phils514

I transfered my 1 year old 20 gal. tank to a biocube 29 last month. but Ive been getting alot of algea on the glass and on the sand. I clean it everyday and it comes back the next. I even stir the sand and it comes back. what can I do? am I going to a mini cycle?

here is what I got:
-20lbs LR and 10 lbs LS.
-I upgraded the pump with a maxijet 1200 that gives me around 290 gph.
-the Light is stock with 36w 10K and 36w actinic. (on from 8am - 7pm, then blue lights)
-I added a sapphire skimmer in the middle chamber and chemi pure in the 3rd chamber with the return pump.

livestock: 2 false percula and 1 tomato clown
Inverts: 12 diff snails, 1 emerald crab and 3 blue leg hermits.
corals: green and red polyps

dawgfan1

I ran into a similar problem, after my initial cycle, about a month after all my levels went to "normal" first brown algae came, then that went away.Then I got green algae, I think in my case it came from phosphates in my tap water, I was using for water changes. So I switched to R/O water added 10 snails and I put a refugium on the back of my tank, the refugium has macro algae in it, which as I understand it uses the bacteria that causes "bad algae" for food and helps curb it. For a refugium I used a aqua clear 70g filter and took everything out but the motor, added some crushed coral and some LR frags for good measure.

Tommy Gun

Hey phils514! Sorry to hear about your troubles

Hello dawgfan1 - welcome to the forum!

Even though you have completely cloned your new tank from your old tank, the impact of the move can set you back a little bit by unbalancing the ecosystem you are trying to maintain here. For example, you may have churned up enough organic matter in the sand to cause an increase in nitrAtes or phosphates....or as I have more recently come to understand, silicates.

1. Can you describe the algae you are seeing?
   • What color is the algae?
   • Is it more of a thin film, thicker film, or like hair algae?
   • Is it covering your live rock or other decorations as well?
   • Is it covering your corals? (If so, don't let that happen)
2. You have approx 290 gph of water flow, but how many directions is the water moving in?
   • Does the algae problem exist in front of or near your power heads or where ever the water current originates from?
   • If you were to direct the water current at a specific area of algae, does it still return?
3. What are your test kits telling you?
   • Did you notice an ammonia or nitrIte spike after the transfer?
   • Do you have a phosphate test? If so, what are the results?
   • Did your live rock spend any substantial time out of water during the transfer?
   • Did you add any new live rock to your new tank?
   • Did your live sand spend any time out of water?
   • Did you add any new live sand (specifically live sand, not just sand) to your new tank?
4. What are you feeding your fish, how much do you feed, and how often do you feed them?
5. Of the 12 snails you have, can you tell us what type they are and how many of each you have?

Dawgfan1 brings up a great point about using RO water.....if you aren't already doing so, I highly recommend looking into it not only to help solve this algae problem, but also to help prevent this and other problems in the future.

If you are seeing brown algae then you are almost definitely looking at diatoms, which are tiny, microscopic plants that are somewhat unique in that they need silicates in order to survive (for cell walls I think). As I alluded to before, I am really starting to learn the hard way what that means because my tank is really starting to get over run by diatoms. To combat this problem, you may need to reduce your photo period (don't leave the lights on for so long). So far I have been learning that if I reduce the amount of time all of my lights are on, the diatoms seem to suffer - so now I have my actinic (blue) lights on for a couple hours in the morning before the white lights come on for about 5 hours, and then I go back to just actinic light for another two or three hours before all lights go out (this should be easy to do with your biocube and a couple timers....I have the 29 gallon too). Of course, this is all on top of trying to maintain minimal levels of phosphate and nitrAtes, like you would want anyways.

If you are seeing a somewhat bright, but deep red algae, then this 'red slime' is really cyanobacteria....another pain in the butt problem that can quickly get out of control. IMHO, a couple shots of a red-slime remover type product can go a long ways if this is some sort of temporary problem brought on by a rare event....but if this becomes a continual problem, a refugium is often a big help, but in your case, you could also consider putting macro algae directly into your tank since your clowns shouldn't bother or hinder its growth at all. In fact, that might be something to consider in any case because the benefits are long lasting and far reaching.

phils514

thanks tommy. to answer your questions...
1. thin green film on the glass and on the crushed coral. (not sand). I have some hair algae but just a little bit on parts of my rocks.
2. my return pump is only facing on 1 direction (to the middle) but i just ordered a splitter so I can return on 2 directions. the part where I have the return pump facing has less algae so maybe that will help when I get the splitter.
3. I will test this weekend for water parm. I added new crushed corals when I did the transfer, about half of it, so that could be a big factor too.
4. I feed my fish flakes and only enough that they finish them in less then a minute, once a day.
5. 4 turbo 4 astrea 4 striped

Tommy Gun

Sorry, thought you said live sand.

I think that will definitely help you out. Your snails should also help you with green algae as well. Mine are pretty good at it except they don't seem to spend much time on the front of the glass so I just use a little scrubby pad to remove it on an as-needed basis.

joesmits

I Used Coral Life 9w Uv Sterilizer. Cost About $100 On Fish.com....you Will Need A Water Pump To Work With It Or You Can Use Your Canister Connection To Connect To...i Had Terrible Red Algea...it Used To Come Back Everyday...now I'm Algea Free...great Stuff.

ALSO REDUCE FEEEDING TIME TO ONCE A DAY... SIPHON FISH WASTE ABOUT ONCE A WEEK....THIS WILL GIVE YOUR TANK A GREAT CONDITION...
Good Luck.

Tommy Gun

Hey joesmits - welcome to the forum!

I also use the exact same sterilizer on my tank, but they aren't going to be much help with anything that isn't floating around in the water column, such as any algae that is attached to something like rock or glass. The 'algae blooms' that UV is touted to prevent are the type of single-celled algae that turns the water green. To solidify that fact, you can either look in my tank right now (have two UV filters) or realize that none of us would be able to grow good algae if we are using UV. Your red algae is probably not even algae at all but cyanobacteria.

Again, don't get me wrong, I think UV Sterilizers are worth the benefits they bring to the table, but I am sure one of those benefits is not to control the type of algae phils514 is looking at. I would also be bold enough to say that having an 100% algae free SW tank is next to impossible, or a sign that something is not right. Minimal algae growth.....that's definitely an achievable goal.