# please help!!!! green spot algae



## saber1971 (Apr 3, 2008)

please help! I'm getting green spot algae all over my glass and it's getting annoying cleaning it all the time.. I have a 50 gallon fowlr. 2 small clowns, 1 coral beauty, 1 scooter blenny,cleaner shrimp, and1 fire goby...7 dwarf hermits and 2 cortez?? turbosnails for clean-up. I recently got new lighting which is a current extreme 4x39w fixture (2-10000k,2-actinic)that i leave on for 11 hours. more recently I added a coralife150 protein skimmer. I tried using some green algae food sheets for the angel before i started havaing these problems.. could the green algae food for my angel caused this??? I thought i read somewhere that when you first start a protein skimmer your tank can get out of whack for awhile....please help
oh yeah I have 8.4 ph
nitrites 0
ammonia 0
nitrates somewhere between 10-20
salinity 1.022


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## DJOstrichHead (Feb 29, 2008)

take a pic


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## saber1971 (Apr 3, 2008)

here are some pics...not the greatest..


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## DJOstrichHead (Feb 29, 2008)

the first pic looks alot like diatom bloom how long has the tank been set up for? this is a common stage of succession in a new tank.


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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

This looks rather normal to me. Where there is light, there will be algae. Your job is to limit the algae growth with proper husbandry. The key here is to "limit" its growth. You will never prevent it completely. Your situation doesn't look bad at all. Even the aragonite is a perfect white color.


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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

I just took a second look at your picture and i'm glad I did. You should not be using a prefilter on your power heads. Remove that sponge!

Why? Because the sponge will quickly become biologically active and serve as a source of Nitrate production. Even more important, as organic waste is drawn into the sponge, the denitrification process results to lower carbonate hardness and to increase phosphate. 

Mechanical filtration in a marine system should be limited only to situations that allow you very easy access to the filter pads. You should clean the pads daily, or use them only sporadically, such as after cleaning algae off the glass.


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## saber1971 (Apr 3, 2008)

*HEEEELLLLLPPPPP!!!*

this is one day later...i'm going to do another water change. as well as another glass cleaning . i'mtaking the pre-filters off the powerheads when i clean the tank.I"m thinking I may need to order an uv sterilizer too!! any thoughts..
ammonia 0
nitrites 0
nitrates somewhere between 10-20


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## saber1971 (Apr 3, 2008)




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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

I am a huge fan of UV Sterilizers, although not for algae control. I still think the problem you are having is typical of a new aquarium break in period.


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