Green algae

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wgregww

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Nov 7, 2006
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27
Location
Michigan
My tank is about 4 weeks old 90gallon w/ 100lbs of live rock. It fully cycled about 2 weeks ago, now Im getting some bright green algae on my rocks and sand. Is this normal and do I need to do anything? The tank already went thru the brown algae cycle and that seems to of ended. Also what is the little green algae that looks like a little feather or plant branch attached to my glass?
 
The little feather or plant branch is calurpa (I think I screwed up the spelling). The bright green algae on the rocks and sand is normal. It will go away with water changes and tank maturity.
-chris
 
Algae...Bummer! Do you have any pics?? They would definately help with ID's...In any event, 4 weeks is still a very young tank. You will go probably go through a few more stages of algae before the tank finds its balance so no worries. Chances are you are starting to see the beginning of hair algae, but could say for sure without a pic, but like mentioned before, with maturity, water changes and limiting excess nutrients in the tank, in time it will all evetually subside:)
 
I agree your algae woes have just begun. Just give it time and keep the tank stable. If algae is on the glass it is very likely hair algae not caulerpa. Def a pic would help.
 
Algae "Stages"

Algae...Bummer! Do you have any pics?? They would definately help with ID's...In any event, 4 weeks is still a very young tank. You will go probably go through a few more stages of algae before the tank finds its balance so no worries. Chances are you are starting to see the beginning of hair algae, but could say for sure without a pic, but like mentioned before, with maturity, water changes and limiting excess nutrients in the tank, in time it will all evetually subside:)

So if someone could 'splain the different stages and when the tank will be "mature" it would be a great help. I think we are either between stages or have a few stages going on @ the same time. I have the "red tint" stuff on my sump plumbing, brown on the rocks...and also something that a Tampa Bay site calls "Chicken Liver" on the rocks too. Is some of it good or all bad?
:?: :?: :?: :?:
 
See if the link below helps any, but to say when a tank reaches maturity is usually wen it has found it's balance and you've dropped off all traces of ammonia, nitrite and even nitrate IMO which can vary depending on each tank (meaning time frame). My tank took almost 1 full year to, what I would call "mature". I first went through the diatom stage (brown algae) which lasted a few weeks/months, some how missed the hair algae stage, and went through a stage of red slime algae or cyno that lasted for quite some time. It wasn't until about 1 year later after start up, all traces of nuicance algae seemed to disappear and I started reading 0 nitrates. In any event, through your lifetime, even after your tank matures, you can (and probably will) still experience some outbreaks from time to time with algae, but won't last very long. It is like during times when you need a bulb change, you change your lighting, you add new live stock and the bioload increases and on and on...

Just a few personal thoughts... :)

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9607
 
I would agree that the algae attached to your glass is probably not calurpa. It doesn't really attach to glass. It's probably hair or slime algae. Pics would help. Keep up with water changes, limit light exposure if you don't have corals in there yet, it's definately time to add a few snails and are you using an RO system? I'm not at this time but sure wish I had when I started. I'm hoping to get one soon. It'll work wonders to help control algae.
 
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