heres a pic of my problem

Kenny G

Reefing newb
this algae is actually green. dont know why my pic makes it look brown. I have been trying to let it run its course because my water test are fine.I have 3 small fish and a cuc of 10 crabs and 10 snails. Tank is 3 months old. I have 6 pcs of small coral. Not sure what to do. I keep it off the glass and I have done a slight stirring of the sand but it returns. Lights are on about 8 hr a day. I do a small feeding daily for the fish and a frozen food every three days. Should I continue feeding as usual? Thanks for your replies.
 
forgot the pic!

heres the algae pic
 

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How is the flow in the area that you are seeing the algea?

Are you using RO water or tap water?
Tape water usually contain nitrates that feed algea

You could also try to cut back on feeding your fish to every other day instead of daily.

You could also shut the lights off for a week and do a water change every couple weeks to remove the nutrients the dying algea releases into the water.

Keep up on your weekly water changes with RO water, and eventually you will get it under control.
 
water flow is from the stock pumps ona jbj nano cube. (2) 266gph pumps.
I have been doing a 5 gal wc every 2 weeks, maybe i should do 1 a week?
And I wasnt sure about cutting the light out more because of the coral. Is that not an issue? Thanks for your reply!
 
corals can survive without light for a while. Sometimes there are storms out on the ocean that last weeks, giving them almost complete darkness.

Your corals should be fine.
 
But it is important to do the water changes during the black out otherwise the algea will grow bak feeding on the nutrients that the dead algea release.
 
I think 3 fish in a 10 gal tank is the issue, but you have plans to move Beaker and i think once you move him it will help. The blackout will also help get things under control.
 
hey lil' fish. It is actually a 28 gal. tank. how many fish max in it? I was hoping to work up to 5 but I am gonna wait a while because I kinda rushed to where I am at now.
 
3-4 smaller fish and I think you'll be ok. More then that and I think they'll be stressed for space (don't forget, without rocks in your tank you've only got about 22 gallons of space, the 28 gallons includes the water in the rear chambers). I also think that's why you're seeing algae right now, your tank has only been up for 3 weeks right? If so, that's really quick to have 3 fish in there.
 
Your tank will tell when its reached its limit, either it will start growing ugly algae as you have or it will crash. I think you should just stick with the fish you have.
 
aye, and you never said anything about your nitrate levels...

New tanks(less than 6-10 months) tend to be high in nutrients, still going through lots of changes.

Things that can help:
-Lower bio-load
-Nutrient export (like a ball of chateo or an algae scrubber)
-lessen the lighting cycle
-More frequent water changes
 
I went to my lfs and found a protein skimmer for the bio cubes. It fits in the back chambers and also added a small circulation pump (425 gph). Figured it wouldn't hurt.
 
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