Algae Bloom, New Fish

[falesdk]

I cleaned the tank and the filters last night as I knew I would be getting a new fish today. I spent the night away from home, grabbed the new fish (whos been living in a quarantine at my friends place for 4 weeks) got home, and I've got an algae bloom.

Th ammonia and nitrite levels are 0 but the nitrate has gone up to 10.

The exsisting fish all seem to be doing just fine, swimming around and playing, the mollies appear to be in heaven eating algae off the sides of the tank.

Is it safe to add my new yellow tang or should drive him back over to his quarantine.

Hes been in a bag for 45 minutes, and if I left right now hed stay in the bag another 45 minutes, is more time in the bag riskier than acclimating him to the algae bloom?

[Chaotic Reefer4u]

good morning falesdk, i think he should be fine in the algae bloomed tank with the other fishies. most fish can tolerate higher nitrates. plus i think he'll love snacking on the algae also, so in my opinion there are no worries here...hope this helps...

[sir_dudeguy]

The algae wont harm the fish. In fact, depending on what type of algae it is, he may eat it. What type of algae is it? I think they eat hair algae.

But nitrates arent toxic to fish...at least not untill they're really really high, so imo no worries there. I've got algae in my tnak and i've introduced 4 fish so far and none of them had any problems whatsoever.

Also, i'm thinking that the nitrates are the cause of the algae. Trates are a good nutrient to support the algae, so if you've got them and/or phosphates, you're helping the algae out.

But ya..the tang will be fine with the water how it is. The amonia and nitrite are 0...those are the main thngs.

Just make sure the rest of the stuff is good, like pH, and sg and temp.

[falesdk]

Well by algae bloom I meant cloudy water...and a thin layer of brown sludge on the glass. When I walked in and I couldnt see into the tank I looked around a bit online and found several pages that said that changing my filters out yesterday likely messed with the biological filtration which is what caused the algae bloom.

PH is at 8.2 right now, temp and sg are unchanged.

I did a ten gallon water change, which cleared it a little, and it seems like its clearing rather quickly just with time and adjusting water flow for more oxygen.

Thanks a lot, I will start acclimating, it just woulda been really scary putting a new fish in a cloudy tank without knowing if it would hurt him :)

[sir_dudeguy]

throw some carbon in your filter. Is it a canister? The carbon should help clear up the water a little bit.

also, do you have live rock? just curious :)

[falesdk]

Yeah I've got about 80 lbs in there, but about 40 of it is 2 month old diy rock, so its not all that alive yet.

And I'm still working with an emperor 400 currently. I'll be able to upgrade to a sump with a refugium within the month though so that'll be a godsend.

[sir_dudeguy]

ok i was wondering about the rock because if you've got enough of it, then i'd get rid of the other filter. or at least run it w/out media.

[falesdk]

Yeah... I was thinking about that.

Its not in the budget this month, but after a sump I'm probably going to double the amount of live rock, just because I like the look of it.