in my 90 reef.
 
reply

Thanks for your help, I'm going to add the extra snails to the tank tomorrow, and possibly get another powerhead in there for extra movement and see what happens. As you say, maybe it just needs to run its course.

Thank

Bri
 
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