Ok, so this may be a really newb question, but im having an algae outbreak in my salt tank, mainly on the sand. how can i clean this up/prevent it from happening in the future. sorry for sounding so new, this is my first salt water tank attempt
Algae in my tank!!
- Thread starter laxplaya8613
- Start date
Personally I would buy a cleanup crew. Get some snails or other critters that eat algae. A diamond goby will keep your substrate clean but will constantly move it around too.
ECarbonel;2886828; said:
if i stir up the sand, wouldnt the algae spores spread, in turn causing more algae?
I wouldn't stir up the sand. Buy some snails. I use them in my 90 gallon reef. They do a good job. Get some hermit crabs too. A little diversity.
Reguardless of wheter or not you are stirring the sand or not, something has to be. This is VERY important. It keeps your sandbed from going anerobic, and getting a ton of other crap. Like blue-green algae. Get some sand sifters, and a couple more algae eaters. If you have something stirring the sand and eating the detritus out of it, you will fix the problem. 
laxplaya8613;2886769; said:
is it a new tank? if yes, i'll take a guess and say the algae is a brown colour, and looks like sludge? if im right its diatoms (plankton). all new tanks go through this stage. i used to have to clean it off my sand and rock every day at one point. it will calm down though. its just a thing all new SW tanks have to go through.
the key to getting it under controll is finding out what is causing it. sillica rich sand causes diatom blooms, as the diatoms feed off the sillica. when theres no more left to eat the algae should die out.
also, as algae is a plant, light will have an effect on the growth of algae. i had my lights on for 10 hrs a day, i chaged it to 9 hrs and i dont have a problem any more, just some small patches now and then.
the last one could be your water. high nitrates (from overfeeding, or just in tap water) can cause algae blooms. as the algae feed of nitrates. exessive levels of phosphorus (also in tap water), can bee used by algae for it to grow. if you have exessive levels of either/both in your tap water, get a reverse osmosis (RO) unit. these strip out all the extras that come in tap water. and leave your water purer as a result, no food, no growth. you will need to add some things back into the water if you have corals though.
keeping a clean up crew will also help. as soon as i added snails and hermits to my tank the algae prolem halfed overnight. that is if you can have one. if you have puffers and/or triggers they will eat any inverts. most fish will leave snails alone though... and sometimes hermits. as they obviously look like snails to fish.