New to this, unfamiliar with algea

madhattertcm

Reefing newb
We've adopted a FOWLR tank and keep seeing this algae. What is this? Is it okay? Is it bad?

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Higher waterflow, RO water for water changes and top off, Less feeding, and maybe some chaeto.

It takes a bit of a fight to get rid of it so make sure to siphon as much as you can out as possible with each water change.
 
From what I've read, I've got pretty much all things that could cause it. Low flow and using tap water (of course, I did treat it with stuff made for tap water).

As of now, my parameters are:

ammonia: .25
PH: 8.1
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10ppm
salinity: 1.026

Will this kill fish by chance? I had a young tank die this morning :( No signs of being bullied. I also a yellow tailed damsel, a couple of peppermints (added yesterday), a couple snails and 3 crabs. Everyone else is fine as it seems. Really don't know what happened with the tang :(
 
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The ammonia is a little concern. The tank could be still cycling from the amount of sand that was stirred up when the tank was moved. The algae itself will not kill a fish but the poor water quality that allows algae to thrive will kill. I would do a water change and get your parameters in check before adding anything else. If your nitrates get much higher they could be fatal for the new peppermints.

Something to consider is that any tang in a 50g will suffer from stress. The minimum tank size should be 90g. Larger is better. Even a small tang will stress without enough room to swim around.
 
Tap water conditioner doesn't remove nitrates, phosphates or other chemicals that can be detrimental in your tank. Usually, they just remove chlorine and chloramine.

Like Kev said, a 50 gallon tank is too small for a tang. That didn't necessarily kill it, but it wouldn't have been good for the fish long-term.

How many powerheads do you have? It sounds like you need to add more; you need more flow.

How much and how often are you feeding? And what kind of food? With only one fish in there, the feeding should really be very minimal, and overfeeding is a common cause of algae.
 
Let me try to answer all the questions

The tank could be still cycling from the amount of sand that was stirred up when the tank was moved

This tank hasn't been moved, it's been running for years. We just moved into the house where it was running. It had been running with sand and live rock only for several months (they used to have fish etc).

bifferwine said:
Like Kev said, a 50 gallon tank is too small for a tang. That didn't necessarily kill it, but it wouldn't have been good for the fish long-term.

I get that, but this was a younger tang that was only 3 inches max and seemed quite happy. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I assumed it'd be safe to have him, in the short term. In the long term I plan on upgrading the tank size.

bifferwine said:
How much and how often are you feeding? And what kind of food?

Since there was the tang, damsel, crabs, snails we fed them some different flake foods (meaty and vegetarian), frozen food (marine cuisine), and (red/green) seaweed (which the tang loooved). Anything fed, was eaten. I've had freshwater tanks before and I've learned to be very cautious of how much to feed.

bifferwine said:
How many powerheads do you have?

After learning that low-flow can cause the Cyanobacteria, I went out and bought my first powerhead. It's a koralia at 750. I'm planning on buying a second one next week to get the flow where it needs to be.
 
Good deal. Two powerheads will be perfect in a tank that size.

Flake foods can lead to algae problems. Stick to frozen foods only (and seaweed sheets if you get another herbivorous fish). That should help you out as well.
 
Remember any tang you buy most likely comes from the ocean, since you took him out of his home the least you can do is provide him with his bare minimum.
 
Let me try to answer all the questions



This tank hasn't been moved, it's been running for years. We just moved into the house where it was running. It had been running with sand and live rock only for several months (they used to have fish etc).

After learning that low-flow can cause the Cyanobacteria, I went out and bought my first powerhead. It's a koralia at 750. I'm planning on buying a second one next week to get the flow where it needs to be.

Sorry for the assumption that you moved the tank.

I do agree that flow is a bit of an issue. Flow along with the flake food could have caused the ammonia spike. Hope all is doing well!
 
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