Brown , Hair , Purple algae in my tank

[Nagra92]

Hello guys, i am new in Reef world , my tank is now 3 months Old , and i have this 3 different alagae in my tank
Now it is 80 gallaon tank
Now can any body guide me how to get rid of this alage ? Is there any Fish ? Or snails ? Or crab which can clear it or i have to do my self ? Or it will decay with time
This green & brown alage i dont want
I am ok with purple alagae !



Also i guide me any cleaning crew but make sure that will never hurt my Corals in future

also when i can introduce soft corals in my tank ? Please guide

 

[Snackums]

Pull out what you can get to manually, then time to unleash the snail squad. I recommend Mexican turbo snails or zebra turbo snails. They are bulldozers which will knock over any corals which aren’t secured or glued but they are quick and chow down like pigs. I highly recommend those guys or smaller snails if you need them to get in tighter spots but I’m not a big proponent of hermit crabs. Hermits don’t do a whole lot for algae mainly just eat detritus slowly, oh and can be known to bully your snails for shells. That’s what has worked for me in one of my earlier tanks plagued with GHA and I have run a crew of them in every tank since and (knock on wood) stayed hair algae free. For the brown algae, aka diatoms, time and a magnetic glass scraper will be your best weapon there. Your tank is going through the “ugly tank” phase which is a totally normal algae cycle for newer tanks. The snails will help keep that minimized as well and as the tank matures and coralline algae starts growing (the good purple stuff) the brown algae will go away. Best thing to do is not freak out and let nature do nature, a lot of people make knee jerk fixes to remedy the “algae problem” that is gonna happen anyways and end up either changing too much too quick and shocking their system (then bad stuff happens) or they way over correct a small excess nutrient issue and drive nitrate and phosphate values to zero thinking that will starve out the algae and fix the issue (spoiler alert: that also starves out your coral and causes bad things to happen to them in most cases, or you run nutrients all the way down then poof you have the awesome new issue of dinos...which is worse than where you started). Hope this helps some.

 

[Snackums]

Fish that will help you is any small rabbit fish, like a fox face, or a small yellow tang. Those guys spend their whole day swimming around and pecking at your rocks eating any shred of algae they can. I would avoid adding an emerald crab since they get bored after a while and decide they are gonna eat your LPS coral in one sitting. Generally things with claws will eventually shred something you don’t want them to.

Also if the tank has been running for three months and you are already growing the coralline algae (purple stuff) then your tank is for sure ready for soft corals. Send it!

 

[PTXReef]

Pull out what you can get to manually, then time to unleash the snail squad. I recommend Mexican turbo snails or zebra turbo snails. They are bulldozers which will knock over any corals which aren’t secured or glued but they are quick and chow down like pigs. I highly recommend those guys or smaller snails if you need them to get in tighter spots but I’m not a big proponent of hermit crabs. Hermits don’t do a whole lot for algae mainly just eat detritus slowly, oh and can be known to bully your snails for shells. That’s what has worked for me in one of my earlier tanks plagued with GHA and I have run a crew of them in every tank since and (knock on wood) stayed hair algae free. For the brown algae, aka diatoms, time and a magnetic glass scraper will be your best weapon there. Your tank is going through the “ugly tank” phase which is a totally normal algae cycle for newer tanks. The snails will help keep that minimized as well and as the tank matures and coralline algae starts growing (the good purple stuff) the brown algae will go away. Best thing to do is not freak out and let nature do nature, a lot of people make knee jerk fixes to remedy the “algae problem” that is gonna happen anyways and end up either changing too much too quick and shocking their system (then bad stuff happens) or they way over correct a small excess nutrient issue and drive nitrate and phosphate values to zero thinking that will starve out the algae and fix the issue (spoiler alert: that also starves out your coral and causes bad things to happen to them in most cases, or you run nutrients all the way down then poof you have the awesome new issue of dinos...which is worse than where you started). Hope this helps some.

Fish that will help you is any small rabbit fish, like a fox face, or a small yellow tang. Those guys spend their whole day swimming around and pecking at your rocks eating any shred of algae they can. I would avoid adding an emerald crab since they get bored after a while and decide they are gonna eat your LPS coral in one sitting. Generally things with claws will eventually shred something you don’t want them to.

Also if the tank has been running for three months and you are already growing the coralline algae (purple stuff) then your tank is for sure ready for soft corals. Send it!

Great advice! Doing less is more. How often are you doing water changes and what is your lighting schedule?

 

[Katrina71]

Clean up crew diversity is a plus. Vary your snails and I always mix red leg and blue leg hermits. Just curious if you are using rodi water or just ro?

 

[Nagra92]

Pull out what you can get to manually, then time to unleash the snail squad. I recommend Mexican turbo snails or zebra turbo snails. They are bulldozers which will knock over any corals which aren’t secured or glued but they are quick and chow down like pigs. I highly recommend those guys or smaller snails if you need them to get in tighter spots but I’m not a big proponent of hermit crabs. Hermits don’t do a whole lot for algae mainly just eat detritus slowly, oh and can be known to bully your snails for shells. That’s what has worked for me in one of my earlier tanks plagued with GHA and I have run a crew of them in every tank since and (knock on wood) stayed hair algae free. For the brown algae, aka diatoms, time and a magnetic glass scraper will be your best weapon there. Your tank is going through the “ugly tank” phase which is a totally normal algae cycle for newer tanks. The snails will help keep that minimized as well and as the tank matures and coralline algae starts growing (the good purple stuff) the brown algae will go away. Best thing to do is not freak out and let nature do nature, a lot of people make knee jerk fixes to remedy the “algae problem” that is gonna happen anyways and end up either changing too much too quick and shocking their system (then bad stuff happens) or they way over correct a small excess nutrient issue and drive nitrate and phosphate values to zero thinking that will starve out the algae and fix the issue (spoiler alert: that also starves out your coral and causes bad things to happen to them in most cases, or you run nutrients all the way down then poof you have the awesome new issue of dinos...which is worse than where you started). Hope this helps some.

Thankyou so much you reply helped me alot

 

[Nagra92]

Great advice! Doing less is more. How often are you doing water changes and what is your lighting schedule?

It’s new tank 3 months old every month 20% because i thought it is in cycle process
Also light 9 hours a day
1 hour blue & 8 hours white + blue

 

[Nagra92]

Clean up crew diversity is a plus. Vary your snails and I always mix red leg and blue leg hermits. Just curious if you are using rodi water or just ro?

Normal tap water but i live in middle east here water quality is good in tap

 

[Cabinetman]

Do you have a refugium? Nothing takes care of algae like one...with strong grow lights. I just set up a 560 gallon and went crazy on refugium size and lights and I’m not seeing hardly any algae growth in my display. And I won’t either. I’m using a 55 gallon barrel with 180 watts of led grow light. And that’s just the primary spot. I’ve also got a big area in my sump with 150 watts of LEDs growing it. Algae is going to grow no matter what. I find it’s best to encourage it to grow somewhere else other than my display lol. You’ll have a more stable tank with a refugium as well and Nothing purifies water better than algae!

 

[Sleeping Giant]

10 Turbo snails, 1 tuxedo urchin, 2 emerald crabs, 10 hermit crabs, 2 nasarrius snails

 

[Katrina71]

Normal tap water but i live in middle east here water quality is good in tap

You might want to talk to @fabutahoun about your water. Extremely nice gentleman in your neck of the woods.

 

[Nagra92]

Do you have a refugium? Nothing takes care of algae like one...with strong grow lights. I just set up a 560 gallon and went crazy on refugium size and lights and I’m not seeing hardly any algae growth in my display. And I won’t either. I’m using a 55 gallon barrel with 180 watts of led grow light. And that’s just the primary spot. I’ve also got a big area in my sump with 150 watts of LEDs growing it. Algae is going to grow no matter what. I find it’s best to encourage it to grow somewhere else other than my display lol. You’ll have a more stable tank with a refugium as well and Nothing purifies water better than algae!

I have 80 gallon Oval Aquriam ,
And i am using Viparspectra in main tank 165 Watt
Right now i am using BLUE ON 20%
and White on 30%
Should i increase blue or white ? Or both ? What you suggest

 

[Cabinetman]

I have 80 gallon Oval Aquriam ,
And i am using Viparspectra in main tank 165 Watt
Right now i am using BLUE ON 20%
and White on 30%
Should i increase blue or white ? Or both ? What you suggest

The thing is if you don’t have a refugium your light schedule in the display won’t matter or the intensity. If there’s nutrients in your water Algae will grow under almost any lighting. If you don’t have a sump look into a hang on fuge and make sure to use good strong lights on it. It won’t take long to starve out the algae in your display.

 

[Nagra92]

The thing is if you don’t have a refugium your light schedule in the display won’t matter or the intensity. If there’s nutrients in your water Algae will grow under almost any lighting. If you don’t have a sump look into a hang on fuge and make sure to use good strong lights on it. It won’t take long to starve out the algae in your display.

This one is eating my purple algae should i take this out or let it in ?

 

[fabutahoun]

Normal tap water but i live in middle east here water quality is good in tap

Welcome to Reef2Reef. I am Fadi and I am located in Riyadh.

Normal tap water is bad here in Saudi Arabia. test it for Nitrate and Phosphate and see your self. you will need an RO filter. RO/DI is even better but it's hard to find DI locally.

 

[Nagra92]

Welcome to Reef2Reef. I am Fadi and I am located in Riyadh.

Normal tap water is bad here in Saudi Arabia. test it for Nitrate and Phosphate and see your self. you will need an RO filter. RO/DI is even better but it's hard to find DI locally.

Ok i will look for RO Filter i live in dammam there is no REEF SHOP here
Well in mean while for top up can i use The normal drinking water n also i heard there is one seachem product can i also use it while adding a top up water ?

 

[Nagra92]

Ok i will look for RO Filter i live in dammam there is no REEF SHOP here
Well in mean while for top up can i use The normal drinking water n also i heard there is one seachem product can i also use it while adding a top up water ?

 

[BrightReef]

I wouldn't use normal tap water, get an RO/DI system as soon as you can. I'd get a solid clean up crew in place and give it some time.

 

[BanjoMan87]

If it starts getting alot worse you could try a 3 day blackout. About a year ago mine got to a point where it even started blanketing the back glass and the snails couldnt keep up. I covered the glass with no lights for 72 hrs and havent had a problem since. I tried this before resorting to additives or stripping nutrients and luckily it worked.