Bad or good algae?

[James_O]

I have an algae problem in my 29g tank, which I hear is normal for a new tank? However, it’s getting annoying.

Is this algae wanted? Or not?

The majority of the algae is this long green stuff, that I assume is green hair algae. Some of it is also diatoms.

I plan to get some hermit crabs/scarlet skunk shrimp to help with this.

 

[Bo.]

Couple of ceriths and hermits will help. Do some manual removal and give it time. Your tank looks to be well on it's way

 

[James_O]

Couple of ceriths and hermits will help. Do some manual removal and give it time. Your tank looks to be well on it's way

Ok!

I was actually just trying to remember the name of those snails!

I plan to get 2 hermit crabs, probably blue-legged or strawberry. (I definitely need to secure my rocks first though)

I also occasionally remove the algae manually, but it just looks annoying.

—-

Should I remove the stuff on the live rocks? Or no?

 

[Udest]

also if youre not running your temp too high a mexican turbo will mow all that down fast.

 

[James_O]

also if youre not running your temp too high a mexican turbo will mow all that down fast.

I’m running it at 78F right now.

I have a Turno snail in there now. Not sure if it’s the same thing as a Mexican turbo?

I definitely won’t want to get another one, because this one poops a lot. ;Shifty

 

[Uncle99]

Pull that, scrub that and remove that.
You’ll be doing this during your ugly stage.
Help yourself by keeping lights low, especially whites, and nitrates and phosphate low, say nitrate of 2-10ppm and phosphate at 0.03-.1ppm.
Yup, snails to polish.

The faster you lock in all your parameters, and keep them on point, the less you will work.

Continually redirect your snails to affected areas.

 

[James_O]

Pull that, scrub that and remove that.
You’ll be doing this during your ugly stage.
Help yourself by keeping lights low, especially whites, and nitrates and phosphate low, say nitrate of 2-10ppm and phosphate at 0.03-.1ppm.
Yup, snails to polish.

The faster you lock in all your parameters, and keep them on point, the less you will work.

Continually redirect your snails to affected areas.

I will move him on that now, thanks.

So should I keep the green/white on? I have been using the white/blue.

 

[Udest]

lol mine did that too , getting a good assortment of inverts is a must for me if you can see if someone has some spare stromatella or strombus snails they're small and fun to watch and not half bad at cleaning.

 

[Uncle99]

I will move him on that now, thanks.

So should I keep the green/white on? I have been using the white/blue.

Algae needs two things to survive, food (phosphate is a fertilizer) and light. Deprive it of that and it will die.

Fish don’t require light. Cycling doesn’t require light. If you have nothing photosynthetic, turn them off is an option AND, lower phosphate as close to zero as you can.

Otherwise, anything green/red/white should be lowered, eliminated, your call.

Blue if you must, but at low intensities.

Overtime, the diversity of your bacteria will grow, they compete, but if you keep good water, the good ones will outcompete the bads and you’ll notice a stark difference.

Just finished another system, took 7 months to come to maturity. Looks like the good guys finally won....zero algae.

If there was some, the CUC can handle tiny amounts well.


Until then, you must keep it clean.

 

[James_O]

Moved my snail over to that corner, and he destroyed it!

You can see the exact path he followed, lol.

I plan to reduce lighting, manually remove algae, and get some more CUC.

Do scarlet skunks actually eat algae?

 

[Uncle99]

Moved my snail over to that corner, and he destroyed it!

You can see the exact path he followed, lol.

I plan to reduce lighting, manually remove algae, and get some more CUC.

Do scarlet skunks actually eat algae?

Nope. Not that I’m aware of.
Will keep your fish tidy though.

 

[Uncle99]

CUC won’t clear that themselves.
It’s a combination of stable water chemistry, your toothbrush, low nutrients and lighting together with some CUC.

For corals let that “brew” until you can keep all 8 parameters locked in, for say 3-8 months, varies widely as no system the same.

Adding corals before the ugly stage is completed just makes it harder, you need to consistently clean them, may lose some. But once that system is stable, everything you drop in will thrive.

Then add some softies and or/LPS. Corals consume both nitrate and phosphate so coral load has a direct impact on maintaining a balanced nutrient system. Because the system is matured, Corals will not be subject to the bad algae’s and bacteria and will extend quickly once put in this system.

Ok to add some bottled bacteria here and there to aid diversity of your bacteria, the best ones seem to come in around 6-12 month in my experience, and algae just seems to disappear.

 

[James_O]

CUC won’t clear that themselves.
It’s a combination of stable water chemistry, your toothbrush, low nutrients and lighting together with some CUC.

For corals let that “brew” until you can keep all 8 parameters locked in, for say 3-8 months, varies widely as no system the same.

Adding corals before the ugly stage is completed just makes it harder, you need to consistently clean them, may lose some. But once that system is stable, everything you drop in will thrive.

Then add some softies and or/LPS. Corals consume both nitrate and phosphate so coral load has a direct impact on maintaining a balanced nutrient system. Because the system is matured, Corals will not be subject to the bad algae’s and bacteria and will extend quickly once put in this system.

Ok to add some bottled bacteria here and there to aid diversity of your bacteria, the best ones seem to come in around 6-12 month in my experience, and algae just seems to disappear.

I’m definitely not going to add any corals until the algae goes away. I don’t want any more complications than needed.

 

[Udest]

Coming back to the thread , I'm a little weird when it comes to alage since I do leave a bit for the critters, so I never do eliminate all of it.