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Algae growing while cycling tank


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  • SRC Member

Hi, my tank has been cycling for 3 weeks now. The Ammonia, Nitrite have gone down to 0' and the Nitrate is increasing. But there's a lot of algae on the rocks and sand. Why is this so? When I cycled my old tank, the algae growth wasn't this bad. What can I do about it?

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  • SRC Member

Every tank is different in a way or the other :thumbsup: Don't worry much about it.

As of what you can do , more water frequent water change and less light time . since cycling don't really need much light or any light at all.

Happy reefing.

Cheers

p.s any one more experienced than me can feel free to correct me :thumbsup: A-lot for me to learn still

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Theres also other factors that contribute to algae growth.

1. Since now ur tank is empty, there is nothing to out compete the algae

2. Lights effectively attribute mostly to algae growth

3. High TDS water also helps with algae growth

4. Phosphate may be leaching from your live rocks

If u are not intending to stock ur tank with corals yet, u can try "blackout" the tank first. Or put in some cheato / macroalgae to outcompete the algae.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

 

I Love Stagsss

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Oh. That's great info. I've actually got 2 chromis in it as tester fish. But I have a feeling is the long light hours now that you mention it. I'll definitely do a water change too as well since my cycle is ending soon.

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  • SRC Member

I started my hobby 2 months back and encountering the same symptom as yours (new-tank syndrome). For mine, it is the brown algae (diatoms) that covers my sand bed and rocks. It is very un-sight to see my white 4ft tank turns brown.

To remove those brown algae on my rocks, I find these Trochus Snail (trochus sp.) very useful. I got 3 yesterday for my 4ft and this morning, the 3 rocks where I placed them on looks 50% cleaned up!

I did water changes a few weeks back, ran bio-pellets and reducing my lights to 5 hrs per day (due to my LPS corals), the brow algae seems to slowing down.

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Ok cool. Ya my tank is up and running now. Starting to put in fishes but the algae is still there. So I bought 4 turbo snails which really worked magic. The only thing now is my tank gets the morning sun light, so it encourages the algae growth =(

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Had similar issues too and gotten the snails to solve my issue. Amazed by their cleaning . haha.

Does your sandbed has brown algae too? I am seeing slow growth but still trying to find a way to retain the white sandbed.

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  • 2 weeks later...

hi bros,

Yup, Turbo snails work wonders! I having some dinoflagellates which the snails are also helping to clean up!

I was recommended by ah beng to get a sea hare, but the sea hare he's trying to sell me is kinda big for my tank, so just stick with the snails for now.

:)

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hi bros,

Yup, Turbo snails work wonders! I having some dinoflagellates which the snails are also helping to clean up!

I was recommended by ah beng to get a sea hare, but the sea hare he's trying to sell me is kinda big for my tank, so just stick with the snails for now.

:)

I second that.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Get algae blenny will eat these brown algae aka diatom algae

Current Tank(s) :

2 x 1 x 1 mixed reef tank

What in my mind now (future tanks)

4 x 2.5 x 1.5 low profile coral tank

3 x 2.5 x 1.5 low profile reef tank

Decommissioned Tanks :

2 ft seahorse tank back in the 1990s'

2.5 ft cube mixed reef tank in 2007 to 2008

JBJ 28g Tank . Maxspect G1 110W + 12W DIY LED . Tunze 9002 Skimmer . Vortech MP10w ES . SPS only Tank . Picasso Clown Fish (2009 to 2011)

2 x 1 x 1 puffer-fishes, box-fishes & Frog-fish tank (2015)

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  • 2 months later...

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