Hey everyone,
I am new to the marine world, but I've already caught the bug
I currently have a 29 gallon tank that has been running for one month to the day. I have 21 lbs of live rock, and 20 pounds of live sand. I also have a black ocellaris clown, and an ocellaris clown in the tank. My water chemistry is fine (all within acceptable parameters). Within the first week and a half of setting up the tank i had a good amount of brown algae growing over the rocks and sand. I attributed the issue to overfeeding my two clowns, and having the LEDs on for 12-13 hours a day (as well as the tank cycling and establishing itself as any new tank will do...) after cutting down the light to 6 hours a day, and greatly reducing my feeding, the algae started to disappear as I expected it too. It was reduced to about 50%-75% of what it was at its worst. Then, the other day, when i got home from work i had a huge amount of algae growth back on the sand and over the rocks again (see attached pics). I haven't done any water changes, since I was told to avoid it as the tank cycled, and I am not running my protein skimmer yet. I also have a couple of units of chemi-pure elite at my disposal, which I am also avoiding for the time being, since i want my bacterial cultures to develop.
My question is: Is this regrowth of algae not a big deal or is it a result of my lack of water changes/protein skimming, and presence of nutrients, nitrates, dissolved organics etc.? Should I let it take care of itself or should I be more active in removing it since I was already seeing a sizable decline in it last week? Or am I just being impatient???
Thanks everyone,
JC
I am new to the marine world, but I've already caught the bug
I currently have a 29 gallon tank that has been running for one month to the day. I have 21 lbs of live rock, and 20 pounds of live sand. I also have a black ocellaris clown, and an ocellaris clown in the tank. My water chemistry is fine (all within acceptable parameters). Within the first week and a half of setting up the tank i had a good amount of brown algae growing over the rocks and sand. I attributed the issue to overfeeding my two clowns, and having the LEDs on for 12-13 hours a day (as well as the tank cycling and establishing itself as any new tank will do...) after cutting down the light to 6 hours a day, and greatly reducing my feeding, the algae started to disappear as I expected it too. It was reduced to about 50%-75% of what it was at its worst. Then, the other day, when i got home from work i had a huge amount of algae growth back on the sand and over the rocks again (see attached pics). I haven't done any water changes, since I was told to avoid it as the tank cycled, and I am not running my protein skimmer yet. I also have a couple of units of chemi-pure elite at my disposal, which I am also avoiding for the time being, since i want my bacterial cultures to develop.
My question is: Is this regrowth of algae not a big deal or is it a result of my lack of water changes/protein skimming, and presence of nutrients, nitrates, dissolved organics etc.? Should I let it take care of itself or should I be more active in removing it since I was already seeing a sizable decline in it last week? Or am I just being impatient???
Thanks everyone,
JC
