Green Tank.. help!

[Aceswife]

I have a 5 gal nano at work, and I recently had a death in my immediate family, so I was out of work for a week and a few days. One of my coworkers fed my fish (1 damsel) and my pistol shrimp while I was away. When I came back, the tank was completely green, which was understandable, but I can't seem to get it under control. I assume he overfed, but every morning I scrape the tank, and an hour later it is starting to film up again. I did a water change and a filter bag and media change. I have 2 turbo snails (1 died while i was away), 2 bumblebee snails, a few blue leg hermits, 3# LR and 5#LS. It has been 5 days now, and I can't believe how green the water and everything still is. I just went and bought 5 more snails to try and help me out. Any ideas on how to regain control over the monster?

[ofblong]

the only way I have seen that would be yoru best bet (I am assuming the water column itself is green?) is to put a uv filter on. uv will kill off all that green water and then after you do 1 w/c within 24 hrs of adding uv it iwll start to disappear.

[SPANKYSREEF]

The first two things that come to mind are:
Are you using tap water?
Is the tank in range of direct sunlight?

[Alice]

Are you using a hang-on-the-tank (HOT) filter like a Whisper or Penguin? If not, you might want to try one. Buy extra filter carts and change them out daily for a few days. You also might want to take a turkey baster and blast around the rocks and substrate to put the detritus in suspension so the filter can remove it or you can siphon it out w/ a water change.

The algae's feeding on something in there...

[Ace's Reef]

I am using RO/DI water only, I have a Sunpaq retrofit light, it is nowhere near sunlight, I have a whisper filter, and I regularly baste my rocks. I am thinking that maybe it just got so bad that it will take me a few more water changes and filter bag washings to get it cleared up, but I thought maybe I was missing something... in the meantime I have cut way back on the light as I don't have any corals or anything like that in there yet...

[Ace's Reef]

Oops, I'm logged in as my husband instead of Aceswife....

[ChrisPrusha]

Originally Posted by Ace's Reef

I am thinking that maybe it just got so bad that it will take me a few more water changes and filter bag washings to get it cleared up

That's my guess, too. Keep us posted!

[ofblong]

cutting down on the light will help. I did that on my 72g. I cut it down to an hour a day and then every 2 days would increase it until I noticed that when I increased it the algae began to take off. then I would decrease it 1 hour for couple more days. And then start the cycle of increasing 1 hr every couple days. took me 3 weeks but i got my cycle all the way back up and there was no more hair algae when I was done. course all the clean-up crew helped in removing it.

[ofblong]

Oh and I left the actinics on for the full 12hr photo period as they didnt seem to affect the algae growth (well the green algae anyways).

[Aceswife]

things are looking much better today after the weekend. the extra snails and reduced light cleared up the green beautifully!! thanks for everyone's thoughts and opinions.