Some help with algae in shallow tank

[RyvBoy]

Hi everyone,
I’m looking for some advice regarding my 59–60 liter saltwater tank. I’m attaching a video of the system (), which has been running for about 8 months. The tank measures roughly 70 × 35 × 28 cm in height, with an integrated sump that includes:

• Sicce Shark 150 skimmer
• Sicce Syncra Nano return pump
• Heater
• Activated carbon
• Mechanical filtration

Lighting is an AI Prime, and water movement is provided by an AI Nero (added another little hydor one).


Here are my current parameters:

• Salinity: 35
• Temperature: 25°C
• Nitrates: 0.2 (Salifert)
• Phosphates: 0.028 (Salifert)
• KH: 7
• Magnesium: 1230
• Calcium: 415

At the moment I don’t have much inside: one anemone, one clownfish, a shrimp, a urchin, a starfish, and about 6–7 snails.


After one of my anemones died (months ago, it ended up in the wavemaker — at least there was a temporal connection, though I’m not sure if it was the cause), the tank gradually became overrun with filamentous algae. I’ve recently cleaned , but the issue is returning.


I’d also appreciate any feedback


I’ve been waiting for things to stabilize before adding any very easy corals (maybe some euphyllia or other beginner-friendly species), but I’d like your opinion on whether the system looks ready.


Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I would up your CUC. More snails would be a good place to start

Are you able to manually remove the algae? If so I would try and do that

What about water changes? During a water change, you can siphon out the algae that is on the rocks to try and remove some of it.

 

[RyvBoy]

Thanks for your reply! I can definitely try with the CUC.

I’ve already removed the algae 3–4 times, by brushing them off the rocks with a small brush, because they don’t come off just by siphoning… but they keep coming back every time

i add this

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[RyvBoy]

no other advices?

 

[Project1004]

My suggestion is to take the rock out the tank when doing the water change and scrub the surface throughly using brush of some sort and really clean the surface of all the algae. And rinse in the water you are replacing. Probably even better if you can use fresh salt water. And consider flipping the rocks when you put them back so the algae have less chance to grab onto the surface. Likely even though you are scrubbing the algae off, you not really removing the base which is going to come back pretty easily. Flipping the rock will give you more time to defeat them. Add CUC as mentioned above.

You will want to add some corals to cover those rocks. Problem you are having is due to nothing covering the rock surface. If you are trying to go with anemone tank, you will likely have this issue until coralline algae can cover the surface.

And consider Turing your whites down and turn up the blue and watch how your anemone act. White lights accelerates algae growth.

 

[Bruttall]

60l is about 15g US.

https://www.reefcleaners.org has packages for tank size, 30g seems to be the smallest package but will give you an idea of what snails you might want to add to your tank. Again this is for a 30g, you would need HALF as much for a 15g Tank.
Or 14 dwarf cerith, 5 nassarius, 6 florida's 5 nerite snails.

Hope this helps.

 

[RyvBoy]

I have a doubt about the positioning of the AI circulation pump. Right now, as you can see, it’s just below the overflow grid leading to the sump. Would you keep it there, or would you place it more toward the front?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I have a doubt about the positioning of the AI circulation pump. Right now, as you can see, it’s just below the overflow grid leading to the sump. Would you keep it there, or would you place it more toward the front?

If you don't feel like the circulation pump is creating enough flow and causing too many "dead zones", then yes I would move it.

 

[RyvBoy]

Mine is a design-related question: considering the position of the overflow grid, I’m wondering whether the pump is normally placed on the opposite side from the grid, or if it’s fine to place it directly underneath it.

i don’t understand what’s wrong with this tank

 

[get-salty]

Flow. It needs way more flow. Crank it up and up your CUC along with some manual removal. 100% will get rid of it within a few wks. Good luck.

 

[RyvBoy]

Flow. It needs way more flow. Crank it up and up your CUC along with some manual removal. 100% will get rid of it within a few wks. Good luck.

thank you so much... more flow than this? with 2 pumps? how ?

 

[vlangel]

You could get 1 turbo snail too. And if you are not getting coral you could get an urchin. Most urchins are not safe with coral but a couple species are if you want coral also.

Another option is ornamental macroalgae. There are some beautiful varieties that can give your tank a planted tank look and the macroalgae will out compete the nuisance algae for the excess nutrients. You do need to prune macroalgae however to keep it looking its best.

 

[BryanM]

Long term your nutrients are almost non existent. I would look to bring both of these up. 5-20 nitrates, at least .06 phos, i like to be in the .1-.3 range myself.

 

[vlangel]

Long term your nutrients are almost non existent. I would look to bring both of these up. 5-20 nitrates, at least .06 phos, i like to be in the .1-.3 range myself.

Yes, I also agree with this.

 

[RyvBoy]

Long term your nutrients are almost non existent. I would look to bring both of these up. 5-20 nitrates, at least .06 phos, i like to be in the .1-.3 range myself.

Adding fishes? I can’t give more food to the ocellaris alone

 

[Subsea]

In reading thru this thread, I will combine what Bryan & Dawn said:

Opportunistic nuisance algae thrive when nutrients are limited. In particular, Dinoflagellets thrive when both phosphates & nitrates are limited.

Urchins are excellant janitors. Get more livestock and feed more or dose nitrogen & phosphorus.

Long term your nutrients are almost non existent. I would look to bring both of these up. 5-20 nitrates, at least .06 phos, i like to be in the .1-.3 range myself.

And Dawn said

You could get 1 turbo snail too. And if you are not getting coral you could get an urchin. Most urchins are not safe with coral but a couple species are if you want coral also.

Another option is ornamental macroalgae. There are some beautiful varieties that can give your tank a planted tank look and the macroalgae will out compete the nuisance algae for the excess nutrients. You do need to prune macroalgae however to keep it looking its best.

 

[Subsea]

My suggestion is to take the rock out the tank when doing the water change and scrub the surface throughly using brush of some sort and really clean the surface of all the algae. And rinse in the water you are replacing. Probably even better if you can use fresh salt water. And consider flipping the rocks when you put them back so the algae have less chance to grab onto the surface. Likely even though you are scrubbing the algae off, you not really removing the base which is going to come back pretty easily. Flipping the rock will give you more time to defeat them. Add CUC as mentioned above.

You will want to add some corals to cover those rocks. Problem you are having is due to nothing covering the rock surface. If you are trying to go with anemone tank, you will likely have this issue until coralline algae can cover the surface.

And consider Turing your whites down and turn up the blue and watch how your anemone act. White lights accelerates algae growth.

kudos to this post.

I suggest adding a peroxide bath, then brush when rock is removed from tank.

 

[RyvBoy]

My suggestion is to take the rock out the tank when doing the water change and scrub the surface throughly using brush of some sort and really clean the surface of all the algae. And rinse in the water you are replacing. Probably even better if you can use fresh salt water. And consider flipping the rocks when you put them back so the algae have less chance to grab onto the surface. Likely even though you are scrubbing the algae off, you not really removing the base which is going to come back pretty easily. Flipping the rock will give you more time to defeat them. Add CUC as mentioned above.

You will want to add some corals to cover those rocks. Problem you are having is due to nothing covering the rock surface. If you are trying to go with anemone tank, you will likely have this issue until coralline algae can cover the surface.

And consider Turing your whites down and turn up the blue and watch how your anemone act. White lights accelerates algae growth.

thank you for your advice... I was afraid adding corals because at the moment is easier to scrub the rocks.. if I put corals on it , it would so much difficult... I would put only corals like euphyllies

 

[RyvBoy]

But at this point, wouldn't it be better to completely replace the sand and rocks?

Since I don't have any corals on the rocks,

 

[Subsea]

But at this point, wouldn't it be better to completely replace the sand and rocks?

Since I don't have any corals on the rocks,

Your tank. You decide that! With your small system, that is easy enough.
In my experiences, it would be easier to give your rocks a peroxide scrubbing bath and to rip clean your substrate with fresh water.

However, you are ignoring what got you here and it will come back.

Depriving a marine ecosystem of nitrogen is seldom beneficial.