Does glass algae ever go away

[stingeragent]

I'm not a noob but thought I'd ask anyways for the guys that have systems up for several years. Does the algae that grows on the glass (green/brown stuff not coralline) ever decrease?

[Pwnm30rdi3]

My tank has been running for 10+ years, system volume of ~160 gallons. I have 8 fish ranging from 2" to 10".
I clean my glass about once a week, I don't have very much glass algae.

[shocker444]

It never really goes away completely. If your getting a lot there may be a underline problem from lights on to long or over feeding. I found that a good uv sterilizer works wonders to help with the algae growth i clean my tank about once a week only in a few areas and i have a lot of glass 8'x4'x42''. But I'm no where near an expert just putting my 2 cents in lol.

[rfgonzo]

Yes if goes away when you clean the tank. (sorry I'm a smart a$$)

[pyithar]

i need to clean biofilm (not green algae) off glass about two times a week becuase of carbon dosing.

[outy]

Your glass is like the vital signs for your tank.

And it will always need to be cleaned, how frequent is telling

[Sk8r]

If it's too much algae on glass, you have too much phosphate in system .. Try GFO reactor, about 50.00 various sources.

[ryeguyy84]

Originally Posted by outy

Your glass is like the vital signs for your tank.



And it will always need to be cleaned, how frequent is telling

^^ this. It's like a free phosphate test haha

[shifty51008]

While film algae will always be around limiting how fast it grows on the glass by keeping nitrates and phosphates down will help. I clean my glass every 2 weeks and it isnt really about the film algae as it us to keep coraline from growing there. But if i start seeing film algae show up faster than normal i know my po4 and no3 need checked and fixed.

[whosurcaddie]

How many times per week do you need to clean your glass stinger?

[Pet Detective]

I clean my reef tank glass every other day with the mag float, being extra careful not to collect sand in between them, I do this so frequently because 1. the glass becomes crystal clear & 2. it prevents the build up of green film spots that become much harder to remove if left alone too long. I also know when the film forms a thicker dusting more quickly, it's time to change the gfo, like Shifty has suggested.

[reefwiser]

Once my algae scrubber started kicking in I haven't had to clean algae off my glass.

[Reef Frog]

My reef has been running 6 years and the glass "algae" has changed dramatically as the tank evolved.

First year or two I had high nutrients. GHA grew, cyano & Dino's came & went, zoas, mushrooms, ricordias thrived and grew. True green algae on glass needed removed every day. Little to no coralline.

About year 2, everything changed. It was the low nutrient phase. I had to knock nutrients down to defeat bryopsis. Employed detritus removal, mechanical filtration, bio pellets for a while & most importantly GFO which I've run continuously. My hard corals were growing but needed to dose Alk/Ca/Mg so set up the auto dosers. Coralline really grew on the glass to the point of becoming a PITA. The glass "algae" turned from a green color to a brown film. To my delight the brown diatoms weren't noticeable for up to 2~3 days at a time. Pest algae on LR was light & manageable. It might show a little if I slacked on changing GFO but wasn't a problem. During this time I believed the green algae essentially bailed out of living on the glass and was out competed by brown diatoms on the glass perhaps. My filter pads were efficient capturing & exporting the diatoms. The tank was on cruise control.

About a year ago I decided to increase target feeding my LPS & feeding planktonic food to SPS corals and some others. I backed off GFO a little and limited my wet skimming. Coral health improved and colors got much richer & vibrant. Algae like GHA & a small patch of turf & some Valonia (bubble) increased just a tad, but was manageable. But I have to be careful & vigilant not to let the pendulum swing too far in the other direction.

In this new environment I was surprised to see the brown diatoms on the glass reduced even further. Now 4~5 days can go by without the need for a glass cleaning. You'd think the opposite would be the case as you increased nutrients. Maybe the corals and increase in other algaes began to out-compete the diatoms on the glass? Coralline grows the same as always at 7.5-8 Alk 420 Ca 1300 mg.

Like the poster above said, what I now have on the glass can best be described as a brown colored bio film. It's probably a combination of diatoms and a bacterial film. It appears to no longer contain any green algae. It's really interesting to observe these subtle changes that happen over the years. It's a reminder that our aquariums are always evolving somehow.

[powderblue1]

Reef: Seeing brown algae after backing off on phosphate removal and wet skim is not unusual. Your tank has more organics and is showing the signs.

Stinger: If you are seeing brown algae again in a fairly new setup, the exact same thing is the cause. I would recommend a GFO reactor if you don't have one, Mexican Turbo snails, if you don't have any, and a 50% water change that involves you sucking all that crap off the glass by scraping it off (it should come off fairly easily with a plastic scraper) and sucking it into the water change bucket. Make sure your RODI water is at zero on your TDS meter and has ZERO phosphates before mixing you new water. Good Luck! Let me know how it looks when you are done.

PS: You need to do at least a 25% water change every two weeks even on established tanks that are close to full capacity.

[CStrickland]

Are you still dosing vodka stinger?
A lot of guys use the glass film algae to calibrate their carbon dosing. It's kindve a nice way to think about your phos levels. The idea is that you are at your maintenance dose when you have to clean the glass twice a week or so. That's apparently a good nutrient level to be at for corals, and it's much easier to track than getting out all the drops and timers to test the water, and chasing an abstract number. Since the phos is bound in the algae, our tests are deficient b/c they can only see a portion of it. But the algae will find it if it's there, so all you have to do is look at the tank to "test" your phos (and nitrates).

Assuming of course that your tank is stable otherwise, glass algae can be a great measure of your whole system nutrients. That's something they haven't figured out how to bottle and sell