New 75 gallon tank with a lot of algae. Please help

[sezaro21]

Hello everyone. I've been keeping freshwater fish tanks for the past 20 years and this year, I decided to start my first saltwater setup. I converted my 75 gallon freshwater setup over to saltwater. I started the tank the last week of December. I used 80lbs of live sand, 60 lbs of dry rock, 2 bottles of Dr Tim's 1 and only bacteria. I used the first bottle the day I set up the tank and the 2nd bottle the 2nd week. For filtering I used to 2 Fluval FX4 canister filters because that is what I used on the tank before converting it to saltwater. They are I great condition so I didn't see the need to get rid of them. I ran 1 Hydor Koralia 1350 powerhead. When I set up the tank, I used tap water with Red sea salt. I did 10-15 gallon weekly water changes with store bought RODI water and Instant Ocean salt. The last water changes I used sand, filter ocean water that is brought in from about 200 yard from the beach at a marine biology institute. I have gone through the nitrogen cycle I believe as I've had my ammonia and nitrite skipped which have gone down to zero. After 2 weeks of start up, I was told it was ok to add a few fish so I added a pair of clowns, a purple firefish and a red firefish and a cleaner shrimp. After testing water again 2 weeks later with good results I was told it was ok to add more fish so I added a diamond goby, a YWG with a tiger pistol shrimp and a royal gramma.
My current parameters are:
ammonia 0,
nitrite 0,
nitrate 15,
PH 8.4,
Salinity 1.025,
Phosphate .5-1,
Temp 79

Everything was going fine but then the issues started. Since I came from freshwater, my LED strip was for freshwater. Everything in the tank looked amazing and beautiful. I decided to get a real saltwater light fixture because my future plan was to get an anemone for the clowns. I ended up buying the AI Blade Grow. The light looked so much brighter and souch better.

So now the issue. 2 days after the light was swapped, my tank started growing a red algae all over the rocks and the glass. I was able to blow it off and I thought all was good, but it just keeps coming back. At first it was just a red covering but the last few days it's becoming more stringy. I believe it's cyano because the red covering produces small oxygen bubbles all over it. I installed a 2nd Hydor Koralia 1350 powerhead into the tank to help with more flow because I read that helps. I bought a CUC that consist of 5 Mexican turbos, 5 Trochas, 10 asreal, 5 Nassarius as well as 15 blue leg hermits. The turbos seemed to really clean the rock and get it nice and clean but the red covering would be back by night time.
I don't know what more to do. I went from a beautiful tank to this ugly thing. The fish all seem healthy, and act normal. I check the ammonia, nitrite and the nitrate daily to make sure the addition of the cream up crew doesn't spike the tank.

This all started when I switched the light so I don't know if that is the cause of just a coincidence. I turned the light off yesterday to see if that helps because the tank looks better in the morning and then looks worse as the day goes on. Looked at the tank this morning and the rocks and glass look MUCH better, the water is just cloudy now. Please help. This is my first saltwater setup and I really want it to work out. Thank
Attached are what the tank looked like this morning and a pic of it yesterday. Should I leave the lights off or turn them back on? Also, I feed the fish 1 cube of frozen food in the morning and some pellets in the evening.
I have also added a screenshot of my light schedule and the intensity.

 

[Nlara]

Red or brown algae. Might be detritus. You also probably have high TDS in water since you used tap water to start the tank. Also I wouldn’t start with diamond goby since they feed off the sand. Anemones I would also wait at least a few months as they need stable conditions.

 

[Tanglover1]

Hello everyone. I've been keeping freshwater fish tanks for the past 20 years and this year, I decided to start my first saltwater setup. I converted my 75 gallon freshwater setup over to saltwater. I started the tank the last week of December. I used 80lbs of live sand, 60 lbs of dry rock, 2 bottles of Dr Tim's 1 and only bacteria. I used the first bottle the day I set up the tank and the 2nd bottle the 2nd week. For filtering I used to 2 Fluval FX4 canister filters because that is what I used on the tank before converting it to saltwater. They are I great condition so I didn't see the need to get rid of them. I ran 1 Hydor Koralia 1350 powerhead. When I set up the tank, I used tap water with Red sea salt. I did 10-15 gallon weekly water changes with store bought RODI water and Instant Ocean salt. The last water changes I used sand, filter ocean water that is brought in from about 200 yard from the beach at a marine biology institute. I have gone through the nitrogen cycle I believe as I've had my ammonia and nitrite skipped which have gone down to zero. After 2 weeks of start up, I was told it was ok to add a few fish so I added a pair of clowns, a purple firefish and a red firefish and a cleaner shrimp. After testing water again 2 weeks later with good results I was told it was ok to add more fish so I added a diamond goby, a YWG with a tiger pistol shrimp and a royal gramma.
My current parameters are:
ammonia 0,
nitrite 0,
nitrate 15,
PH 8.4,
Salinity 1.025,
Phosphate .5-1,
Temp 79

Everything was going fine but then the issues started. Since I came from freshwater, my LED strip was for freshwater. Everything in the tank looked amazing and beautiful. I decided to get a real saltwater light fixture because my future plan was to get an anemone for the clowns. I ended up buying the AI Blade Grow. The light looked so much brighter and souch better.

So now the issue. 2 days after the light was swapped, my tank started growing a red algae all over the rocks and the glass. I was able to blow it off and I thought all was good, but it just keeps coming back. At first it was just a red covering but the last few days it's becoming more stringy. I believe it's cyano because the red covering produces small oxygen bubbles all over it. I installed a 2nd Hydor Koralia 1350 powerhead into the tank to help with more flow because I read that helps. I bought a CUC that consist of 5 Mexican turbos, 5 Trochas, 10 asreal, 5 Nassarius as well as 15 blue leg hermits. The turbos seemed to really clean the rock and get it nice and clean but the red covering would be back by night time.
I don't know what more to do. I went from a beautiful tank to this ugly thing. The fish all seem healthy, and act normal. I check the ammonia, nitrite and the nitrate daily to make sure the addition of the cream up crew doesn't spike the tank.

This all started when I switched the light so I don't know if that is the cause of just a coincidence. I turned the light off yesterday to see if that helps because the tank looks better in the morning and then looks worse as the day goes on. Looked at the tank this morning and the rocks and glass look MUCH better, the water is just cloudy now. Please help. This is my first saltwater setup and I really want it to work out. Thank
Attached are what the tank looked like this morning and a pic of it yesterday. Should I leave the lights off or turn them back on? Also, I feed the fish 1 cube of frozen food in the morning and some pellets in the evening.
I have also added a screenshot of my light schedule and the intensity.

Just an ugly phase of new tank. We all hv gone through this. Eventually your tank will mature and you'll see beautiful biodiversity. This can be detritus or rocks are just maturing. Just enjoy it and Give a good flow to your tank by waverotator or pump. If u hv,ignore and enjoy this phase.

 

[sezaro21]

The algae is red with little micro air bubbles all over them, which is why I think it's cyano. At first it was just a dusting but has turn more stringy the last week. I replaced the light last on Friday 2/10, and then the red algae started to appear that Sunday and has been there and gotten worse over the past week.

 

[Tanglover1]

The algae is red with little micro air bubbles all over them, which is why I think it's cyano. At first it was just a dusting but has turn more stringy the last week. I replaced the light last on Friday 2/10, and then the red algae started to appear that Sunday and has been there and gotten worse over the past week.

They r common in new tanks. Give your tank a good flow they will go after few weeks or month. U can reduce your white lights too

 

[sezaro21]

My white light is set to 40% intensity during peak hours which is 4 hours a day. Do you think that is to much? Will the CUC help get rid of the algae?

 

[Tanglover1]

The algae is red with little micro air bubbles all over them, which is why I think it's cyano. At first it was just a dusting but has turn more stringy the last week. I replaced the light last on Friday 2/10, and then the red algae started to appear that Sunday and has been there and gotten worse over the past week.

It can also be diatoms and again they r common in new tanks. Don't worry they will go away on it's own.

 

[Tanglover1]

My white light is set to 40% intensity during peak hours which is 4 hours a day. Do you think that is to much? Will the CUC help get rid of the algae?

It will be fine just your tank is maturing. Just enjoy it for now. It should go away on it's own till few weeks or months. Just give a good flow.

 

[sezaro21]

If I got a real wet live rock, would that help a little? Just wondering since I used all dry rock or did the Dr Tim's act as the live rock?

 

[Tanglover1]

If I got a real wet live rock, would that help a little? Just wondering since I used all dry rock or did the Dr Tim's act as the live rock?

Dry rocks go through ugly phases. It will get dark in colour

 

[LegalReefer]

Getting some real live rock would probably help, if I had to guess.

 

[kevgib67]

You are just going through what every new tank goes through. There will be new algae phases to come as expected. As to live rock, that is all I used. I got diatoms, cyno, gha and bryopsis. I think it spared me dinos ( excuse me while I find some wood to knock on) as my new set up is 16 months old. I would recommend adding phyto and copipods and down the road, when the green stuff starts showing up, an urchin. Good luck.

 

[sezaro21]

That reminds me, since the beginning of the 3rd week of tank set up, I've been adding copepods into the tank since I heard they are very beneficial to a saltwater tank. I've added one bag per week into the tank and fed them with phyto. Is it bad that I added them early? I planned to have a mandarin goby later and the LFS store told me it would be a good idea to try and start colonizing the tank for copepods now so when I do put the mandarin in it would already have an established food source.

 

[exnisstech]

Pods will eventually appear on their own without having to add them.

Maybe run without the light for a while and see what happens? There is nothing in your tank at the moment that has to have light to survive.

 

[kevgib67]

No copepods are a good thing. Brs did a great video setting up multiple ways and found adding copepods early significantly decreased the algae phases. Search on YouTube.