General Question regard algea

[Anthony]

I have had my saltwater fish take for about 3 and a half years. It is a 29 gallon, and I currently have a Med/Lrg maroon clown in it. I have a powerjet, and 70gallon filter, and a 100w heater. I have a overhead light as well (not sure on the exact wattage of it atm) Inside the tank i have a fixture that is a pipe broken in half that my fish likes to hide in, as well as about 6 or so pounds of live rock.

my question is this, ever sense I got the light, i have been growing algea on my live rock, which is great!! but over the last few months, i've had a large buildup of brown algea (I think) on all sides of the glass and on the fake pipe fixture. The algea on the rocks and fixture protrude probably 2 inches or so off the rocks. so its long and wavy. I know that some algea is healthy and natural. I'm just wondering if I have too much and if so, what I should do to fix the problem. Its bad enough that I have to completely clean the glass about every week because you can't see into it.

Any help would be very much appreciated. And thank you in advance!! I will try to get pictures of my tank up soon so yall can see what I'm talking about more clearly. Thanks!!!

-Anthony

 

[Lorna]

Do you have a clean up crew, such as snails or other inverts? Your problem may be related to the spectrum of the light you recently added. If you could give us more information it would be helpful along with your water parameters, especially phosphates and nitrates as both of these contribute to algae growth. Also what is your feeding regimen and any other pertinent information.....pics would help also

 

[Anthony]

i do not have a clean up crew currently. i will try to get more information on the light source that I added. As for feeding, i have an automatic feeder that despenses once a day while i'm away for work. I will try to get pictures up asap. as well as my nitrate and phosphate levels. Thank you for the help offer

 

[TRe]

pics would help identify, a cleanup crew is absolutly nessacery (and fun to watch) and like lorna said nitrates and phosphate are usually the cause....u can also try to cut back on feeding and the lighting schedule aswell as increase the flow

 

[Anthony]

what would a good time frame be for lighting??

i know that i'm probably doing it too much. its on from about 7 am to 8-9 pm. the levels i will try to get asap, and the first thing i'm going to do when i get home is get a cleaner shrimp again to start helping out with cleanup. i will reduce the amount of food i feed, but my feeder doesn't have a "skip days" feature. its everyday at the same time. pics will come soon as well. thank you guys so much for the help!
also, would adding more live rock reduce or increase the amount of algea??

 

[TRe]

well more rock would definitly help with filtration puposes.... a cleaner shrimp wont do anything for your algae problem, what u need is a good mix of snail/crabs (personally i have an all snail cleanup crew)
btw i wouldnt run the light more than 10 hrs

 

[Anthony]

snails or crabs huh? do you have any personal favorites or suggestions??

i was recomended this: "a coral banded shrimp. a hermit crab/emerald crab, and two medium
turbo snails. This is a great clean-up"

 

[Lotus]

I'd recommend nassarius, cerith and astrea snails. Maybe about 10 to 15 snails in total. A lot of people recommend one snail per gallon, but I prefer about half of that.

If you haven't changed your bulbs in two years, that could also be adding to the algae problem. Depending on the type of bulb, most need to be changed every six months or so.

Also, how often are you doing water changes, and what percentage?

 

[Anthony]

well the light is only 2 months old. water changes are every week, 10%

 

[TRe]

i prefer an all snail cleanup crew with a good variety of snails like 10-15 total howevr if its not a reef tank i say get like 5-10 blue leg hermits and an emerald crab too i dont like crabs in my reef cause they dont respect my corals

 

[Anthony]

ya, well i plan on have a lot of live rock, i'm just growing it slowly sense its kinda expensive. so i think that snails are prol best. are crabs generally not respectful to coral?? and are shrimp not that good in a cleanup crew?