Get rid of green algae??

[clancaster23]

I recently had a diatom bloom. It appears to be over as I no longer have brown stuff growing all over everything. Now what I have is green algae that slowly grows all over my glass. It will grow noticeably over a days time. I got a magfloat yesterday and came home and cleaned what was on it off. Now this evening, once again, I have a light green haze over all three sides of the tank. I added ten nerite snails to the tank to add to the three large snails I have in there but so far, not helping much. Even the big ones, when they are on the glass, don't really help much. Just leave streaks on the glass. Anything I can do to at least slow the growing if not get rid of it all?

 

[BL1]

What are your water parameters? Almost every tank will get that green algae growth on the glass.

 

[clancaster23]

Forgot to mention that. I tested yesterday before I put more snails and crabs in. They are all perfect. Lots of zeros. Ph 8.2. Nothing out of the ordinary. Even still getting a zero on Nitrates.

May not matter but I am also getting a bit of really dark nasty stuff in my skimmer. I cleaned the cup two days ago and right not it's about half way full and the stuff that's in it is a really dark brown color, almost black. not sure if that means anything.

 

[little_fish]

All newer tanks will go through a few algae cycles. Just keep up the water changes, keep your stocking low, and feed conservatively

 

[ErinCahir]

My skimmer pulls really dark brown/black stuff. I wouldn't worry about that.

 

[clancaster23]

I only feed my tang and foxface once a day. Aside from snails and crabs, that's all that's in the tank.

 

[little_fish]

Then not much you can do than what you are already doing. But its always good to know you arent making the issue worse

 

[messiah023]

How's the water quality going into the tank? RO/DI?
How long is your light cycle (not a Star Wars reference).

I have a 7-8 hour light ON cycle and feed my tank about 3 times a week.

Also, you may not have enough in the ways of a cleanup crew.
Make sure you have enough snails & crabs in there. You may want to look at some emerald crabs...they will clean the algae from your rockwork pretty good.

 

[clancaster23]

I am using filtered Culligan water from the store every time I need to top off or do a change. I believe it's about a 10 hour light cycle, maybe eleven. I'm not sure what time the lights turn on but they turn off at 9. I want to say they turn on at 9 or 10 am.

I have two emerald crabs, 15 or so hermits, three large snails (not sure what kind) and 10 nerite snails.

It is a rather new tank and was told I will have my own little cycles of algae but they will go away. I did get the brown (diatom) algae before this and was told I'll have the green now then I should be ok.

 

[little_fish]

Im not sure that water is filtered enough for a marine tank. Can you get a TBS meter and get a reading? You want it to be less than 10.

Also, you might want to turn down your lighting cycle for a little bit.

 

[clancaster23]

I was told by more than a few people (including those from these forums) that the water would do just fine. Not sure what a TBS meter or reading is.

 

[little_fish]

it reads the total dissolved solids in the water.

If its distilled water, then you are good to go. Even if its RO/DI water from them, you should still check it. Many places arent good about replacing their filters.

 

[clancaster23]

I can't say if it's distilled but i do not it's RO water. And I do check the dates that it was serviced and they are always pretty current. Not to say they actually changed anything but jsut going by the dates.

I will consider picking up one of those meters and see what the water tests at.

 

[little_fish]

I think you should check out the TDS of the water then. Even if its serviced regularly, if they are just filtering it, they might not be filtering it well enough to remove everything. I would check just in case. It would really suck if that is whats feeding the algae, so it never really goes away.

 

[messiah023]

Yeah, the culligan water is not RO/DI to my knowledge. I think its a conversion for drinking water and not via reverse osmosis.

You are probably lighting for too long. If you don't have any photosynthetic corals, you don't need lights at all....we just have the lights to view the fish. You could turn it back to 8 hours on and that will probably help your algae.

Also, I have about 30 snails, 10-15 hermits and 3 emeralds in my 65.
I also have about a dozen nassarius snails for the sand. This keeps my glass & rockwork clean.

 

[Beastlyness 22]

My tank is 3 months old. I just started going through the same thing and I have distilled water in mine. Just did a 3 gallon water change out of my 10gallon tank and its sill re-covering everything after the snails go over it after about 5 hours. Pretty intense though.