Need algae help!

[SaltyPaws]

I am officially the owner of a reef tank...woohoo! We moved everything in yesterday (bought the tank and everything in it second-hand). It went pretty smoothly, so far so good. I only kept three of the fish...two occelaris clowns, one of which is black with an orange nose, and a blue-green chromis. They all seem to get along really well, the chromis just hangs out with the clowns. I would like to get him some chromis friends in the future, though.

My main problem right now is algae. The tank came with zero clean up crew...I have a whole bunch of snails, etc. coming from LiveAquaria tomorrow. I tested for phosphates, and they are ridiculous, 2.0 ppm. In completing the move, roughly 50% of the water was changed, and we used NSW purchased from a reputable LFS. I am feeding very sparsely, since there are no scavengers in the tank yet. Why would the phosphate levels be so high? There is hair algae, some green bubble algae I noticed under a couple of rocks, even cyano. And this, too...I'm guessing it's algae, but what kind, I don't know.

<a href="http://s1069.photobucket.com/albums/u464/minkseh/?action=view&current=6f4fd70c.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1069.photobucket.com/albums/u464/minkseh/6f4fd70c.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket Pictures, Images and Photos" /></a>

Any help/advice would be much appreciated!

[SaltyPaws]

Just found out these are actually majano anemones, not algae like I was told. Soooo not looking forward to getting all of them out...they are in some tight spots. Annoying!

[SushiGirl]

The phosphates are probably leaching from the rock & I'm sure the substrate isn't helping any. The previous owner certainly wasn't taking care of the tank! I don't envy you the task of getting rid of all of those majanos!

I don't like clowns, but the black ones with the orange nose are the cutest I've ever seen!

Hopefully someone will be able to tell you good ways to get the phosphates down.

[SaltyPaws]

We actually started fresh with the substrate, thanks to the advice from other forum members here. If the guy knew these were majanos, it now makes sense why he was selling the system for so small a price! Anyhow, I don't regret it (yet, LOL!)...getting rid of the majanos will be worth the trouble, since I have been wanting to get into the hobby for so very long. I keep looking at the tank and thinking, "I can't believe this is really in my house!"

The clown is really, really cute!

I have some phosban on the way to me right now, I hope that will help out!

[SushiGirl]

I thought the subtrate look a liitle too clean LOL. Try the Phosban & good water changes. The guy was likely overfeeding a lot. He may have actually had no clue what the majanos were. There are unfortunately a LOT of people out there who know nothing about saltwater & don't pay attention to the little stuff. What were the other fish he had in there? That would be a huge clue to his "tank mentality." The fact that you only kept 3 is a good sign of yours!

[BigBarnacles]

Congrats on the aquarium! Expect that phosban to get used up pretty quick. It works fast but will get used up fast in the beginning. Phosban in a reactor dropped my po4 in a newly cycled tank from 0.11 to 0.06 in just a day or so. After a week the po4 was 0.08. I swapped out the phosban and it took the po4 down to 0.03 in just a few days, but began to rise again after a few weeks. This last time it brought the po4 down to 0.00 where it has since remained. Great stuff, works fast. You might need to order a little more soon. That cleanup crew will love the algae. My cleanup crew removed a massive post cycle diatom outbreak in just a few weeks. Now they're doing a good job of maintaining the aquarium. Like Sushi said, be aquarium minded. Researching before you make a decision may save you a ton of headaches in the future.

[SaltyPaws]

Sushigirl: Yes, he was definitely overfeeding...he had the 2 clowns, chromis and coral banded shrimp with a yellow tang, a squirrelfish, a pajama cardinal and a sally lightfoot crab and he fed 2 cubes of frozen food twice a day, plus some shrimp pellets and nori sheets. My LFS took the ones I didn't want.

BigBarnacles: Thank you, I am thrilled with it, regardless of current problems! :) I will plan on changing the phosban every week until things get under control. I hope to have a healthy and happy reef tank soon. I just added the clean up crew this afternoon...some of the snails have already started grazing. Looking forward to watching them do their thing.

[jerseygurl]

You serioulsy need to slap a GFO/carbon reactor on there ASAP, I bet those rocks are leaching phosphate (and other bad stuff) like mad. You can use a powerhead or a turkey baster to blow them off good. And if I were you I'd ditch the Chromi not get him buddies, he's only going to be a problem in the future.

[jerseygurl]

Oh, and if you can take the rock out of the tank you could sprinkle salt on the majano and they'll fall right off.

[SaltyPaws]

Thanks jerseygurl, I have a reactor on it's way to me as well, I am eager to get this problem under control! I thought chromis were pretty easygoing. Can you please tell me your experience with them? Thanks!

[SushiGirl]

Oh, and if you can take the rock out of the tank you could sprinkle salt on the majano and they'll fall right off.

That's a new one. I'll add that to the arsenal of advice for them LOL. Just regular table salt?