Green and red algae

[Partsman41953]

Hi all,

I have a 28 gallon bow front aquarium with live rock, sand substrate, pulsing Xenia coral, small clean up crew, and 2 clown fish. The equipment I have on the aquarium is a Foster and Smith surface skimmer, Reef Octopus protein skimmer, UV skimmer, Haldor power head and a LED light.

My problem is within the last 2 weeks I have had an outbreak of red and green algae. I have not changed my routine of doing water changes every other week with top offs weekly. I did notice that for some reason the salinity of the tank went up and I am trying to bring that back down. I have cut back on my lights and do not overfeed the fish.

I did put some Red Slime remover in the aquarium which worked to remove the red slime but I still have the green algae. While this was going on I had to shut down my Reef Octopus protein skimmer as it was working overtime and overflowing onto my floor.

I just did another water change and got a lot of "junk" from the sand as I churned it up, which might be one of the problems.

I do have the following questions: (1) What can I do to get the green algae out of the tank. As mentioned, my clean up crew is only a couple of snails and I am looking for suggestions on what to add to the aquarium. (2) What would I have to do in order to be able to turn my protein skimmer back on so it does not overflow the cup onto my kitchen floor.

I appreciate any and all suggestions.

Thanks

 

[kbuser92]

Your salinity is high because you were doing weekly topoffs. In a tank smaller than 75-90 gallons, in my opinion, should be topped off daily, and skipping a day can cause problems depending on your stock. Even in the big tanks, I still believe they should be topped off daily, but they can go longer and remain more stable.

To answer your other questions, the algae is a normal stage and will phase itself out so long as you have a clean up crew to keep on top of it and are using RO/DI water. If you're using tap water, you will likely struggle with different algaes all the time because of the high phosphates. Another option is macro algae. You can toss it in your refugium if you have one or find a type that you would like to put in your display tank.

If your skimmer is working like that, its because of the chemicals. If you put in slime remover, check the ingredients for copper and if it has it, you may not ever be able to have any inverts or sensitive fish in that tank. Dosing chemicals like that in saltwater tanks is usually a bog no-no. To het it working again, turn it on and empty it as often as necessary until it starts running normally again. It will help to get as much crap put as possible.