Green Dust Algae On Glass

K

kajhurley

I'm sure this has been posted a hundred times, but i am gonna ask again. I just cycled 50 lbs of fresh live rock from fiji and added it to my main display. My display had about 50 lbs in it and has been set up about 4 months. Some of the rock i have in there came from other peoples well established tanks covered in corralline algae. After about a week in the display i have horrible green dust algae on my glass. I scraped the algae in hopes of it getting picked up by the HOB filter, but the next day it was just as bad. The tank parameters are perfect and have been that way for a while now. I have a 6.5 in Magnificent Foxface, 3 in yellow tang, and a pair of black clowns in a 90 gal. Not a huge bioload. All corals are showing growth and are opening up everyday and nothing is stressing but me. I have my family coming over this sat for christmas and was wanting a good looking tank, not a green water tank. If you need more info, just let me know. Is there any way to clear this up in 3 days, or do i just need to ride it out? Thanks Everyone
 
Well as it sounds that you are already aware. This is just part of the process. You will have to clean the glass every day for a while. If you want to speed it up at bit, one thing you do is put a UV sterilizer on the aquarium and turn the lights off. Basically stop feeding the algae.
 
I have a clam and a lot of sps and anemone. Since it started I have not been running the halides, just the actinic and Fiji purple. Would it be ok to keep all lights off a couple days. I heard that don't fix the problem, just hides it til the lights come back on. Of course I am showing no phosphates because the algae is eating it up. How long do these things usually last? I hate seeing the tank like this.
 
Turning the lights out for one day wont hurt anything. It happens in the wild. Its not sunny every day. [smilie=wink.gif]

Yeah if you don't have a UV, its going to be hard to keep it clear. The UV will kill the algae in the column. It still has to go through the cycle. You could also add your own algae to the aquarium like prodibio to consume whatever the algae is eating. Basically you have to go through the cycle.
 
You know we march to a different drummer here at the Howard house.

I let the green algae grow on the Neo 90 and take the time to scrape it every other day.
The scallop, clam, sponge, and other critters seem to quite enjoy their dinner. :p
 
Howard, it is to the point that I cant even see in the tank after I scrape it. It was so clean looking before I put in the new rock.
 
Well, Maybe a 20% water change, a bit of phosguard: http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/PhosGuard.html and a zero light day.
 
When I see unwanted algae growing on my glass (or anywhere really) the first thing I do is scrub it off. Once that has been completed, I'll turn off the lights and add purigen and chemi-pure elite. I usually leave the lights off for 2 days. Always worked for me.
 
Slow down on feeding the tank. Feed very little for the next month. Im only feeding like 1 cube of frozen everyday to a bigger bio load.


Sent from inside the shark tank!
 
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