Brown algae

[Valleyman]

My 1 wk old 4 2 2 tank is having brown algae covering the sand and rocks on the front and is blooming fast. These are hair like stuff and is even sticking onto the glass. It seems that detritus is accumulating in the affected areas as other than the water outlet pipe at the rear right hand side, I did not install any PH. Have installed a PRZIM skimmer only 3 days back and I have about 12 fishes and 7-8 softies. Other than reducing feeding, lightings and adding phosguard (which I have to lay hands on ASAP), what do you guys advise ? Do not wish to add another PH as it will spoil the view. Also, by blowing away and dispersing the detritus, the problem is solve.

[Morgan]

1 week and you have already stock up your tank.

The diatom problem will turn into cyano problem in about 1~2 weeks time. Then your tank will really look like a big mess.

Then cycling process have not even started yet and once the nitrite level should up, most if not all your fishes will comes down with ick and die.

Your softie will also suffer the same fate too.

What you can do to remedy this situation is to monitor your water condition daily.

Change the water if nitrite is detected.

Good luck.

[boxfish]

For hair algae , get snails from the LFS at $1 each.

I had this problem b4 and 1 snail could not keep up so I bought another 2 more and the result ahir algae under control...now I worry there is no algae for the snails!!

however the diatom problem was a headache...very difficult...comes back consistently...just have to clean tank glass wall every alternate day thats all.

Get the snail.... they really help!

Cheers~

[Achilles Tang]

Just 1 week old and you have stocked up heavily already?

Assumingly, even if your NO2 & NO3 have fallen to low levels, your established bacteria is unable to cope with the sudden influx of new nutrients/pollution, you have to standby for another round of cycling as new bacteria has to grow fast enough to cope and cycle the new ammonia > no2 > no3 > low levels again.

So right now, nuisance algae is blooming cause the nutrients are there for them. You will see them in your tank for sometime till the cycle is finished again.

Maybe the only thing that can help now... is water changes.

Newbies... it is bad practice to stock up a newly setup tank so quickly, inspite of what the LFS says. Only bad things happen fast in a reef tank.

[Explorer]

Wow! 1 wk harr? I would recommend partial water changing. DO NOT ADD ANYMORE LS FOR THE TIME BEING!!!

[Valleyman]

Sori for the misunderstanding. I have actually cycled my tank for 4 wks before adding my livestocks a wk ago. The ammonium & nitrite are zero when I checked yesterday. I am quite certain the cycle is over. Could the problem be due to the tank being in the balcony and close to direct sunlight ? (only the front is affected now). As for the snails, what type is suitable ?

[Explorer]

OIC... Perhaps too much sunlight ja? Get the snaily to do the job.

[lona]

Hi Valleyman,

Still, having cycled the tank for four weeks, you up the bio load on the tank to so much in a week is quite scary..

To give you an idea, for myself I was planning 1 fish a week and even that I think is a little fast already..

Anyways, boxfish, you mentioned snails at a dollar each..what kind of snails did you mean? turbo snails or astrea snails? or are there any other good snails I don't know about..could you elaborate? thanks..I thinking of buying, you see..

[pospeh]

Sori for the misunderstanding. I have actually cycled my tank for 4 wks before adding my livestocks a wk ago. The ammonium & nitrite are zero when I checked yesterday. I am quite certain the cycle is over. Could the problem be due to the tank being in the balcony and close to direct sunlight ? (only the front is affected now). As for the snails, what type is suitable ?

The problem is not sunlight, it is only the tirgger that caused the algae bloom.

Certainly, by repositioning the tank, the problem will be reduced somewhat. But what is causing the bloom is the excess nutrient in your system caused by the rapid stocking of over a dozen fishes.

Water changes is all you can do at this point until the tank readjusts to the added bioload.

[Fishfreak]

Another possible cause: the Prizm skimmer is WAY WAY too small for a 4 2 2 ! I know its rated for up to 90G (I have one on my 20G nano) but that's just sales talk. The reaction chamber is tiny. On my 4 2 2 , I run a Kent Marine unit - rated for 300G, but nobody believes it of course.

Upgrade the skimmer!

[boxfish]

turbo snail

[Valleyman]

Yes, on hindsight, I have overloaded the bio in my enthusiasm to have a proper display for CNY. From all yr advices, I summarise :

1) reduce bioload - reduce feeding or remove some fishes

2) change to a bigger skimmer

3) add snaily (turbo) or yellow tang

4) use phosphate absorber (also nitrate absorber ?)

5) conduct partial water change

6) reduce direct sunlight exposure

If all the above fail, go to work with a toothbrush on the rocks Additional advices are much appreciated

[Dragonet]

May I add the mudskipper blenny to the list of possible solutions for tackling the brownish scum? I added two MBs to my tank recently and have noticed them grazing the diatoms that grow on the glass. I can even see marks left behind by their circular jaws. But they cannot solve the problem completely. I suppose manual scrubbing and regular partial water changes are inevitable for many of us.

[Valleyman]

Regular water change - was told that our tap water contains quite high level of phosphate. I do not have a 'de-something' to produce DI (?) water and using dechlorinated water can remove nutrients, but add to phosphate load which is also contributing to algae growth. What are your views ?

[bawater]

valleyman, add snails but-pls FORGET abt adding a tang! u trying to reduce your bioload not increase it.

& yellow tangs won't eat diatoms or cyano.AND if by chance u get a picky tang, it won't even touch green hair algae.

Too many fish means a lot of food,means more nitrogenous waste,phosphates etc.

Too many fish too fast means bacteria not able to cope with the increased levels immediately.

[hongqixian]

Regular water change - was told that our tap water contains quite high level of phosphate. I do not have a 'de-something' to produce DI (?) water and using dechlorinated water can remove nutrients, but add to phosphate load which is also contributing to algae growth. What are your views ?

DI = De Ionized water. Practically all the metals and other dissolved impurities have been 'drained' from the raw water by the special DI resins.

Dechlorinated water= Water without Chlorine.

Has all the dissolved impurities in Tapwater minus the chlorine only.

Water filtered by Reverse osmosis (partly used to filter Newater) or Deionized or distilled water are the purest.

[Valleyman]

Brought 6 turbo from Pasir Ris today and put them on the most affected prime district. It's amazing how these snaileys get to work almost immediately. Great buy at $1/snailey. Have also brought phosguard and did partial water change this morning. Hope to have the situation under control soon.

[Fishfreak]

Correct me if I'm wrong:

Water filtered by Reverse osmosis (partly used to filter Newater) or Deionized or distilled water are the purest

RO followed by DI will produce purest water. Simply DI or distilled water contains tonnes of nonsense.

[Tanzy]

DI is not distilled water. Distilled water is very very pure, it's the condensed steam at 100degC when water is boiled. DI water although stripped of all dissolved stuff might contain suspended particulate material.

[Valleyman]

Having a trade-off situation here. Snaileys eat and poo so much that they are adding to my bio-load. Will have to remove some snaileys after they do more gardening. Thinking of moving them to a covered container and leaving them in the sump so that I can at least remove the poo daily and sort of cycling them for the gardening job until my bacteria takes over hopefully in a month.

[boxfish]

how does snail poo looks like?

Can I know how to tell that your bio-load is high? Nitrate reading jump?

Not sure if my 3 snails are adding how much bio-load to the tank but for sure they are nuisance to the star polyps! Aways crawling over them making them close!

Must send them to sump for holidays

[hongqixian]

Snail poo is nutritious to tiny critters in the sandbed. Notthat much a problem. The snails can die of starvation if there are too many competing for edible algae.

"DI water although stripped of all dissolved stuff might contain suspended particulate material. "

So this is pure water with dirt particles in it??

The purpose of RO before DI is mainly to get rid of much of the impurities so that the more expensive DI cartridge is exhausted much slower.

[Valleyman]

how does snail poo looks like?

Can I know how to tell that your bio-load is high? Nitrate reading jump?

Not sure if my 3 snails are adding how much bio-load to the tank but for sure they are nuisance to the star polyps! Aways crawling over them making them close!

Must send them to sump for holidays

The day after snaileys had their feast, I found black colored poo droppings on the sandbed. They can be quite unsightly.

[Tanzy]

HQX,

The liquid is pure but it may contain bits of insoluble stuff like sand or bacteria or virus. The DI doesn't filter stuff physically, it chemically 'scrubs' the water only.

[hongqixian]

OK