reducing algae growth

[thefatman]

ok another question regarding algae

my tank has a lot growing fairly quickly. so i am trying to reduce this, by a few measures.

first, i am finally over the diatom blooms, and they have all but been irradicated. i still have fair amount of cyano covering my rocks, but it seems to have at least stopped spreading since i reduced feeding, and did a few water changes. i now havea significant growth of corraline on the glass, rocks, pvc, and powerheads, about 4 or 5 different shades of stuff.

my concern is the green film that covers the front andside glass, daily. i clean the glass so i can see the fish and 24 hours later, the fish are blurry again. if i look in from the sides, the entire front wall is totally green again!

is this normal? or do i have it growing too quick?

so i have two solutions. reduce feeding..again. and lower the light period.

lights: right now i am running the actinic blue 14 hours(no 40watt). the 10k daylight 10 hours(no 40watt). and the actinic white 8 hours(vho 220watt).

i dont really have anything in there that requires the higher lighting right now. just a peppermint, a cowrie, the 6 fish, the green brittle, and the hermits. there are no corals or sponges or shrooms, etc...

so would it hurt to cut back even more on he lighting? and which light is contributing more to the algae growth, the blue(40w), 10k daylight(40w), or actinic white (220w). should i scale back all te lights or jsut the offending light. my guess is that its the 220 vho's and that maybe i dont need to run them at all for the moment, since nothing actually needs them on. but i think i should still berunnign some sort of day/night cycle for the sake of the other inhabitants.

my other solution is feeding. when my diatoms and cyano were really out of whack, i was feeding blender mush once a day and flakes once a day, and shrimp pellets once a day along the bottom for the scavengers. i have since reduced to blender mush-once-every other day, no flakes, and no shrimp pellets. and my cyano and diaotms have reacted accordingly. so it appears to be working. i spot feed the star every other day, once, when ifeed the fish, so havent had any problems with it going after fish.

so how long is safe to go between feedings? can i drop to once every 3 days or even every 4 days? i jsut really want to get this glass algae in check, and naturally get my water parameters in order. everything else is good asfar as ammonia, nitrites and nitrates, and ph etc... though my nitrates are still around 5-10 (and i have finished removing the rest of the bio balls)

so, any input on the feeding and light schedule?

thanks
jay

[grazzit]

If you currently have nothing in the tank that really has a light requirement, the only thing those spiffy lights are doing is growing algae, but back on the lighting.

My completely inexperienced opinion (take it for what it's worth) would be to treat it like a freshwater tank with regards to light, if you leave the lights on alot you'll have algae, if you don't you won't, dunno how this will effect your scavengers though.

[Rick O]

Getting rid of algae is all about nutrient control. If you cut off it's food source it will go away. Your feeding schedule seems just about right. But don't feed more than the fish will eat in a short amount of time. I feed until the frenzy stops. I suspect your tank still has a fair amount of nutrients stored up from back when you were feeding heavily. IMO small water changes such as 10% are for maintenance. When I'm trying to correct a water quality issue I step up to 20-30% changes and do them more frequently such as once or twice a week.

[Casey]

Jay you are feeding still heavy I feed once every 4 days. ,the white light is causing the algae not the blue cut back on photoperiod and like Rick said do water changes 30% twice a week will not hurt anything just make sure temp and ph and salinity are the same and good luck.

[thefatman]

cool beans that's what i was hoping to hear. i wanted to cut back more on feeding, jsut wasnt sure if it was safe or not. i only feed a very small amount and shut down pumps, and hold the food in my hand to defrost, and most of the fish actually eat it from my hands as it's defrosting. i find htis pretty cool, but mostly i like that not much hits bottom or gets wasted. it's actually getting eaten. when the frenzy stops, i spot feed the remainder to the star.

i'll cut back on lights. actually if nothign in the tank needs the brights, i wont bother using them at all. it'll save a bit on electricity, and save the bulb hours for when they are on the new tank. so if it's the lights helping to kep the algae growing (in addition to the high nutrient ratio) then i'll jsut use the NO blue and the NO daylight, and run it fewer hours per day.

thanks guys.

i figured the root of the algae problem was my fault from the overfeeding, but thought maybe the vho's were increasing the spread.

i'll do bigger/more water changes too. hopefully that should also bring down the nitrate levels as well. and am i to understand that i SHOULD be vaccuming the cc substrate?

[Mr. Ono]

Tropical fish can go days without feeding. Even two weeks with out food will not kill a healthy fish. Once a week feeding and then a 30% water chance the next day will help your problem.

Just make sure the saltwater you are adding has lower nitrates than what is in the tank as in no nitrates. Test you new water prior to adding it to the tank. RO/DI water should be used when making the saltwater.

Also reducing the vho lights will increase the chances of pink coralline to grow. You can also add calupera for nitrate removal as well.

If you do not take care of these excess nitrates soon. I see lots of hair aglae in the future.

[thefatman]

whoooaaa thats a new one on me.. ro water can have nitrates?

[Mr. Ono]

RO is not 100% pure. RO kits will show you what their removal rates are. Most are 95 to 98 % which means you will still have small traces of nitrate depending on how impure your tap water is.

[Phantom Phish]

I know they're not popular with everyone, but I was having similar problems to yours, and macroalgaes worked like a charm for me. I started with a good bit of the dreaded Caulerpa and some Chaetomorpha. Within about 2 weeks my nitrates and phosphates came down to zero (trully) and my hair algae and cyano disappeared almost completely. I have since culled out just about all of the Caulerpa, and the Chaetomorpha has taken over. If you've got a good size sump, or a refugium, its something to consider. I'm not sure I'd put them in my display tank though.

[Harpo]

OK, let me throw this out there, since were talking about feeding. How often do most people feed, in a case such as mine, you have a 125gl. reef full of corals and critters? You know when you look at fish on line, most say to feed 2 - 3 times daily. I know that's small feedings, but how little can you get away with and keep everyone happy? I normally feed a small pinch of flake once a day along with maybe a little frozen brine or chopped krill later in the same day, is this excessive? Or can I get away with feeding maybe everyother day?


Bill

[Casey]

Bill I feed once every 4 days usually frozen, flake usually has the highest phosphate levels so I dont use it,I also feed Nori.

[Harpo]

Casey, thanks for the response.
Does your tank carry a full load? I was just reading your response to my other half, who believes we must feed at least once a day. I would love to cut back just to see what happens, maybe the emeralds would actually get hungry enough to eat the $#@% bubble algae, and the Foxface and Lawnmower blennie would go after a few more things.
I guess what she doesn't know can't hurt I do all the feeding


Bill

[Casey]

Originally posted by Harpo
Casey, thanks for the response.
Does your tank carry a full load? I was just reading your response to my other half, who believes we must feed at least once a day. I would love to cut back just to see what happens, maybe the emeralds would actually get hungry enough to eat the $#@% bubble algae, and the Foxface and Lawnmower blennie would go after a few more things.
I guess what she doesn't know can't hurt I do all the feeding


Bill

Well full of corals for sure, I have 10 fish in my 100 gal and lots of crabs starfish and snails Biggest fish is my purple tang,I noticed when I stopped feeding so much he came out more and started helping with the algae lawnmower blenny also started helping.

[thefatman]

i am actually plannign to put a ref with macros like calurpa and whatevr else is important, into the ref/sump of the new tank. but not plannign to on this one, as i dont want it in the display.

i think the overall solution to the core problem is to not overfeed (at least in my case) and do freq. water changes.

in regards to feeding less, and the fish grazing/coming out more.. i have noticed something, and forgive me if this sounds a bit crude, but hey, it's nature.

since i stopepd feeding daily, and dropped to every other day (and will now be dropping to every 4 days) i have noticed that my fish actually seem fatter. i also notice them nippping at the rock significantly more, particularly the coral beauty and cinnamon clown. the blue devil and green chromis do as well, but not as much as the other two.

now here is the weird question. i dont usually make it a habit to sit and stare at fish poop, but my coral beauty's waste is much more noticable than the other fish. its really long, and sort of bright green. so it stands out. (hold back the jokes)

anyway, since i have been feeding less, i actually see MORE waste from this particular fish. may be from all of them, but htis one is noticable.

i'm no science major, but i understand the concept of what goes in, must come out. but how can MORE come out than what is going in?

is this fish actually getting that much food/nutrition from grazing on rock, to be able to produce MORE waste, than when it was eating blender mush daily?

[MontanaRocknReefer]

Ok Jay! Going from the snail thing to staring at fish poop! HHHHHmmmmm! I think I see a pattern developing here!

Maybe it's just a change in diet! Or maybe it's been there all along and you are just now noticing it! JMO