As a small fry in the big tank of reefhood I have found some very important answers to some very troubling questions by checking out different posts (and replies) from some of you more experieced, and knowledgable reefers (thank you). But as a beginner I need some more help.
In a 4 month old tank I have recently experienced a huge increase of green hair algea as well as a recent major bloom of green bubble algea, and most recently a huge spike in nitrate levels (about 80 ). As mentioned above I have learned some important causes for these problems(over feeding, too long light cycles, etc.) Other than the immediate 20% water change i did after testing the nitrates and more to come, what can I do to get these issues under control?
inhabitants: 2 cinnamon clowns, 1 LTA, 2 yellowtail blue damsels, 1 samouri squirrel, 20 astrea snails, 20 blue leg hermits, 20 scarlet hermits, and 4 emerald crabs, and 4 pep shrimp.
Sorry for the long post but I wanted to be detailed with my question.
Something that would be very helpful is a detailed description your system (filters, substrate, lights, etc...) and the history of the tank (how long was the cycle, was the rock cured or uncured). The more you can provide us the better our response will be.
Wow! For a 4 month old tank it is stocked pretty well already. You will need to keep doing the water changes, I would bump it up to a 25% for the next few days, every other day(25 today-25 thursday-25 sat) you should be pretty much under control (hopefully) make sure the water temp and salinity are the same as the tank. DO NOT FEED ANYTHING! The Emeralds should do a good job on the hair algae, but you may need to pull the rock and scrub it to get the algae under control, the problem now is the bubble algae, it will spread if it is popped, so be careful. Once this is under control I would heavily monitor my feedings and even though the tank is four months, it will still conmtinue to cycle in small stages for a while. I think you should let it do its thing without adding anything for a while, as tempting as it is. Believe me i have gone down this road many times.
Nitrate explosion
). As mentioned above I have learned some important causes for these problems(over feeding, too long light cycles, etc.) Other than the immediate 20% water change i did after testing the nitrates and more to come, what can I do to get these issues under control?
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