Problem with algae

[peter1182]

I have 29 gallon jbj nano cube 105 watts its been runing about 6 weeks i have about 18 pound of live rock and sand and my ph 8.3 alk 2.9 no2 o no3 2.5 nh3 0 cal 400 i have 2 clown fish 4 torbo snail 2 hermit crab 1 xenia 1 frog spawn im having a big problem with green algae i live the lights on about 7 to 9 hours a day could i use a tooth brush to scrape the algae off the rock ? Oh and one more question can i super glue my corals to the rocks ? And what glue should i use ?

[jpruitt]

Sound like your tank is finishing it's cycle. Buffer your all up to between 8 and 12. Being that low I'm surprised your corals are not dying.

[vaporlockv2]

There are a couple of things that can help with the algae. There could be a lot of nutrients in your water, use ro/di of you aren't already. There could be nutrients in the water from the food you use. Feed less or change to a different type. You can try a lawnmower blenny or an emerald crab. Those aren't a guarantee though. Yes you can glue to a rock and you can use regular plain old super glue. Get the gel kind it's easier to work with.

[bekindtoyurbuds]

Come on guys! we need a little more info before we can say anything about the water test values that he has given.

As far as your tests go, what unit of messurement are you using, are the values you have given measurred in ppm, DKH or meq/L? (looking on the test card that comes with the test kit should tell you)

Either way if you are meassuring in dkh or meq/L it looks like your tank has finished cycling.

As for your alk test, if your measurement units are in meq/L, 2.9 would be right about where you would want it to be. If the measurments values given are in DKH, 2.9 would be very low.

If you were to convert 2.9 meq/L to DKH, your alk would be around 8.12 Dkh

As for the algae you have on your rock, THIS IS NORMAL. It is what normally happends in a newly set up tank, when you first add rocks to your tank you will normally get a brown algae, which is then followed by the green algae (what you have) and sometimes you a small outbreak of cyano which is a red algae.

The green algae is good, and you do not need (or want) to remove or scrub this off of the rocks. The green algae that you have is sort of like a base for all of the corralline (nice pink algae) to build on, Once again the green is a good algae and nothing to worry about.

Hope this helps, if you have anymore questions feel free to ask.

[captstinky]

+1 let it ride.

If you get hair algae you can back off you light cycle an hour or two, until the good algae establishes.

Your tank is young, be patient. nothing good happens fast in this hobby

[ihavtats29]

good answer bekind

i have a 10 gal same thing
get a small piece of rock with some coraline algae on it and agitate it with a tooth brush every few days to get it to spread around , ive found it grows faster under lower lighting mostly when antinics are running but will take time, the green will eventualy go away

[scuba guy ron]

+1 on the tank finishing its cycle. If you aren't making your own water I would be testing it just as I test my tank perams.your cleenup crew should eventually take care of the algae. I would suggest not adding anymore animals until your cycle is complete and yor tests show stabelized readings.

[daniel89]

Okay dude this is like the 3rd or 4th time ive seen you post this same problem...

The green algea is normal it will go away and as it goes alway your coraline algea will start to grow if not grow over it. Use regular super glue gel from dollar general. In order for it to work it has to be applied out of the water or else it wont stick. I tried putting it on the bottom of a frag disk out of the water and stuck it into the water to glue it to a rock and it didn't work it just became a mushy non-adhesive substance.

[ihavtats29]

thats because you need to use a small amount of epoxy with the glue, make a small ball of the mixed epoxy make a indention for the coral and aply glue in the indention and insert the coral into it on the opposite side make another indention apply glue and mount where you want it to be, make epoxy form to the shape of the rock, you may have to hold in place for a minute or 2 but it will stay