So I'm running a 200 gallon tall acrylic tank. I recently added 2 ecotech xr30pros on top of my current LED lighting. Now I've got a bad algae bloom going on and need advice on how to combat it. No reef in the tank other than a couple RBTAs. I do have a twin spot wrasse that likes a to pick at/eat my inverts... I just added 24 small snails. I already had about 8 or 10 medium/large snails. I also have an abalone, a Halloween urchin and a white spiny urchin but they're not keeping up. Just wondering if there were other safe/non-chemical solutions. Oh and my mag scrapper doesn't work so great due to the thickness of my acrylic... any advice is greatly welcomed. TIA
Algae bloom!
- Thread starter Vette4life04
- Start date
Did you use dry rock for the tank? I wouldn't freak out about the algae bloom even though it's unsightly, but it could simply be your rock and sand releasing nutrients. Part of the maturation process of a tank. Turbo snails and large water changes did the trick for me when my tank went through this phase. Before you add any media such as GFO do you know where your nitrates and Phosphates are at?
Well the good thing is you don't have any corals except the RBTAs. Even still don't do anything drastic. Check your Nitrate and phosphate levels before treating. For now, you can put your tank in complete darkness for a couple of days or at least lights off with minimal sunlight. The RBTAs will get p!ssed off but will survive the blackout. Reduce the flow in the tank just in case they do decide to detach as well as minimizing the algae die off from going all over the place. After a couple of days manually pull out what you can and do a large water change. Or you can try ReefHD Reef Flux which has fluconazole in it. There are lots of threads about fluconazole being reef safe and eradicating algae. I've never tried it before though
Is it hair algae or bryopsis? If so check out my thread on how got rid of my algae problems. Hair Algae removal
Well just wanted to give an update... I got most of the algae off a couple weeks ago with a magic eraser. It took some serious effort to scrape off (broke a sweat). I also added about 24 small snails to the tank. But not that it's off the snails seem to be able to keep up with the regrowth. I also took off the xr30pro's that I had added... (i was just testing them out) so for now the algae seems to be under control. It's cool to watch at night when all the snails come out to feed and there's about 15-20 of them on the front glass just devouring everything in sight.
