Our tank is about 5 months old. We have recently had a huge problem with algae taking over. We have a 30 gallon tank, with a fluval canister filtration system. It is the 40-50 gallon one I believe? We don’t know if we are doing something wrong with that maybe? We take out the sponge on the inside about once a month and clean it. We only feed once a day. The lighting is a fluval LED light that is on 8 hours a day. We have two clowns, a yellow watchman goby w/ a pistal shrimp, a 6 lime wrasse, and a lawnmower blenny. I clean that tank just about every day to keep up with it. I can’t get it all off of the rocks. HELP!!!
Green and red algae taking over!
- Thread starter Jesskirk
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mcarroll
10K Club member
Guessing....tell me how many right/wrong:
Questions
How do the corals appear to be doing?
Things To Do
Definitely remove everything from the canister and use it mostly for flow. Empty would be ideal at this stage.
If you keep any filtration media in it, clean it weekly.
Consider cutting the lights to 6 hours.
Can you use a lux meter or PAR meter to see how much light your tank is getting? (Free lux meter app will get you started...buy an actual meter though....around $20, so an easy buy.)
(There'll be more things to do and more questions depending how I did on my guesswork!
)
- tank was started only _-__ months ago
- tank was started with dead rock
- tank lights are on "100%"
- tank lights aren't set to be very blue
- all fish added with _ months of each other, maybe all at once
- canister is loaded with GFO
- there's no cleanup crew
- NO3 and/or PO4 are testing at zero
Questions
How do the corals appear to be doing?
Things To Do
Definitely remove everything from the canister and use it mostly for flow. Empty would be ideal at this stage.
If you keep any filtration media in it, clean it weekly.
Consider cutting the lights to 6 hours.
Can you use a lux meter or PAR meter to see how much light your tank is getting? (Free lux meter app will get you started...buy an actual meter though....around $20, so an easy buy.)
(There'll be more things to do and more questions depending how I did on my guesswork!
)
Jason mack
Monti madness
+1 What @mcarroll Saïd ^^^^^!!!
Do you mind educating me on the lux meter and the app? I have heard everyone talking about using a par meter, but not so much with the lux. What readings would a person shoot for? I actually down loaded the app last night just to play around with it, but the fun was short lived since I didn't know what to look for and exactly what it was I was reading.Guessing....tell me how many right/wrong:
- tank was started only _-__ months ago
- tank was started with dead rock
- tank lights are on "100%"
- tank lights aren't set to be very blue
- all fish added with _ months of each other, maybe all at once
- canister is loaded with GFO
- there's no cleanup crew
- NO3 and/or PO4 are testing at zero
Questions
How do the corals appear to be doing?
Things To Do
Definitely remove everything from the canister and use it mostly for flow. Empty would be ideal at this stage.
If you keep any filtration media in it, clean it weekly.
Consider cutting the lights to 6 hours.
Can you use a lux meter or PAR meter to see how much light your tank is getting? (Free lux meter app will get you started...buy an actual meter though....around $20, so an easy buy.)
(There'll be more things to do and more questions depending how I did on my guesswork!
lejeune981
Active Member
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Curious on the lux meter also... my leds make 56000 lux each.. times 3 leds over a 48" 90 gallon
To the OP
IF you have a sump... or actually you don't need a sump.. but it helps..
Look into a diy upflow algae turf scrubber.. that is what helped me beat the algae in my tank..
Or you could consider a tang or foxface.. they love gha..
To get the algae off the rocks.. I would use a tooth brush zip tied to a hose.. and would run the hose to a filter sock in my sump... then scrub the rocks with the toothbrush.. let the siphon pick up the algae I scrubbed off and deposit it nicely into the filter sock
To the OP
IF you have a sump... or actually you don't need a sump.. but it helps..
Look into a diy upflow algae turf scrubber.. that is what helped me beat the algae in my tank..
Or you could consider a tang or foxface.. they love gha..
To get the algae off the rocks.. I would use a tooth brush zip tied to a hose.. and would run the hose to a filter sock in my sump... then scrub the rocks with the toothbrush.. let the siphon pick up the algae I scrubbed off and deposit it nicely into the filter sock
mcarroll
10K Club member
Start here: Beginner’s Lux
mcarroll
10K Club member
To get started, just knowing that 2000 PAR and 100,000 lux are about the same and are the measure of the sun around noon at sea-level in the tropics may help. There's also the 1.1 Illuminance section of Wikipedia's lux page with an index of lux values. It's also really helpful just to walk around the house and outside and sample lots of different light environments....sunny shade, full sun, office lighting, kitchen lights, etc...
You can expect to find readings on your tank anywhere from 10,000 lux on up.
Most tanks seem to be somewhere around 20,000-40,000 lux.
Clams and "bright light" corals (there aren't many) will need ≥30,000 lux, IMO. Most corals seem to tolerate up to 50,000-80,000 lux, but may have trouble over that.
I have two stony coral tanks. One has always gotten anywhere from 10,000 to 17,000 lux. The other gets around 50,000 lux. Lots more algae issues on the brighter tank....same system as the other tank tho. Corals seem equally happy in both tanks.
2¢
Thank you for taking the time to respond and explain. I'm curious to see what the lux value is in the wife's Biocube, this will give me something to piddle with today.
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