A recipe for success: How do you manage algae in your tank?

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Manage? Who said anything about managing algae???? Lol

 

[jason2459]

Hermit crabs for smaller tanks with shorter lighting schedule

There's some good small herbivore/omnivore fish as well. And don't forget snails and urchins. Lots of options for small tanks.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Hermit crabs for smaller tanks with shorter lighting schedule

Sometimes, yes, but also sometimes, no, they do not do the job. There are many types of algae that they may not consume.

 

[kevgib67]

I think the most important preemptive strike is starting with live rock. In my tank inverts, urchin, conches, crabs and various snails and at times manual removal.

 

[JoJosReef]

I ammend my previous post.

#1 first step for algae control is ocean live rock @LiverockRocks

 

[The_Skrimp]

A comment here on Reef2Reef convinced me to try carbon dosing when I’d just about given up on battling an extended ugly phase. Carbon dosing with Vodka is what finally did it. I have been dosing it since and it’s been working great at keeping my nitrates right where I want them. That plus running GFO in a reactor keeps the tank clear of algae. I have a ball of chaeto in the refugium but it’s more of a back up plan because it honestly doesn’t grow very fast with the low nutrients. Aside from that, my urchins do such a good job that they often even clean the coraline algae away.

 

[VintageReefer]

I use info I learned from Brandon many years ago to quickly address algae on new frags with hydrogen peroxide (thanks!)

And I control algae by growing it in remote areas, in my scrubber, away from the display

 

[FrugalReefer]

Urchin, snails and elbow grease.

 

[doubleshot00]

Other
Tang/foxface gang and inverts.

 

[Seansea]

Algae scrubber. Started a scrubber from day one on this tank and never had algae in dispaly. Use the clearwater 50 and man it grows the stuff like crazy. Have to feed my tangs nori cuz there isnt a whole lot in display

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

what algae? lol never seen any

 

[Paul B]

what algae? lol never seen any

Mike, thats because of all the electricity you have going through the tank.

I use a DIY algae scrubber. Costs about a buck to make.



I don't want to eliminate all the algae. Algae means health and bare rocks equals something else. The fish can find a lot of food there especially if you have a load of pod eaters.



Notice the growth on the rocks?

 

[00W]

Just installed an icecap algae scrubber,the updated external model and couldn't be happier.
I used their HOB model for 3-4 months and it worked fine just a bit noisy and too small for my water volume.
Thing works awesome and has cut my in tank algae to almost nothing.

 

[GARRIGA]

Carbon dosing but now testing a Fuge as I had done in fresh and was successful. Overpower one macro with another.

 

[PizzaIan339]

CUC all day!

 

[Trevor Paden]

Refugium/place to grow algae other than in display. Also, not avoiding it entirely in the display leads to a much easier experience. Having a good size cleanup crew (tangs, lawnmower blenny, hermits, snails, sally light-footed crab, copepods, and whatever else eats it) and not stressing or changing something when you see a little bit of algae. Of course, water levels are important too, but some algae like GHA can suck out nutrients faster than anything else and outcompete your tank. So that is a little more tricky, I used Reef flux (though I can't safely recommend using it) and it got the job done in 3-4 weeks. I used reef flux exactly as directed on the bottle and I only lost one coral. (The coral I lost was most likely unrelated and instead related to my dumb butt changing the lighting, stopping Kalkwasser (because skimmer must be off for meds), and using only a ph and talk supplement called eight-four. In summary, I recommend a larger than expected clean-up crew, refugium, and hand removing what you can within reason. Reef flux if you just cant get rid of GHA. OHHH also when you test nutrients and are having a horrible algae issue they are going to be 0 because the algae is using it. You are most likely still overloading your tank with nutrients.

 

[paragrouper]

I use:

Chaeto in the refugium
halimeda in the tank.
lotsa CUC

 

[IntrinsicReef]

As RHF mentioned, herbivores are a glaring omission. Besides herbivores though, I utilize algae scrubbers and bacterial competition through carbon dosing.

 

[encrustingacro]

For a while, I was struggling with algae issues. First, it was Bryopsis/hair algae, next, it was cyano. Turns out, I just needed more flow. I added a second powerhead and the Cyano went away. That was my old 20-gallon Max Nano. In my current 40-gallon Nuvo, I will occasionally get bubble algae here and there, I just pluck those off. For a bit of time, I had a small patch of slow-growing, stubby, red algae on my rockwork; I injected H2O2 into it and got some Turbo snails and it went away.

 

[JGT]

Live rock.