green algae

[Mac56]

My tank has been running for about three months now. I had a brief stage of some brown algae on the glass that was no problem. But now I have this green film algae that is covering everything. It even looks like the water is green. Does anyone know what would cause this? Or how I get rid of it.

[ReefNeck]

Need more info to answer you and a pic would help alot. How long are you running your lights for each day? What type of lights? How often are you feeding? What are you feeding?? How much do you feed?

Answering these will help us answer your questions.

[Mac56]

I have 2 96 watt 50/50 PCs and 1 55 watt 10000K PC. I run them for about 12 hours a day. I feed a mix of flake and frozen brine shrimp. Just a pinch of one or the other each night.

[AuntKaren]

How many snails do you have? I don't see any on your glass and snails are awesome algae consumers. You can scrape off the algae too. Most of us wind up cleaning the inside glass more than we care to admit. You might cut back your light time by at least 2 or three hours. Try cutting back to 6 hours then work up to maybe 8 or nine.

[Mac56]

I currently have 9 snails. I plan on getting more. I have never seen an algae that was this bright green before. I clean the glass every other day. This glass is almost covered again in 8 hours.

[ReefNeck]

It's definately the light! 12 hours is way too long. Drop to 8 at the most and you will see a difference.

[lReef lKeeper]

sounds like a lighting issue to me too.

and may i suggest Mysis shrimp instead of Brine ?? Brine shrimp has almost NO nutritional value to your fish. even the vitamin enriched in less nutritional than Mysis.

[chrisl1]

SNAILS! SNAILS SNAILS!, just incase ya missed it ya need SNAILS, alot of em! A 12 hour light cycle is not horrible, but without anything to consume the algae it will just keep growing.

[dakar]

My thoughts as well.... 12 hours for PC lighting seems to be just about perfect for most critters.... Halides closer to 8 hours. The large Mexican turbo snails and cerith snails would help tremendously with un-greening your tank. Also might want to look for anything producing excess nutrients/phosphates.

[Mac56]

I had planned on getting more snails. I was under the impression that I could add snails as the bio load was increased on the tank. I did not expect algae growth like this so quick. Is there something that will help eat the algae of the sand? Also any suggestions on how I locate what is producing the extra phosphates? I would not know where to look. Is my feeding schedule to much? Thanks for the help.