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I know I sometimes struggle with questions about algae...Just a suggestion, but could one of the more experienced aquariumist write an article about the different types of algae, how to deal with it, what causes it, etc and "pin it" to the top of the forsm for all future questions? Just a suggestion

-Josh

I'm not a more experienced aquarist, but algae is relatively easy, if you plan ahead with your tank. I get this question a lot at the store, but people don't want to listen to the answer a lot of times. All they want to hear is "add this chemical and your problems are solved."

Algae comes from 2 things. Nutrients and light. Let's do light first. If you are using anything but flourescents(any variety of flourescent) or MH's, ditch it. There's no place for incandesent lights, unless you want algae....If you are using flourescent's or MH's, how old are your bulbs? They may need to retire due to spectral shift. Even though they are still providing light, it may not be the same light as when you first plugged them in. This may lead to algae problems. SOMETHING is going to use the light, and if it's not your corals, coralline, and macro algaes, it's going to be that red nasty slime algae.

Also, how long are your lights on? The max beneficial photoperiod is 12 hours a day. If you are having problems with algae you may want to try lowering it to 8-10 hrs.

Sometimes direct sunlight from a nearby window can trigger some algae growth. Is this algae directly contributed to natural sunlight? That point is argued over quite a bit. IMO the algae is caused by the sun coming up WAY before our artificial light comes on. So in effect, the sun comes up at 7am, your artificial light comes on at noon and runs until midnight because you want to be able to enjoy the tank after work. So in effect your tank is recieving light for 17 hours a day. WAAAAY too much.

Not your lights? Then it's in your water. Do you use tap water? If yes, problem solved. Get an RO unit. Even better, get an RO/DI unit. You should do water changes with this as well as top offs. If you don't want to spend $100-150 for one of these, you can usually buy RO water at an LFS or a grocery store for 30-40 cents per gallon. This will cost you more in the long run, and is very inconvenient lugging water all over the place. If neither of these appeal to you, you may end up just dealing with the algae.

If you have an RO unit, how long has it been since you changed the prefilters? The only way to know for sure if you need to change them is with a TDS meter. You can get these all over the place on the internet. Anyone who sells RO units will probably sell TDS meters. I got mine with my RO/DI unit "for free". These toys are great. I tested water coming from each part of my unit seperately and the tap water, it was a good time. I think my tap was at 149 ppm and out of the unit it was 0ppm. In other words, my unit works, and I check it out every once in a while to make sure it's still doing the job.

So your source water is in order...That's when it gets a bit more tough. Let's check on your protein skimmer, if you have one. If not, get one....fast. Like the RO units, I'm not going to say which kind as it's been argued over everywhere else. If you have algae problems, this life saving device will help out by pulling out waste before it gets turned into compounds usable by algae. If your skimmer isn't pulling a full cup of nasty brown sludge a week and you still have algae problems, you need to adjust your skimmer, or get a new one that works. Also, you can check into how to tune your skimmer in the manual and on other websites(or in these forums).

Stocking levels affect nutrient levels in the tank. If you have too many fish in the tank, think about bringing one or more back to your LFS. Also, if you stock the tank quickly it will stress the system and more algae will grow. Adding 6 yellow tangs at the first sign of algae probably won't fix your problem, unless you are putting those 6 tangs in a 500 gallon aquarium.

Usually adding some carbon(that doesn't leech PO4), phosphate remover, and maybe some chemi-pure will help pull out some nastys. The carbon should be changed monthly untili your problem is fixed, but the only way to tell if your phosphate remover is used up is to test for PO4. Otherwise, you won't know when to take this stuff out since it selectively targets phosphates and sometimes silicates.

Those may do the trick for now, but let's check your husbandry habits. If you feed a lot, you will need to do more water changes. Weekly 10-20% water changes are recommended. If you do less than this and have an algae problem, you know what to do(and make sure your source water is pure before you get to it).

I use those "bio encapsulated" frozen foods like most people do. What that means is the company has wrapped the foods up in a bunch of "goodies" that your algae will make quick use of, because the fish are going to go after the mysis shrimp, not the bio encapsulation stuff. Get rid of it, by thawing out your frozen food, straining it in a brine shrimp net, then feeding it to your animals. This doesn't apply to formula 1 and 2 type foods.

Maybe you just need to feed less. Especially if your occelaris clown stops wiggling because he's too pudgy. They should wiggle, it's what they do. Anyways, don't let your fish get skinny, but most fish don't really need to be fed 4-5 times a day. Some do though, and in that case, you make sure you have a sweet skimmer and you do a lot of water changes.

I guess if everything else is going good, check the salt. Sometimes you can get a bad batch, it happens. Just test your salt water before you do a water change for all the usual suspects, NH3/4 NO2 and NO3 and PO4 aught to cover the bases.

If you have a tank without enough water movement, or a dead spot in your aquarium, some algaes will be more e to growing, like cyano, which won't grow as easily in high current.

Helpers, there are a lot of inverts and some fish that will love to eat your algae, provided it's not red slime. I'm not sure anything will touch that stuff. Turbo and astrea snails(and many others), sea cucumbers, sand sifting stars, Hermits(scarlet reef and blue legs stay small), emerald crabs, lawnmower blennys, some tangs(if your tank is big enough), and a bunch of others will help out with the algae.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Here is some algae I can't figure out what it is....Unfortunately I can't get a good picture of it at all (I'll try again in a little bit)

It's a really bright green, I am assuming it's algae. It's spreading to all my live rock. It's not hairy and it just lookings like areas of bright, "painted" green. I tried to see if I could scrape it off and it wouldn't. Any ideas?

-Josh

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-Josh

Just on the live rock? Is it fairly slow to spread? It might just be coralline algae, the good stuff. I've seen bright orange and yellow coralline, so green is a possibility.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

I really didn't know it until recently (I posted the pic above) Honestly I don't know if it's been there for awhile and I wasn't paying attention or what. Hope the pic helps..I didn't know coraline was other colors then purple...huh

-Josh

-Josh

I'm gonna say that's coralline algae. There are quite a few different colors out there, purple is just the most common.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

I would also assume that if it's not slimy then it would be a coralline algae. I've seen green coralline, but it was a dark army green. I have seen that exact color of slime algae, and that's what I thought it was when I saw the pic, but if you can't scrape it off, and it's not slimy, then it's gotta be a coralline.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

I'm scared now of the dreaded slime...LOL...I just tried to scrape it off again and it's definitely not going anywhere Thank God! Thanks

-Josh

Oh yea, you guys have any thoughts on the algae "article" I wrote up....If I missed anything or could expand, let me know. I thought it was a good to-the-point solution guide.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

BTW...Thanks for the "article" I just really think that a an article or two pinned to the forums would be beneficial for many because that's a common quesiton asked. It's something we all deal with at times. I know I definitely do when I am short of time to work on my tank(s)

-Josh

agreed that its just coralline ...it normally starts out as green patches or yellowish patches on fresh/non coralline covered rocks

matty...Ill get to your thread I promise!

Thanks for the "article" I just really think that a an article or two pinned to the forums would be beneficial

No prob, but to be an article, it probably is a little lacking. I'm still kinda new at this so I don't have all the secrets. That's why I wanted some comments. I geared it towards how to get rid of algae in general, not how to get rid of specific types of algae, because I sure don't know that. Really I think it's mostly the same for all algae anyways.

matty...Ill get to your thread I promise!

Thanks DRO...but no thoughts on the article above?

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Good post Matty..only thing I could really add to that is

A. Flow...lower flow will allow certain "algaes" like cyano to form, increased flow coupled with what you already posted is a sure fire way to get it

B. Overstocking/stocking to quickly


Thats all I can think of right now Matty

I didn't read through it but I will later. Normally the things I tell newbies about algae growth is:

-Check on photoperiod & natural sunlight
-Check on tap water->switch to RO/DI
-Stock slower
-Feed less

I think those are the main points.

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

Ok, thanks guys . I edited what you guys suggested that I forgot. I can't believe I forgot stocking.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

You said that sunlight was debatable, well heres my side:

my tank was going great, and getting the occasional algae. I always wondered why only one side was getting algae, and the other side was fine. I thought it had something to do with my pistol shrimp (as he was on the "clean" side of the tank) until I woke up early one morning to find sunlight slipping through the blinds and into my tank (for some reason I thought the sunlight would go the other way in the morning). If I let the tank go without water changes/gravel vacs, then after a few days, you could actually see a line in my tank where the light could reach my tank and where it couldn't. One side was pretty red, then there was a perfect line to where it wasn't.

Did your artificial lights come on the same time the sun came up?

Anyways, that's why I said it was debatable. Some people think it causes algae, some don't.

Anthony calfo is a big supporter of natural sunlight. He says that on his tanks that recieve natural sunlight, that coral growth and color are unparalleled to any artificial light.

Also, if you check out TOTM over at reef central, that tank receives quite a bit of natural sunlight, and looks great.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Agree with you Matty.....as long as your tank parameters are in check natural sunlight is a very good thing. The only time natural sunlight causes problems is if your water chemistry is out of wack.