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Dealing with algae in a 'small' tank.

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sfsuphysics

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So seem to have caught a case of the hairy algae (or something) from somewhere in the 40g tank I was just keeping some frags alive in, it got pretty much out of control, until I moved everything over to a 10g nano, and "blacked out" (no aquarium lights, only ambient light) the 40g tank and the algae problem largely disappeared there still was some here in there. Unfortunately the 10g tank is now getting full of the algae (hitchhiked from corals I'd imagine).

Now there are no fish in any tanks, so no nutrients that keep feeding the algae (other than photon nutrients), there are some small snails in both tanks, not sure they do much in the way to combat that particular brand of algae though. I'm not going to put fish in the tank, simply no algae eaters that would fit tanks of this size.

So what are people doing for smaller tanks? Hermits? Urchins? Stuff like Vibrant or Microbactr Clean actually work?

TIA
 
In my experience with nanos I rely on smaller snail species. As you said with fish and I find with pretty much anything else will just be to large and will die off due to lack of sustainable algae. I do use conchs as I prefer a lite sand bed in my nanos. Other wise I focus on manual removal. Mechanical and chemical become to detrimental to the system and you end up having to dose. Which I prefer not to do.
 
Urchins are way worse because they pick up frags and then drop them random places :)

Personally I haven't ever had huge issues with turbos if frags are well attached.

The biggest issue is having to occasionally flip them back over.

Trochus snails also work well.

I'm not a fan of hermit crabs because they will kill snails and don't really eat that much algae.
 
sfsuphysics said:
So seem to have caught a case of the hairy algae (or something) from somewhere in the 40g tank I was just keeping some frags alive in, it got pretty much out of control, until I moved everything over to a 10g nano, and "blacked out" (no aquarium lights, only ambient light) the 40g tank and the algae problem largely disappeared there still was some here in there. Unfortunately the 10g tank is now getting full of the algae (hitchhiked from corals I'd imagine).

Now there are no fish in any tanks, so no nutrients that keep feeding the algae (other than photon nutrients), there are some small snails in both tanks, not sure they do much in the way to combat that particular brand of algae though. I'm not going to put fish in the tank, simply no algae eaters that would fit tanks of this size.

So what are people doing for smaller tanks? Hermits? Urchins? Stuff like Vibrant or Microbactr Clean actually work?

TIA
Click to expand...

I've had great success with Justin Credabel's hydrogen peroxide dosing in small tanks for algae/nutrient control. 1ml 3% h202 per 10 gallons
 
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I have a small 15g tank, my Trochus snails will move between the glass and the rocks eating away at the algae. Also, some Cerith snails that also help out.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Is that a daily dose until the problem disappears? Or a one time dose and just wait?
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Daily dose.

He also said while 1 ml per 10 gallons per day works well generally, if you have more sensitive coral like SPS, you can adjust dose upward until you see stress on corals:
___________________________
Amounts are for 3% strength peroxide.

Week 1: 1ml per 30 gallons per day
Week 2: 1 ml per 20 gallons per day
Week 3: 1 ml per 10 gallons per day
Week 4: 1 ml per 8 gallons per day
Week 5: 1 ml per 5 gallons per day

___________________________
In other places I’ve seen people mention don’t use H2O2 like you buy in the grocery store because it has stabilizers like tin. Instead use food-grade H2O2 without stabilizers.
 
Opinion: As usual, it always comes down to nutrient export.

Short term:
1) Manually remove as much algae as possible.
2) Add just enough snails for the leftover algae.

Long term:
1) Large automatic water exchange. Like 10% per day.
This is pretty cheap and effective on a nano.
Plus you can likely get rid of dosers and ATO.

2) Lots of coral.
Something people always forget. Coral is great for getting rid of algae.
It covers rock making it harder for algae to find good spot.
It uses up nutrients, especially large particles before they rot into ammonia/nitrate.
 
Here's the problem though, there's really no input of nutrients other than the photosythetic kind. No fish, no fish food. Hell I don't even feed the corals (at this point), because yeah I am waiting to get some level of growth where corals can out compete algae (which unfortunately they currently can not)
 
The nutrient advice doesn’t really apply to hair algae. Once you get a lot of hair algae it creates its own nutrients, by smothering stuff and trapping detritus. The proven way to beat it is weekly physical removal until it stops growing back. People always want a quick fix though… H2O2 will definitely kill single celled organisms while irritating more complex ones, but then what algae will grow back when you stop dosing? Also as far as quick fixes has anyone tried fluconazole for hair algae?
 
sfsuphysics said:
Here's the problem though, there's really no input of nutrients other than the photosythetic kind. No fish, no fish food. Hell I don't even feed the corals (at this point), because yeah I am waiting to get some level of growth where corals can out compete algae (which unfortunately they currently can not)
Click to expand...
There has to be something.
Perhaps nutrients coming from rather dirty live rock or sand bed?

Suggest:
Buy a bunch a bunch of big turbo snails. 4?
Then just as they finish it off, before they starve, put most in your display tank or give to friends.

Vacuum out detritus regularly.
 
rygh said:
There has to be something.
Perhaps nutrients coming from rather dirty live rock or sand bed?
Click to expand...

Yeah I dunno, there was brand new sand, and sun bleached rock that I chopped into smaller pieces, perhaps the mythical "leaching of phosphates"? I did dose amino acids for a couple weeks before the acros just all started dying off... so yeah I really don't know.

There's so few things in there, that it seems just as easy to pull rocks, scrub them with a toothbrush and h2o2 solution to clean them and just try to keep on top of things.

When I did transfer to a 10g tank and did lights out on it though, it didn't take long for the algae to die with just ambient light from the windows, and caught it all up in a filter sock.
 
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