Last week I did a routine 20% water change in my 55 gallon tank, which contains a Blue Jaw Trigger (about 3 inches) and a Niger Trigger (about 2 inches). Over the past few days since then, all the algae in the tank has died off (it's unwanted hair/micro algae and hence unwanted). Also the water has turned cloudy. The fish seem to be behaving normally, but I am slightly concered that the algae die off could be a sign of some trouble to come. Anyone know anything about this? The tank has been up about 6 months and until now everything has been normal. Decorations include dried coral and rocks. No live rocks or anything like that. Filtration is provided by an Emperor 400 (400 gph) with an additional 100 gph of water movement provided by a powerhead. Temp has been constant at 80 degrees. Thanks for reading.
Algae die off?
- Thread starter Demonfish
- Start date
with any massive die off, bacteria, fish or algae, biologic breakdown occurs. Your fish may be stressed due to a massive ammonia spike or an increase in bacteria competing for the available disolved oxygen in the tank. Check your water and do a good vaccum of any dead algae you can get out and do a water change long with it. It won't hurt and most likely it'll help and it'll probably make you feel better!
Well, the cloudiness (white/milky color) never went away, but I was able to solve the problem. I cleaned the tank and vacuumed the tank. I did this by taking a Friday, Saturday and Sunday for cleaning. On Friday I did a ten gallon water change, vacuuming the crushed coral base and also I took out one third of the tank decorations, as in the right side 16 inches, and thoroughly cleaned each piece, then I set them back up in the tank. Saturday I did the same thing with the center third and Sunday with the left third. There was amazingly a lot of debris from food and algae among other things trapped in the rock/coral work. I got that all out of there and now... The water is sparkling clear again. The fish behavior, oddly never changed. They never appeared stressed, showed signs of disease etc etc... Hmmm. Well it's apparently taken care of. And I added a 2" Dog faced puffer. I know I know... I have too much fish for my tank when the fish are full grown. Well I've also started working on setting up my 225 gallon tank I got a few months ago. That one is HUGE! I can't wait to have it up and running and have my aggressive salt water fish tank going.
If the water was a white / milky type cloudyness, it was a bacterial bloom meaning that more waste was being produced than the aquarium's filter could process. THe dieing algae could have been what the excess waste was but I am not sure about that.
Also not sure what would have caused a sudden algae die off, normally it takes a while to get rid of nuicence algae. Very odd.
Your filtration system is lacking a bit on the side og biological filtration. Might be a consideration to upgrade to a better system. The emperor is a great mechanical filter but the bio wheels don't allways produce the ideal, stable enviroment we want. Espcially with the messy fish your keeping.
Probibly the last thing to do was add a new fish when your tank recently had a enviromental issue. If your tank recently could not handle the waste load, adding more waste load (a new fish) is unwise. I would monitor the water quality (not clairity) very closly for the next week or two. THe series of water changes you did I'm sure diluted the problem out of your water but did they remove the original cause? It might be a returning issue.....or it might not. Hope it all works out....Joel
Also not sure what would have caused a sudden algae die off, normally it takes a while to get rid of nuicence algae. Very odd.
Your filtration system is lacking a bit on the side og biological filtration. Might be a consideration to upgrade to a better system. The emperor is a great mechanical filter but the bio wheels don't allways produce the ideal, stable enviroment we want. Espcially with the messy fish your keeping.
Probibly the last thing to do was add a new fish when your tank recently had a enviromental issue. If your tank recently could not handle the waste load, adding more waste load (a new fish) is unwise. I would monitor the water quality (not clairity) very closly for the next week or two. THe series of water changes you did I'm sure diluted the problem out of your water but did they remove the original cause? It might be a returning issue.....or it might not. Hope it all works out....Joel