How bad is algae in your ESTABLISHED tank? Share full tank pics!

[stewy14]

I am trying to see if I have a normal amount of algae(pics to come) or a algae problem in which I should dedicate a full day to scrubbing the rocks and sand
So share pics!

 

[Cichlid Dad]

I would be cleaning algae if it is more than your clean up crew can handle. If it's the tank in your tank thread, shouldn't take longer than an hour with a tooth brush. I can do my tank, sump and 30 gallon water change in 3 hours.

 

[bakbay]

I just need to clean the glass every/other day — no other known algae on rocks, except coraline. Once your tank matures, it’s really low maintenance! My 4yo SPS tank is super easy…just clean the glass and skimmer. No joke.

 

[Paul B]

I have quite a bit now after removing massive amounts of invasive sponge.

It has been growing for almost a year and is finally dying but not very fast. When it leaves my snails, crabs, tangs and a few others will be very disappointed.

 

[UtahReefer]

Pretty much non existent because I carbon dose. A film forms on the glass about every three days so that's when I clean it.

 

[Hats_]

Rarely any algae on my 3 year old mixed reef. Only the glass cleaning every other day or so, allthough during the summer i see some patches of black cyano and bubble algae appears every now and then on the back wall since my mithrax cant get to it there

 

[Reefer Matt]

This is 5 1/2 years old. I get a lot of coraline. Hair algae will grow if my cuc dwindles, so I keep the snail and urchin populations up.

 

[jaypladook]

I just turned my sump into a habitable area for more corals. Installed a new K7 light with SPS mode, within a week there were algae everywhere.

So decided to add two small size tangs. And all the algae is gone now This may solve your algae issue.

 

[exnisstech]

I recently broke down a tank after 8 years. Had some gha early on but the last few years I just cleaned the glass. I had 5 tangs.

One tank 285g total 7 months old dry rock bare bottom but a sump full of old live rock in a cryptic zone. I clean glass more than I like but never have to worry about cleaning the rock. I have 8 tangs.

Tank two 65g total 19 months old . Started dry rock barebottom with live rock rubble in the sump. As above I clean glass. Two tangs in the tank.

Tank three 35ish g total was running fine for a few years then I decided to rescape and used dry rock. Been battling gha for 15 months now. Tank is too small for tangs I'll never set up another tank too small for an herbivore fish or two.
This from my last 4g WC. All vacuumed of the back wall.

 

[PotatoPig]

Pretty much none other than Coraline.

I ended up with a couple of stomatella snails from coral frags a few months back, and they reproduced, and now I have literally hundreds of them in my 75g tank. After lights out yesterday I counted the snails on the front glass - 35, eyeballing about the same density on the sides and rear - so ~100 of the little things working on glass alone and I’m sure many more on the rocks. I don’t even get film algae on the glass - just have to scrape for coraline.

The downside is they starved out other parts of my clean up crew - my conches both keeled over and I’m pretty sure due to competition for food.

Once every few months a little finger nail sized tuft of hair algae crops up somewhere, that one established they seem to be leery of, so if they don’t mow it back down (50:50 they do) I’ll give it a few weeks and then manually remove.

 

[stewy14]

I just turned my sump into a habitable area for more corals. Installed a new K7 light with SPS mode, within a week there were algae everywhere.

So decided to add two small size tangs. And all the algae is gone now This may solve your algae issue.

I have the same problem!! but my algae is just green colored, no hair, its just there, on the rocks, and diatoms, bunch of diatoms, I figured it out last night, its coming from where my fish hosts, and where is bathroom is, I found a mound of poop

 

[Paul B]

This was the worse algae I ever had. It's about 25 years ago. I didn't do anything and it just died off leaving the tank healthier than it ever has been.

 

[Glowurm]

This was the worse algae I ever had. It's about 25 years ago. I didn't do anything and it just died off leaving the tank healthier than it ever has been.

Lol love the bottle!!

 

[vlangel]

I get film algae on my glass that needs cleaned 2Xs a week but very little more than that. I do have to prune my ornamental macroalgae monthly. I have nassarius and bee snails and a cucumber to keep the sand bed stirred.

 

[Lunasea_5]

I recently broke down a tank after 8 years. Had some gha early on but the last few years I just cleaned the glass. I had 5 tangs.

One tank 285g total 7 months old dry rock bare bottom but a sump full of old live rock in a cryptic zone. I clean glass more than I like but never have to worry about cleaning the rock. I have 8 tangs.

Tank two 65g total 19 months old . Started dry rock barebottom with live rock rubble in the sump. As above I clean glass. Two tangs in the tank.

Tank three 35ish g total was running fine for a few years then I decided to rescape and used dry rock. Been battling gha for 15 months now. Tank is too small for tangs I'll never set up another tank too small for an herbivore fish or two.
This from my last 4g WC. All vacuumed of the back wall.

What specific tangs do you have in your 65g?

 

[exnisstech]

What specific tangs do you have in your 65g?

I have a yellow and a two spot bristletooth. I wouldn't recommend tangs in a 36x24x24 tank but these two get along great. No nervous swimming and zero aggresion between them. Only other fish is a six line. I'm also able to move them out if I start to see signs of them being stressed.

 

[hsp]

This is 5 1/2 years old. I get a lot of coraline. Hair algae will grow if my cuc dwindles, so I keep the snail and urchin populations up.

How many urchins per 100 gallons (or 300 litres) do you have? And how many snails?

 

[Reefer Matt]

How many urchins per 100 gallons (or 300 litres) do you have? And how many snails?

I have four pincushion urchins and about 60 astrea snails in my 75 gallon tank.

 

[Joe.D]

I have on Tuxedo Urchin in my 75g display. He pretty much decimated my GHA in a week or so - most of my coraline too. Handy part of my CUC. My whitetail Tang and One Spot Foxface never really touched the GHA.