Algea problem :(

[Ms.lachelle]

It seems to be lots of different kinds... Everywhere! I'm new to hobby and A friend setup a ten gallon tank not ever studying it . Long story short it's my tank now. I know what mistakes were made and I'm trying to correct them, this tank was started without being cycled with a fluval 25000 k light just sitting on top and unconditioned tap water, also water was never tested. I am doing a 72 hour black out, I started last night when lights went out today I did a 3 1/2 gallon water change with RO water. I've fed very little and what wasn't eaten was taken out... Is this a good start to fixing the problem ? Please any more advice would be greatly appreciated I've also changed lightinging schedule and I bought 5 Astraea 1 turbo 2 margarita turbos snails and 4 hermit crabs

[chicagoreefer20]

Any reason for not just starting over? Is the feeding for the clean up crew or do you also have fish? What type of substrate and are you using any rock? If you are intent on keeping the current set up, perhaps a 100% water change to at least help address the tap water in the tank. Do you have a test kit? How long has the tank been up and running?

[Pife]

I'd start over if you can.

[Mark9]

I'd give it a good cleaning.
I have an 8G observation tank, it tends to get some algae as I tend to overfeed the new fish.
Has 2 snails and 2 hermits for a CUC.
Every couple of months I reset the tank by
- scrubbing all the algae off the walls, powerheads, etc with a toothbrush
- remove 60% of the water
- scrub all rocks (there are only 4) in the water removed from the tank with toothbrush
- vacuum out the very top of the sandbed that has algae, wash that sand, put it back
- put back rocks
- add the new water
Done, ready for a new fish, maybe takes an hour tops.
I don't bother removing the snails or crabs.
Of course I don't have any fish as I do this after I move it to the DT, but if you have any, just remove them, clean the tank, drip acclimate them back.

[Ms.lachelle]

Originally Posted by chicagoreefer20

Any reason for not just starting over? Is the feeding for the clean up crew or do you also have fish? What type of substrate and are you using any rock? If you are intent on keeping the current set up, perhaps a 100% water change to at least help address the tap water in the tank. Do you have a test kit? How long has the tank been up and running?

I have a clown, a damsel and a yellow watchman goby there is also a 15p zoa frag, a goniopora (flowerpot coral), some more single zoas of different kinds and a torch coral this tank has only been up for two months my substrate is crushed coral aragonite I want to upgrade to a 30 gallon soon but I may be moving and I don't want to set up one just to stress it out. I don't have a test kit yet either I'm ordering a test kit off of amazon tomorrow. They are cheaper that way then my LFS.

[Ms.lachelle]

Originally Posted by Mark9

I'd give it a good cleaning.
I have an 8G observation tank, it tends to get some algae as I tend to overfeed the new fish.
Has 2 snails and 2 hermits for a CUC.
Every couple of months I reset the tank by
- scrubbing all the algae off the walls, powerheads, etc with a toothbrush
- remove 60% of the water
- scrub all rocks (there are only 4) in the water removed from the tank with toothbrush
- vacuum out the very top of the sandbed that has algae, wash that sand, put it back
- put back rocks
- add the new water
Done, ready for a new fish, maybe takes an hour tops.
I don't bother removing the snails or crabs.
Of course I don't have any fish as I do this after I move it to the DT, but if you have any, just remove them, clean the tank, drip acclimate them back.

I have a clown, damsel , and a yellow watchman. There is also a 15p zoa frag flowerpot coral, torch coral, and a few different single zoas