green slimy algae or whatever it's called

[amhealy]

I have tried doing research on this but I either don't know what it's called, or I'm the only one with this problem.

About 6 months ago, I started having this problem with this hairy green algae or whatever. It started after my son over-fed my fish with these pellets. I was gone over the Thanksgiving weekend and when I came back at about 11 on Sunday night, there were pellets (that I was giving occasionally to the Tang) all over the tank. My son later said he was afraid he would forget to come back and feed the fish, so he dumped "a whole lot" into the tank.

Since then, I started noticing patches of this green hairy stuff, stuff that looks like you would find in a river jetty in standing water because there isn't enough water flow. It would grow real thick, and would suck it up, and replace water, and it would grow back so fast.

This past weekend I took apart the entire tank (rightly or wrongly, I'm so sick of this green stuff that was growing on every inch of rock and glass), and I scrubbed all the rock and glass and basically did a 95% water change.

The tank looks great, except that I can see some of it starting to come back.

I have never seen it in a fish store. I have done internet searches and not seen any pictures of it that look like what I am experiencing. I wish I had taken before/after pictures. Maybe I'll let it grow back a little in order to take a picture so you can see what it looks like.

I've been told, in order to get rid of it, even though I don't know if anyone knows what I'm really talking about, to:

1) Move the lights higher;
2) Reduce the number of hours the tank is exposed to light;
3) Reduce feeding;
4) Reduce water temperature;

If anyone has any ideas based on the above, I would really appreciate the feedback.

[daugherty]

hair alage is my guess. if it is slimey than check out cyano bacteria

[Bifferwine]

To me, it doesn't really matter the exact kind of algae it is, all algae uses the same nutrients to grow -- nitrates and phosphates. You need to find the source of your nitrates and phosphates and eliminate them.

What kind of water do you use to top off evaporation and do water changes? You should only use RODI water. Tap water, even treated, can contain high levels of N and P.

How often and how large of a water change do you do? Regular water changes of 10 to 20% per week are recommended.

You should avoid feeding any flakes or pellet foods. These contain ash as a preservative, which is a form of P and will lead to algae problems. Feed frozen foods only (but dried seaweed sheets are fine though).

Do you have a good protein skimmer? If no, you should get one (stay away from the SeaClones and Red Sea Prizms). If you are using some other sort of filtration, like trickle filters, canister filters, power filters, bioballs, wet-dry filters, etc. these often lead to high nitrates and algae problems.

Is your substrate crushed coral or sand? Crushed coral can trap detritus because of the large particle size, which can lead to nutrient build up and algae problems.

How many fish do you have? If a tank is overstocked, algae problems become impossible to avoid.

Do you have enough flow in the tank? It's harder for algae to establish itself in areas of high flow.

Do you have a sufficient cleaner crew? Various snails will take care of the bulk of cleaning your rocks, sand and glass. Astraeas for the glass, Mexican turbos for the rocks, and nassarius for the sand.

You're right about the lighting. What kind of lights do you have and how long do you keep them on for? When was the last time you changed the bulbs? When bulbs go bad, algae growth usually increases.

I think those are the main problems when it comes to algae... Best to go through each point and see what could be contributing.

Lastly, I hope you don't still have the tang, a 40 gallon tank is waaaaaaay too small for any type of tang. Keeping a tang in a tank this size will stress it out, and likely lead to ich, and in tangs, ich usually kills them. Not only that, but it will probably end up giving ich to the rest of the fish in your tank. For most tangs, a tank size of 100 gallons or more is recommended, as they have very high metabolisms and need to swim fast, and need to swim a lot in order to get a sufficient amount of oxygen. A 40 gallon tank does not provide the space that it needs to be healthy.

[yote]

Sounds like a bad case of hair algae to me.
Step up water changes(use only RO or RO/DI)
run some phosphate remover.
Throw the pellets in the trash,frozen foods are better for your fish and dont contain ash(whick is a form of phosphate)
Let the tank go 3 or 4 days with the lights off.
And last but not laest,Pick out as much of the algae as possibe every day.
It'll take a while to get it under control,but it can be done.

[amhealy]

Originally Posted by daugherty

hair alage is my guess. if it is slimey than check out cyano bacteria

Thanks, daugherty. I don't think that's it, but thanks for trying to help. I looked it up on the internet and the pictures of the algae that you mentioned didn't look like that. This green stuff is thick and grows high, and it sucks up real easy when I do the water change, but it leaves stuff behind stuck to the rock, which then grows again.

[amhealy]

Originally Posted by Bifferwine

To me, it doesn't really matter the exact kind of algae it is, all algae uses the same nutrients to grow -- nitrates and phosphates. You need to find the source of your nitrates and phosphates and eliminate them.

What kind of water do you use to top off evaporation and do water changes? You should only use RODI water. Tap water, even treated, can contain high levels of N and P.

I have been using RO from the LFS.

How often and how large of a water change do you do? Regular water changes of 10 to 20% per week are recommended.

I was doing a water change every other week of 20%, but I see that it wasn't enough.

You should avoid feeding any flakes or pellet foods. These contain ash as a preservative, which is a form of P and will lead to algae problems. Feed frozen foods only (but dried seaweed sheets are fine though).

This makes sense then why the problem started after my son overdosed my tank with the pellets. I had been giving them to the tang, just a few a day, as a treat. The guy at the LFS said the tang would like them. I'll throw them out.

Do you have a good protein skimmer? If no, you should get one (stay away from the SeaClones and Red Sea Prizms). If you are using some other sort of filtration, like trickle filters, canister filters, power filters, bioballs, wet-dry filters, etc. these often lead to high nitrates and algae problems.

Yes, I have a very good protein skimmer. I don't know the name of it, but it was about $200. We bought one that would work on a 100 gallon tank because I figured I'd probably upgrade some day. That's why I bought the tang, which was a small fish at the time we bought him.

Is your substrate crushed coral or sand? Crushed coral can trap detritus because of the large particle size, which can lead to nutrient build up and algae problems.

It's sand.

How many fish do you have? If a tank is overstocked, algae problems become impossible to avoid.

There is the tang, 3 damsels, 1 clown, 3 corals, 1 anemone, 2 shrimp, a sea cucumber, 2 crabs, 4 of those white snails that live under the sand, and recently added about 17 snails and 16 hermit crabs because I realized, when I cleaned the tank out, that there were a lot of empty shells.

Do you have enough flow in the tank? It's harder for algae to establish itself in areas of high flow.

I have to power heads, one on each end of the tank, so I think there's enough water flow.

Do you have a sufficient cleaner crew? Various snails will take care of the bulk of cleaning your rocks, sand and glass. Astraeas for the glass, Mexican turbos for the rocks, and nassarius for the sand.

I'll go back to the LFS where I just bought the extra snails and hermit crabs and find out what he sold to me.

You're right about the lighting. What kind of lights do you have and how long do you keep them on for? When was the last time you changed the bulbs? When bulbs go bad, algae growth usually increases.

I bought the metal haloids a year ago January. I haven't changed the bulbs ever. They still work. How do you know when they are bad??

Lastly, I hope you don't still have the tang, a 40 gallon tank is waaaaaaay too small for any type of tang. Keeping a tang in a tank this size will stress it out, and likely lead to ich, and in tangs, ich usually kills them. Not only that, but it will probably end up giving ich to the rest of the fish in your tank. For most tangs, a tank size of 100 gallons or more is recommended, as they have very high metabolisms and need to swim fast, and need to swim a lot in order to get a sufficient amount of oxygen. A 40 gallon tank does not provide the space that it needs to be healthy.

As stated, I was hoping to have moved to a bigger tank by now. I told my husband the other day that I thought we should trade the Tang in.

Based on what you say, I'm going to do it right away. I don't want to hurt him, and I'm not moving up to a bigger tank until I get these problems fixed.

Thanks for you advice. Very much appreciated.

[amhealy]

Originally Posted by yote

Sounds like a bad case of hair algae to me.
Step up water changes(use only RO or RO/DI)
run some phosphate remover.
Throw the pellets in the trash,frozen foods are better for your fish and dont contain ash(whick is a form of phosphate)
Let the tank go 3 or 4 days with the lights off.
And last but not laest,Pick out as much of the algae as possibe every day.
It'll take a while to get it under control,but it can be done.

I'm throwing the pellets in the trash. I'll douse the lights for a few days. (All the lights??)

I have been taking a small toothbrush and scrubbing the rock in the tank on the various areas where I see small bits growing back. Is this bad to do inside the tank? I don't want to disrupt anything again by taking the rock out again.

[amhealy]

Some pictures just in case it helps:

[sen5241b]

My tank is 4 months old and I too have been battling algae (like 5 kinds!) but my algae problems are almost gone. There is no one magic bullet. You really need to hit it with a multi-pronged approach: clean up crew, chaeto, water changes, carbon filtration, less hours of light, etc.

Many people have said getting macro algae like chaeto or calerpa does a lot to reduce phoshates and nitrates. These macro algaes eat nitrates! The general idea though is you have a fuge that you keep the chaeto in. You don't want to put it in the main tank.

[amhealy]

Originally Posted by sen5241b

The general idea though is you have a fuge that you keep the chaeto in. You don't want to put it in the main tank.

This is what I've been meaning to get around to is making a refugium sump or whatever it's called. Actually, I keep meaning to buy a bigger tank, but then all this started in November and I'm kind of leery now of buying a bigger tank. That probably starts running into a lot of money if you have to do a huge water change, right?