DraggingTail
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What is carbon dosing?
A Simple Guide To Common Problematic Algae And The Means To Control It..
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DraggingTail
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I didn't know this. I was just thawing and dropping in.
SantaMonica
Valuable Member
What is this green film?
[/QUOTE]
It'a algae. Largely from fish pee (urea, ammonium) hitting the glass. The amount of ammonium in the water needs to be reduced, and this will reduce that algae.
It'a algae. Largely from fish pee (urea, ammonium) hitting the glass. The amount of ammonium in the water needs to be reduced, and this will reduce that algae.
So... I didn't read every comment, but the first few pages. I am not 100÷ sure what a perfect balanced cuc is. I have 10-12 China hats, 3 trokus, 2 astrea and 1 nourite snail. Should I be grabbing a couple small hermits? More astrea? some turbos? (Currently have brown algea it's even on my gsp and birdnest)
Punchanello
Well-Known Member
I keep reading that not much will eat GHA. Unless what I have isn't GHA I disagree. Trochus snails eat GHA.
I've found that removing any long strands and scraping of dead or browning GHA with a toothbrush exposes the short green GHA which the Trochus snails will eat.
I've found that removing any long strands and scraping of dead or browning GHA with a toothbrush exposes the short green GHA which the Trochus snails will eat.
Richard Hercher
Active Member
Thanks for posting this! I've been watching my tank grow GHA, Bryobsis, cyano, and turn algae for about 2 years while dutifully feeding (over feeding? Over lighting?) two lonely clown fish in a 75G FOWLR that crashed when I moved. Just today, after a week of building the first round of my new clean up crew, I noticed that one of my rocks started to have a flower garden! about a dozen little green stems about 1-1.5cm long poking up above the GHA lawn, with little green bulbs, with a few opened flowers, or some kind of marine clover to compliment my GHA covered rocks that look like the green rolling hills of Scotland! Finally, something new and pretty in my tank. lol.
Dinoflagellates, right?
Dinoflagellates, right?
what about dinoflagellates? aka snot algaeProblem Dinoflagellates and pH by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com
SteveO83
Active Member
I would say no to dino’s and heres why. Its a red film with a air bubble looking thing on the end.Thanks for posting this! I've been watching my tank grow GHA, Bryobsis, cyano, and turn algae for about 2 years while dutifully feeding (over feeding? Over lighting?) two lonely clown fish in a 75G FOWLR that crashed when I moved. Just today, after a week of building the first round of my new clean up crew, I noticed that one of my rocks started to have a flower garden! about a dozen little green stems about 1-1.5cm long poking up above the GHA lawn, with little green bulbs, with a few opened flowers, or some kind of marine clover to compliment my GHA covered rocks that look like the green rolling hills of Scotland! Finally, something new and pretty in my tank. lol.
Dinoflagellates, right?
Richard Hercher
Active Member
Ah! Something new. I took the tooth brush and turkey bastter to it that night, and my urchin scoured everything else on that rock so hopefully that’s that
Ken101Ward
Community Member
Thanks for posting this! I've been watching my tank grow GHA, Bryobsis, cyano, and turn algae for about 2 years while dutifully feeding (over feeding? Over lighting?) two lonely clown fish in a 75G FOWLR that crashed when I moved. Just today, after a week of building the first round of my new clean up crew, I noticed that one of my rocks started to have a flower garden! about a dozen little green stems about 1-1.5cm long poking up above the GHA lawn, with little green bulbs, with a few opened flowers, or some kind of marine clover to compliment my GHA covered rocks that look like the green rolling hills of Scotland! Finally, something new and pretty in my tank. lol.
Dinoflagellates, right?
Richard
Be diligent with the "1 to 1.5 cm stem that opens up into flower". I got busy with work last year and had the same thing sprout up in my tank. It is everywhere in tank now, spread like wildfire! I have tried scrubbing it off with a stiff bristle brush and it does not come off easy. Please post if you find a good solution to removing this "plague"
Thanks, Ken
Richard Hercher
Active Member
Ken
So far, I haven't seen that mess peak back up. But the one thing I learned from GHA (which I am becoming a journeyman in growing), is do NOT use a brush to scrub this stuff off. All you are doing is propagating it! Kill it in the tank, or take it out of the tank. With that latest invader, because it was just in that spot, I used a turkey baster and sucked as I brushed. What I REALLY want is something like this, but with a rotary head attachment (like a kid's electric tooth brush)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DLS3VC...olid=1FM1NIP7HKSEJ&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it
Brock collins
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Is this hair algea? I have 1 clown in tank. I have mixed reef with clean crew and a shrimp. Bio cube 32gal with 10gal water change every other week. What do I need to do to win the fight over the algea? I do not over feed the tank.
Richard Hercher
Active Member
Sure looks like GHA. Mechanical removal will help: glass tank not acrylic, right? Get the appropriate glass cleaning scrape tool, turn off all your flow, and symphony EVERY CELL OF THAT GREEN STUFF OUT. If you attack it with a tooth brush and let it enter the water column, you will be spreading it through your tank, like Christopher Columbus spread syphilis through the New World.
I might try this method next time I get agressive with cleaning my tankss rolling green hills
I might try this method next time I get agressive with cleaning my tankss rolling green hills
SantaMonica
Valuable Member
This will help too:
What do all algae (and cyano too) need to survive? Nutrients. What are nutrients? Ammonia/ammonium, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate and urea are the major ones. Which ones cause most of the algae in your tank? These same ones. Why can't you just remove these nutrients and eliminate all the algae in your tank? Because these nutrients are the result of the animals you keep.
So how do your animals "make" these nutrients? Well a large part the nutrients comes from pee (urea). Pee is very high in urea and ammonia, and these are a favorite food of algae and some bacteria. This is why your glass will always need cleaning; because the pee hits the glass before anything else, and algae on the glass consume the ammonia and urea immediately (using photosynthesis) and grow more. In the ocean and lakes, phytoplankton consume the ammonia and urea in open water, and seaweed consume it in shallow areas, but in a tank you don't have enough space or water volume for this, and, your other filters or animals often remove or kill the phytoplankton or seaweed anyway. So, the nutrients stay in your tank.
Then, the ammonia/ammonium hits your rocks, and the periphyton on the rocks consumes more ammonia and urea. Periphyton is both algae and animals, and is the reason your rocks change color after a few weeks from when they were new. Then the ammonia goes inside the rock, or hits your sand, and bacteria there convert it into nitrite and nitrate. However, the nutrients are still in your tank.
Also let's not forget phosphate, which comes from solid organic food particles. When these particles are eaten by microbes and clean up crews, the organic phosphorus in them is converted into phosphate. However, the nutrients are still in your tank.
So whenever you have algae or cyano "problems", you simply have not exported enough nutrients out of your tank compared to how much you have been feeding (note: live rock can absorb phosphate for up to a year, making it seem like there was never a problem. Then after a year, there is a problem).
So just increase your nutrient exports. You could also reduce feeding, and this has the same effect, but it's certainly not fun when you want to feed your animals
What do all algae (and cyano too) need to survive? Nutrients. What are nutrients? Ammonia/ammonium, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate and urea are the major ones. Which ones cause most of the algae in your tank? These same ones. Why can't you just remove these nutrients and eliminate all the algae in your tank? Because these nutrients are the result of the animals you keep.
So how do your animals "make" these nutrients? Well a large part the nutrients comes from pee (urea). Pee is very high in urea and ammonia, and these are a favorite food of algae and some bacteria. This is why your glass will always need cleaning; because the pee hits the glass before anything else, and algae on the glass consume the ammonia and urea immediately (using photosynthesis) and grow more. In the ocean and lakes, phytoplankton consume the ammonia and urea in open water, and seaweed consume it in shallow areas, but in a tank you don't have enough space or water volume for this, and, your other filters or animals often remove or kill the phytoplankton or seaweed anyway. So, the nutrients stay in your tank.
Then, the ammonia/ammonium hits your rocks, and the periphyton on the rocks consumes more ammonia and urea. Periphyton is both algae and animals, and is the reason your rocks change color after a few weeks from when they were new. Then the ammonia goes inside the rock, or hits your sand, and bacteria there convert it into nitrite and nitrate. However, the nutrients are still in your tank.
Also let's not forget phosphate, which comes from solid organic food particles. When these particles are eaten by microbes and clean up crews, the organic phosphorus in them is converted into phosphate. However, the nutrients are still in your tank.
So whenever you have algae or cyano "problems", you simply have not exported enough nutrients out of your tank compared to how much you have been feeding (note: live rock can absorb phosphate for up to a year, making it seem like there was never a problem. Then after a year, there is a problem).
So just increase your nutrient exports. You could also reduce feeding, and this has the same effect, but it's certainly not fun when you want to feed your animals
SantaMonica
Valuable Member
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