Say bye bye to Saltwater!?!?!

[Prismaco]

Ok, its came to the point now where I want to totaly get out of this hobbie. I bought a 37g tank and lights, stand, ect.. I had my 16g and algea was so frustrating. Now I have algea everywhere in my 37g. People say use RO water and cut the light time down and the algea will go away within a couple days to a week. Well I have done that and I also did that in my 16g and nothing. I keep getting algea on my sand and almost anything I put in my tank dies, except my <>< , snails, crabs, and anenome. It seems like my crabs dont clean the algea on the sand and my snails dont feel like eating the algea on the glass. All my levels are good. I do regular top offs with RO water and do water changes every 2 weeks. I also cut back my feeding to every other day. Also my freakn madin hair. I think I may just pull the piece out an freakn sand blast it to get it all off. I am getting so frustrated and I know its all part of saltwater, but it seems like what ever I do, nothing helps. I may just call it quits in the next month I nothing goes well. If anyone could give me a couple points that would be greatly appriciated.


-Paul

[Buzz_Hog]

Deep breaths help....

Most people quit right before acheiving success...

[Mrs Smith]

Your tanks are still new. It takes several months before things even out - and believe me, what you're going through hits most all of us at some time or another.

I'd step away from the tank, spend a bit of time focusing on other things (still feed it and top it off occasionally!), but give it some time. It will seem like forever, but it took Mother Nature forever to perfect it.

Hang in there, and vent all you need to.
Danielle

[Geoff]

i still have algae in my tank and it is 7 months old! it takes a while for the system to fully mature. it is starting to die back now, plus help from my sea hare.

this is a different hobby than most. it takes a lot of patience to get the end product. it will take months or years of doing just the regular stuff before the tank settles in. it can not be rushed or sped up any, it just takes as long as it does.

sorry to hear you are so frustrated. everybody here has thought about leaving the hobby at some time or another for one reason or another. it is along term hobby.

take a step back let it ride, take your time.

G~

[thefatman]

paul, you setup your 16 right around the same time i setup my 55. and your 37 is only a few weeks old.

dude, i got news for ya.. my 55 is STILL goign through the algae stage. take a deep breath. remember everything happens in stages, and you did sort of overtsock in the beginning.

drop back feeding to every third day. remember nothign happens fast. jsut cutting back lights and feeding is not going to make the algae go away in a few days.

help it along a bit, clean the glass yourself, and do a little vaccuming of the substrate when you do your water change.

when i do a change, i wrap a poly filter around my standpipe, and blow all the detritus off the rocks, and clean the glass, and let it run for about an hour till the water clears up. then i remove the filter and throw it away. THEN i vaccume the substrate and add my top off water.

also, for your algae on the rocks. try this. when you siphon out the dirty water, put it into a bucket. then take your rocks one at a time, out of the tank, and put them into the bucket. scrub it in the bucket to get the algae off, then put it back in the tank, and grab another rock.

i did that on my last water change, and it made a huge differance in the algae growth.

hope that helps, you've spent a lot and seem to be pretty excited about each and every purchase, i'd hate to see you quit over a little water grass

[Rob_Reef_Keeper]

I am going through a nasty hair algae outbreak.

There is only one way to stop it. Find out where it is coming from. The algae needs food to survive. What kind of food are you using? any additives?

Equipment such as a refug or a skimmer?

This is what I have done on my nano and it worked. I did some more frequent water changes. Scrubbed the rocks out of the tank then rinse them in a bucket then back into the tank.

I am trying a little bit of Kent phosgard in a power filter to see if it helps. I have noticed the the hair algae has started to reside but then again the tank is just over a year now.

[Junkzoo]

Ditto everything so far, you are not the first or the last to go thru this,,,
deep breath,,,,,,,,,,

[seamonkey]

My self I have only been doing saltwater since september. The tank was given to me at the ripe age of 3and1/2 years old. Well after it was moved into my house with all the rock being moved and myself adding another 30lbs of lr it recycled and I went through some realy nasty alge problems that after after 8 months are finaly coming under control. I also used some unnatural methods to eliminate the alge problem but I will not post them out of respect to the board. I am known to try the so called mirical cures becuse I have the extra money to spare if some thing goes wrong plus I am extremely patient. I was warned against using what I did but i'll tell ya what I don't have an alge problem any more and my tank is thriving much better. O and after some research I found out that what I used is found in most phosphate removers and will not harm sea bacteria.

[thefatman]

you know....... i HAVE TO KNOW now.

[mnreefgeek]

I'm having a similar problem, though it doesn't sound quite so bad. I tested and found Phosphates and realized that my skimmer would better serve as an anchor. I cut back on my feeding, have done a few water changes, and my Remora should be here today or tomorrow. Like it was said before. Try to find the cause and the cure will present itself. Patience is more easily preached than practiced sometimes. I feel your pain. Hope everything clears up.

[Prismaco]

I add PH buffer every 3 days. I will go ahead on my next water change, pull the rocks out and scrub the hell out of them and and syphon some of the crud on the sand. What I am going to do is just let my tank ride for all of June with normal tops offs, water changes, ect. I realy love this hobbie and want to stay in it.


-Paul

[Rob_Reef_Keeper]

It will take some time as well.

I feel your pain...

[mnreefgeek]

Paul - have you tested for Phosphates? I never thought about it and once I did, I discovered the source of my problem. Also, have you gone through all of your powerheads and checked for leaks? Any metals leaching into the water would also feed an algae bloom.

[thefatman]

paul. dont give up after a month of waiting (letting in ride in june)

notce, geoff's tank is 7 months old and he still has algae.

just think about all the money you dumped into this, and how much you'll lose trying to sell everything off now that it's used.

it'll clear up, it'll jsut take time.

[NewReefer]

Seems to be in a bit of a hurry there, try and slow things down quite a bit, way slow! I have the same problem on my new 100g tank, 5 months old!

Keep a stiff chin up, It will pay off!