I was looking at some of the pics posted to this site and the tanks look pristine compared to mine. I've had my 50 Gal saltwater tank set up for about a year now, and every few days I'm cleaning the sides of the tank to get rid of the green algae that forms. There's also a bit of pretty dark colored (almost black) algae that is on top of the sand and is covering the tank decorations. Sometimes I pick out some of that gunk if I can...I tried to vacuum it out with something I bought from Petco, which was supposed to churn up the sand and vacuum out the leftover food, etc, while leaving the sand on the bottom...mine didn't work. I have a Rena P2 Canister Filter, but no protein skimmer. My tank is situated pretty close to our back door (a no-no, I know) but we have blinds on that door that are almost always closed, so it only gets some daylight on it. My question is, is there something I need to add to the tank to keep it cleaner and is this amount of algae normal? Thanks in advance!
How much algae is too much?
- Thread starter AnimalBabe
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Personally I think a 50g tank should have a skimmer unless you are extremely dilligent in water changes, have a really light bioload, loads of live rock and and active sand bed and are running a fuge with cheato or other macro algae. But then again just my .02 worth.
Also, you may want to elaborate and tell us your lighting situation, some pc lights are not the correct spectrum and can lead to algae blooms. Also, you are running a canister filter which in saltwater can also become a nitrate trap and encourage algae also. Here is my advice for what it is worth: Please also provide us more info such as parameters, inhabitants etc.
Get rid of the canister filter and add a couple of powerheads such as a couple of maxijets or a couple of Koralia 2's. Check the lighting and maybe if you have no corals etc try running without lights for a few days. Do a couple of large water changes 20% each over the next few days to reduce your nitrates using RO/DI water if possible. Lastly think about getting a quality skimmer as suggested in your previous post. This may all help reduce the situation.....also if your tank is fairly young some algae is not uncommon.
Also, you may want to elaborate and tell us your lighting situation, some pc lights are not the correct spectrum and can lead to algae blooms. Also, you are running a canister filter which in saltwater can also become a nitrate trap and encourage algae also. Here is my advice for what it is worth: Please also provide us more info such as parameters, inhabitants etc.
Get rid of the canister filter and add a couple of powerheads such as a couple of maxijets or a couple of Koralia 2's. Check the lighting and maybe if you have no corals etc try running without lights for a few days. Do a couple of large water changes 20% each over the next few days to reduce your nitrates using RO/DI water if possible. Lastly think about getting a quality skimmer as suggested in your previous post. This may all help reduce the situation.....also if your tank is fairly young some algae is not uncommon.
Ok, to try to answer your questions:
1. I am using tap water and use Stress coat tap water conditioner when I do water changes. I actually haven't heard of RO/DI water, though I just did a few searches on that and it sounds pretty good. Is that expensive and where do you buy it? By the way, how often do you guys do water changes?
2. I do keep the light on most of the time, so it might help if I turned if off more. I had read that it's good to keep the lighting natural for the fish...on during the day and turn it off around the same time each night. Tank seems pretty dark when the light isn't on. The light I have is called Eclipse Natural Daylight. Not sure if that helps.
2 stock for my 50 Gal tank: clownfish, 1 damsel, no cleaner crew (what do you recommend?), and the decorations are just a few plastic plants and 2 colosseums, one bigger than the other, and of course live sand. I don't have any live rock though it seems like that might be really beneficial for my tank...correct? I don't know much about live rock, but I've read other postings by people wondering why there's strange creatures and such in their tank after getting some. Is it harder to care for a saltwater tank when adding live rock and is it really good to have? I ask because I'm pretty new to all this and want to be prepared before changing my tank set-up.
4. My canister filter isn't good? I got that along with the tank from a family member that used to work in a petshop so I expected that it would work pretty well. Powerheads are a lot better?
Thanks again for all your help. I'm learning a lot from this site...you all are so knowledgeable!
1. I am using tap water and use Stress coat tap water conditioner when I do water changes. I actually haven't heard of RO/DI water, though I just did a few searches on that and it sounds pretty good. Is that expensive and where do you buy it? By the way, how often do you guys do water changes?
2. I do keep the light on most of the time, so it might help if I turned if off more. I had read that it's good to keep the lighting natural for the fish...on during the day and turn it off around the same time each night. Tank seems pretty dark when the light isn't on. The light I have is called Eclipse Natural Daylight. Not sure if that helps.
2 stock for my 50 Gal tank: clownfish, 1 damsel, no cleaner crew (what do you recommend?), and the decorations are just a few plastic plants and 2 colosseums, one bigger than the other, and of course live sand. I don't have any live rock though it seems like that might be really beneficial for my tank...correct? I don't know much about live rock, but I've read other postings by people wondering why there's strange creatures and such in their tank after getting some. Is it harder to care for a saltwater tank when adding live rock and is it really good to have? I ask because I'm pretty new to all this and want to be prepared before changing my tank set-up.
4. My canister filter isn't good? I got that along with the tank from a family member that used to work in a petshop so I expected that it would work pretty well. Powerheads are a lot better?
Thanks again for all your help. I'm learning a lot from this site...you all are so knowledgeable!
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well first off you absolutly need live rock to have a successful salt tank! you dont need to get all "live" rock since it can be expensive you can get some dry base rock and then add a few good quality pieces of the live stuff to seed the rest and within a matter of months you wont be able to tell the differance 
as long as your using tap water youll always have problems with algae... i used to use the ro/di water from the grocery store that they sell out of the machine that fills your own containers, you wanna use this water for all water changes/top offs... after making the switch it took about 1 month before all the algae cleared up...i try to do my water changes bi weekly but at bare minimum id say once a month.... id ditch the "decorations" and just go with the live rock btw live rock works as biological filtration start by reading this http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/saltwater-general-discussion/28755-live-rock-foundation-healthy-marine-aquarium.html
HTH!
as long as your using tap water youll always have problems with algae... i used to use the ro/di water from the grocery store that they sell out of the machine that fills your own containers, you wanna use this water for all water changes/top offs... after making the switch it took about 1 month before all the algae cleared up...i try to do my water changes bi weekly but at bare minimum id say once a month.... id ditch the "decorations" and just go with the live rock btw live rock works as biological filtration start by reading this http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/saltwater-general-discussion/28755-live-rock-foundation-healthy-marine-aquarium.htmlHTH!
Thanks TRe for your thoughts. I read over the sticky on Live Rock. Sounds like a good idea, but it seems like its main benefit is for biological filtration, and the canister filter I've been using has been doing an awesome job so far. I've had it running for over a year and I've never had any issues with high nitrites or nitrates when doing the tests. Not sure if I should mess with something that seems ok so far. I'm definitely gonna try switching to RO/DI water and see if that helps clear up the algae issue. Btw, how much live rock do you recommend getting for a 50 Gal tank? Just curious.