Oceanic 14 gallon Algae ?

[jrose40]

Can anyone tell me what this green algae looking stuff is on my rock.

 

[CurtisL]

just looks like some algae to me.. what does your clean up crew look like? a nice mexican turbo snail will clean er up

 

[jrose40]

I have a few good sized nerite snails I thought would do the same as the mexican turbos, but as you can also see I have plenty of cerith snails and blue legged hermits.

 

[CurtisL]

how many is plenty? and how long are you running your lights?

 

[jrose40]

around 20 cerith's and 7 blue legged hermits and 4 nerite's. I am running my lights alittle long probably..around 8-11hrs depending on when I get home sometimes.

 

[CurtisL]

idk maybe someone else will chime in.. what kind of water are you using?

 

[jrose40]

R/O water..

 

[CurtisL]

id wait for someone else to chime in then... im a newb, by no means a professional. just going over the obvious things i can think of.

 

[little_fish]

That is pretty normal for new tanks, especially small tanks. Just keep up with your water changes, dont over feed and dont add anymore fish!

 

[jrose40]

No more fish I only have one and the cleanup crew?

 

[little_fish]

well, you could add another clownfish or some other small fish (I assumed you already had two clowns) but I wouldnt go over two fish in that tank.

But your CUC looks fine for your tank.

 

[jrose40]

I am going to add another clown this weekend was taking things slow. Want to add some mushrooms and feather dusters also but going to wait a few more weeks.

 

[jrose40]

What does CUC mean?

 

[little_fish]

clean up crew. If the clown you have has been in the tank by himself for awhile, make sure you add a clown that is much larger so he wont fight the new addition.

 

[jrose40]

No he hasnt been in there long only about 5 days. I will be getting another one this weekend if the weather is ok, I live just north of Key West so hopefully we dont get hit by much of Rina.

 

[little_fish]

Perfect! He shouldnt fight too much with a new addition then.

 

[SarahSmile]

When I had my 14 gallon biocube I struggled constantly with algae. My glass (or acrylic as I've found out), my rocks, it just never looked clean. (oh how I wish I had discovered the magic that is the magnetic cleaner back then) Yours looks pretty darn good to me so I wouldn't worry, and the rocks will take on a patina eventually. I never knew if my issue was the fact that I was feeding flakes (boo) or that my rocks were super close to the lights, or that I didn't have enough snails.
Personally, I wouldn't run the lights over 7 hours, when I cut mine back a bit I noticed some improvement.
I added another clown too late in my 14 gallon and they never got along. It was pretty bad actually. So, as long as your tests are good, (0 ammonia, 0 nitrites) I'd add another clown quickly. If you want a pair.