Algae Problems HELP!

[Swart66]

Hi Living Reefs,

My problem is this week I started growing all this red algae (getting worst each day). Here are some pictures of the problem:

I have the following setup:
Tank-75 gallon
Lighting- Coralife Aqualight 48" (2x65watt 10,000k & 2x65 True Actinic)
Protein Skimmer- SeaClone 100
Circulation - 2 X Maxi-Jet 1200
60-70lbs/lr


I setup the tank 3 weeks ago with cured live rock. I never saw the Ammonia spike or nitrite levels spike and they are all are still reading 0. Does that mean I got really good cured live rock and don't have to wait as long for the cycle to finish?.

I haven't done any water changes yet since I was waiting for the tank to properly cycle. Should I assume it is cycled now a begin water changes to reduce the algae build up. Or does anyone have any ideas what I should do before this algae takes over the entire tank. I was hoping to start adding live stock in a couple weeks

.

Thanks,

Lucas

Tank-75 gallon
Lighting- Coralife Aqualight 48" (2x65watt 10,000k & 2x65 True Actinic)
Protein Skimmer- SeaClone 100
Circulation - 2 X Maxi-Jet 1200
60-70lbs/lr

 

[Bifferwine]

Hi Lucas and welcome! Nice job aquascaping; the tank looks really good. That looks like diatoms, which is really common after your tank is done cycling. What are your nitrates reading? Check your phosphates too. Diatoms seem to come and go, as your tank matures you will get them less often.

It is possibly that you bypassed the cycle by adding cured rock... But you may see a minicycle when you add fish.

 

[jhnrb]

AT three weeks it is normal to start to develope some algae. at this point you should consider adding a cleanup crew package. dont go overboard but some snails (6), a few crabs, blue or red legged (3) some live sand from a mature system. you will get a cycle when there is a bio load. so looks like you got some good cured rock if there was not cycle. Also you might visit the helpful articles as there are some very good articles to help you through the process. good luck, and keep us posted.

 

[yote]

Welcome to the reef Lucas.
Im going to agree with Biff.I think its just diatoms.
Not much you can about them except let them run their course.As ugly as they are,they will eventually go away on there own.Just one those things we all go through with a new system.
Good luck and welcome to the addiction.

 

[yote]

I agree with John too.He types faster than I do.

 

[reeffreak]

Welcome to the site Lucas!Everybody gets diatoms during and right after a cycle.It will get better in time.For now you can reduce the lighting period and when all parameters are in check,look into getting a clean up crew.

Here's a way to check if your tank has cycled.Drop a little fish for a couple of days even though theres nothing in there.Check your parameters again after a couple of days.If the ammonia and nitrite is still zero then your system has cycled.BTW,your tank looks really good.

 

[Piggy]

Welcome to the reef. Your tank looks great. Nothing I can add already been said.

 

[Swart66]

Thanks for the input. I added some clean up crew 20 crabs and 10 snails and they are like kids in a candy store. They can't get enough of the stuf :). The tank looks 10x better just after 8 hours of introducing the crabs and snails.

Thanks for the help!

 

[LionFish]

20 crabs Wow
you may need to reduce those a bit .

the tank looks Great !

 

[Doc]

Yeah, you should have at least twice as many snails as crabs. I tend to go with four times as many snails as crabs. Crabs will attack your snails to get their shells when they out-grow their current shell. I would take out half of the crabs, add a few more snails and drop in a few larger empty shells (your LFS should have them by the cash register) for the crabs to host in once they grow a bit.

Welcome to the forum and enjoy your tank. BTW, don't forget to add an angelfish to your system when it is time- they are SO pretty.

-Dr Marco :sfish:

 

[reeffreak]

If its 20 of the dwarf blue-legged crabs,then that is fine.Usually they are too tiny to do anything to snails.