Help brown hair algae

Krazie4Acans wrote: That looks like a mix of Green hair algae, Bryopsys and Cyano bacteria. You mention that your P04 is 0 but what is your N03 level? How often are you feeding and how much? what other Clean up crew do you have besides the red leg hermits?

NO3 is reading 0 on api test kit
I feed 1 a day sometimes every other
And I have a bunch of different types of snails in there

my wife said she turns them on at 8 in the morning and I turn them off at 830 at night , this might be the problem , the light are the ones from eBay I think Aqua somthing

If  you have snails. have any of them died (usually mass die off)?
Are there bubbles in the brown algae. I think I see them but not sure? Do have a slime or skimm that is starting to build on the surface of the water. If so...... it be DINOS( dinoflagellates). how often do you do water changes? If they are dinos then water changes feed the dinos. what you  can do is black for three days complete no light at all ( black trash bags or cardboard  work great no light to darkness). However, from my experience as soon as you turn the lights back on boom there they are again but diffidently put a dent in them. You can get filter sock (this will catch your dinos) and siphon out the water but the water must go back into the tank. Some have not done a water change for almost a year with dinos. The other thing is ..this a biocube ya. The top of the tank or water surface is where the gas exchanges ( last stage of the nitrification cycle ). Those of us that run the cubes ( 50g my self ) have half or less the surface area that a regular 50 or standard aquariums would have. To combat that more turbulence on the surface of the water should .


I was doing water changes  religiously .Nitrate and the measurable phosphates were 0 ( same api test kit which  are not that great  but still give a water mark). On the left side the green algae ( green patch) has it stop growing by chance and now the brown algae is running a muck. Another clue its dinos. They are relentless feeding on nutrient light whatever. Currently have been a battling them and its been an array weapons. they also love the sand!!!!

Hope it helps.

Thanks for all your help so I am going to be changing my light schedule and reduce feeding I have not tried the blackout thing and the only reason is because this look different from the stuff that I had before. I'm hoping that this will help I think I need to go get some more snails see if that'll help as well

Mark Peterson wrote: It appears slightly different, but trust me, it's essentially the same algae, just growing slightly different this time in this small 24 gal tank. I really do believe that one of those two lights is unnecessary, creating an intensity of light (330 Watts ) that is invisible to your eyes, but is just what that algae needs to bloom out of control. Aloha, Mark ÂÂ

OK Mark I just took off one of the 165 W OK Mark I just took off one of the 165 Watt and we'll see how that goes do you suggest I do lights out or just cut back on my light schedule, quite frankly last week on Saturday I did a large water change and then few days later is when I really noticed it starting to grow so I don't think I'll do a water change just yet what do you think? Thanks for your help greatly appreciated

Mark Peterson wrote: As I wrote above do a week with lights off. The ambient light from the room or a window, will be enough to keep animals doing fine. If the tank is very near a window then it will need to be covered with a dark sheet/blanket or cardboard. It's a known fact that new salt water feeds algae growth the same as it feeds coral. In the old days, before we knew much about biofiltration for reducing pollution, water changes were used to dilute the Nitrogen and Phosphorus pollutants(nutrients). These days we know that algae (as part of the biofiltration) considers that same pollution as nutrition for dinner. When algae is growing well, pollution is most often near zero. This is one of the benefits of algae. I recommend: Use AC bi-monthly, AA/GFO as needed, make sure there are enough Snails and do regular monthly 10% water changes and all should turn out well. If any issue develops, please come back here with it where we can help modify or add something else to aide the resolution. Aloha, MarkÂÂ

Thanks Mark , will you keep you all posted