Algae Bloom

[Matthew Dumouchel]

Hey Everyone - I'm dealing with an algae bloom during my cycling. I switched to RO/DI water this past weekend. I'm at Day 30 and my numbers have spiked and stabling off at:

Amm 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 2ppm
Ph 8.0
Phos 0.25
Alk 110
Cal 400
Iron 0
Mg 1440

Salinity is 1.025 at 80oF

I am running GFO (PhosNet) for the past week with carbon. I have 2 Cerith Snails, 2 Astraea Snails, 1 emerald green crab and 3 hermit crabs, which have helped take down some of the algae.

Will they be able to rid the rest or should I be doing something else to help more?

 

[sirhc13]

Siphon as much out as you can with water changes....then hopefully your cuc can do the rest. Not sure of your tank size but 4 snails is likely not enough to get a hold on the problem.

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

 

[Matthew Dumouchel]

Of course I missed that part - it's a 20 Gallon Long, nano tank. I started with a small amount to not overwhelm the system

 

[Chef G]

if you really wanna fast track/eliminate the algae and have no corals currently do 2 days of NO light. I mean none at all tape garbage bags around your tank and complete darkness. This will starve your algae and kill it off, make sure you export the decay matter via WC so it doesn't dissolve back into your water and re-fuel the fire and cause another bloom.

Also did you start with cured rock or just dry rock and threw it in the tank? Also I would follow the tips posted by sirhc13. Get more snails rule of thumb is 1 snail per 2 gallons.

 

[Matthew Dumouchel]

if you really wanna fast track/eliminate the algae and have no corals currently do 2 days of NO light. I mean none at all tape garbage bags around your tank and complete darkness. This will starve your algae and kill it off, make sure you export the decay matter via WC so it doesn't dissolve back into your water and re-fuel the fire and cause another bloom.

Also did you start with cured rock or just dry rock and threw it in the tank? Also I would follow the tips posted by sirhc13. Get more snails rule of thumb is 1 snail per 2 gallons.

Yes I was reading about keeping the lights all off, garbage bag is a new thought though! I did start with half live rock and half dry rock, so I assume some of the dry rock has been leaching some phosphate into the water.

 

[Chef G]

Oh yeah you want complete dark zero light when you do this even ambient lighting from the room or natural daylight can ruin tryin to achieve this so by covering your tank completely you eliminate all that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk