Green Algae... No Coralline

drm180

Reefing newb
What kind of algae is growing on my rocks? I can't get any coralline to grow and I'm not sure why.

On sand

100_0854.jpg


On live rock. Hair algae right?

100_0855.jpg


Some sort of calcerous algae?

100_0856.jpg


On base rock. Looks like the diatoms did but its green.

100_0857.jpg
 
I'm going on 3+ years with little coralline growth.I have dime sized patches here and there,but thats it...That is alot of hair alge though.I would cut the lights and feeding in half,plus eliminate flake if your using it.Unless you like all the hair. Your sand has cyano algae on it,IMO
 
Okay. I do feed flake and mysis. Is mysis alone okay? I have two clowns and a damsel. The hair doesn't bother me since its just on that one rock but I don't want it to spead. How long should my lights run per day? What do I do about the cyano, does it spread very badly?
 
Pic 1 is cyanobacteria - bad and needs to be removed
Pic 2 is hair algae - bad and needs to be removed
Pic 3 is halimeda algae
Pic 4 looks like dinoflagellates - very bad and needs to be removed

Also, coralline will only show up in your tank if it's introduced. It has to be on the LR, snail shell, hermit shell, etc.
 
Last edited:
Thanks. How do I go about removing it? Just siphon it off? Will scrubbing it just release spores? I have put several pieces of live rock in that were completely covered in coralline but it fades away just a couple weeks after being in my tank. I have 96 watts of T5 lighting. 2 bulbs are 10,000K and 2 are 460nm acticic.
 
There's two reasons that your coraline fades away, one it will die of initially when exposed to air and also all the algae growth in your tank is probably leaching nutrients the coraline needs to grow.
 
Hiker's got your algaes IDed along with the links to help get rid of em.
To help with coralline,dont forget to test your magnesium levels.If Magnesium is low,then it'll hold the coralline back. Also to help coralline spread,you can use a NEW hard bristled tooth brush to scrub the coralline spots that you have growing.That will cause it to release tiny spores that will attach in other parts of the tank.
 
I pulled a lot of the hair algae and siphoned the cyano out of the sand. I also siphoned some of the dinos off. I'm going to shorten my photoperiod and see if that helps. I was running it for 14 hours so that may be a big part of it. Thanks everyone and if anyone has any more tips I'd be happy to hear them =)
 
That was probably a huge part of it. Most people will only run their lights for 8-10 hours. That much light will definitely grow algae.
 
IMG_9584.jpg

Here is a pic of my tank two weeks ago. I had a bunch of cyano. What I did is cut down on feeding, lights when from 12 hrs to 9, added a sand shifter and three nass snails to move the sand now the tank is pretty much algee free. Since I have added a fug tank, but that is only a week old and the cyano was almost gone then. I am still very new and this is what I did and it seemed to work. Thanks to all the people here who help me. Also the is a post about a algee scruber that seems to work good in the DIY. I dont have one though. And my tank a few days ago.
d4dd28b0.jpg
 
Wow,I haven't seen a smogasbord of algae since Biff's 55 gallon!

Seeing the pics,I think it might be better to start all over.Reuse the rocks after a thorough scrubbing.
 
Wow,I haven't seen a smogasbord of algae since Biff's 55 gallon!

Ahhh memories! My 55 was by far the WORST tank I have EVER seen for algae. And I have been around here for a while. I've seen a lot of algae-infested tanks!

If my old hard drive hadn't crashed, taking all the pictures with it, I'd post pics! They would both horrify and amuse these people that think they have algae! Ha! You ain't seen nothing, algae noob!!! ;)
 
OMG, the horror! Lol, what is that algae on the side glass? I've got it and my cuc doesn't seem to do anything about it
 
Okay,you asked for it!

BIff's tank POTM......
0507007-2.jpg

That's a lot of algae, but it can't shine the shoes of the tank at a crappy LFS by me. He's got a 125g tank that's almost 100% covered in HA and hundreds of manjos and aptasia. He added 1 long spine urchin and an algae blenny to clean it up...not going to work. I'll have to take a pic next time I'm there.
 
Ahahahaha! Oh that's CLASSIC!

You know, I still have every fish that was in that tank except the firefish and one chromis. My fish are tough!!

I guess it goes to show, if my tank was that bad off, and I managed to clean it up, ANYONE can clean up their algae!
 
Back
Top