I’ve been battling what I think is green hair algae and a few spots of bubble algae (?) for at least a month and just can’t seem to get a handle on it. I’ll admit, I got complacent with testing and probably was over feeding as well for a few months. The tank has been running for a little over a year and a half. The green hair algae was worse a few months ago, but seems to have stalled where it is now. Originally I was just doing about a 10-15 percent water change twice a week and scrubbing the algae with a brush. I tried this for about a month and had minimal effects at getting rid of the algae. Then I had an epiphany and tested my water. LOL Phosphates, nitrates and ammonia were a little high. I added 6.5 OZ. Chemi-Pure Elite and a bag of Phosguard on January 7th. Within hours my Phosphates dropped to almost an undetectable amount, so I removed the bag of Phosguard that same day. Currently have the Chemi-Pure Elite, bio media, filter floss, small bag of carbon (that is due to be replaced now) and the stock filter sponge. Still doing 10 -15 percent WC twice a week. Currently have 2 Yellow Tail Damsels, 2 Turbo snails, 2 emerald crabs, 2 Nassarius Snails, 2 blue legged hermit crabs and a few Nerite snails (I think they are Nerites)..
I’ve read through some of the other threads about GHA see some people have recommended blacking out my tank. Other that, am I missing something? Can I add a couple more snails? Emerald crabs? Just keep doing the WC twice a week and replace my carbon bag with a fresh one? I really don’t want to black out my tank because I like looking at it everyday. LOL Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Below are my parameters:
Thursday, January 7, 2021:
And lastly...here's a few cell phone pics of the tank currently:
I’ve read through some of the other threads about GHA see some people have recommended blacking out my tank. Other that, am I missing something? Can I add a couple more snails? Emerald crabs? Just keep doing the WC twice a week and replace my carbon bag with a fresh one? I really don’t want to black out my tank because I like looking at it everyday. LOL Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Below are my parameters:
Thursday, January 7, 2021:
- Temperature at 75.7 F
- Nitrate at 5 ppm
- Phosphate at 0.25 ppm
- Alkalinity at 10.0 dKH
- Calcium at 400 ppm
- Ammonia at 0.25 ppm
- Salinity at 1.023 SG
- Temperature at 76.5 F
- Nitrate at 2 ppm
- Phosphate at 0.10 ppm
- Alkalinity at 9.0 dKH
- Calcium at 420 ppm
- Ammonia at 0.10 ppm
- Salinity at 1.024 SG
And lastly...here's a few cell phone pics of the tank currently: