Green Film and little Green Spots on my Tank Glass?

geno4361 · 10/06/2006, 05:55 PM

Hi there- Please assist in helping me find a cure for this problem... I have this green film that seems to love to grow on the glass of my tank. It takes a razor blade to scrape the mess off. it also forms little clusters of circles on the tank glass like Purple algae... what is it and how do I get rid of it.. I have been scraping it off weekly.. Thanks in advance...

BlueCorn · 10/06/2006, 05:57 PM

This thread has been moved to the current forum.

bertoni · 10/06/2006, 06:59 PM

That sounds like green coralline algae. If it fizzes when dumped in some vinegar, I'd assume that it's coralline.

Reducing the growth can be done by reducing the food available. The ideas in this article are worth considering, although it's written in terms of a nitrate problem:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...t2003/chem.htm

A phosphate reactor is another idea to consider.

If we knew more about the tank: size, amount of live rock, feeding, stocking, parameters, etc, we might be able to help more.

geno4361 · 10/06/2006, 07:23 PM

Tank is a 46 Gal Bow tank..with 60 pds of live rock in it. it has only 5 fish- 3 damsels, 1 garnet clown and foxface... 38 turbo snails, emerald crab, racer shrimp, 1 horeshoe crab. 2 sand sifters snails... it's been rocking for 2.5 years.. same routine as always... SMALL pinch of flakes twice daily, twice weekly fed the good stuff of mysis shrimp, veggie cube for Foxy and red cube for clown... I would hate to cut that down. have skimmer, 400 emperor and plenty of love... nitrates less than 10. phosguard refilled every 2 weeks... just seems recently this has happened...

bertoni · 10/06/2006, 09:25 PM

Hmm, that's a fairly heavy fish load for that size tank, in my opinion. What kind of skimmer is installed? How much circulation is there?

The live rock sounds fine, and the flake feeding doesn't seem unreasonable. How big are the cubes and the mysid servings?

You might want to consider growing and harvesting a macroalga. That did the trick for me.

10/06/2006, 05:55 PM	#1
geno4361 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Orlando Posts: 25	Green Film and little Green Spots on my Tank Glass? Hi there- Please assist in helping me find a cure for this problem... I have this green film that seems to love to grow on the glass of my tank. It takes a razor blade to scrape the mess off. it also forms little clusters of circles on the tank glass like Purple algae... what is it and how do I get rid of it.. I have been scraping it off weekly.. Thanks in advance...

10/06/2006, 05:57 PM	#2
BlueCorn Retired Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,908	This thread has been moved to the current forum. __________________ Doug [I]Dodging and burning are steps to take care of mistakes God made when establishing tonal relationships. ~ Ansel Adams[/I]

10/06/2006, 06:59 PM	#3
bertoni RC Mod Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Mountain View, CA, USA Posts: 88,616	That sounds like green coralline algae. If it fizzes when dumped in some vinegar, I'd assume that it's coralline. Reducing the growth can be done by reducing the food available. The ideas in this article are worth considering, although it's written in terms of a nitrate problem: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...t2003/chem.htm A phosphate reactor is another idea to consider. If we knew more about the tank: size, amount of live rock, feeding, stocking, parameters, etc, we might be able to help more. __________________ Jonathan Bertoni

10/06/2006, 09:25 PM	#5
bertoni RC Mod Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Mountain View, CA, USA Posts: 88,616	Hmm, that's a fairly heavy fish load for that size tank, in my opinion. What kind of skimmer is installed? How much circulation is there? The live rock sounds fine, and the flake feeding doesn't seem unreasonable. How big are the cubes and the mysid servings? You might want to consider growing and harvesting a macroalga. That did the trick for me. __________________ Jonathan Bertoni

10/06/2006, 07:23 PM	#4
geno4361 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Orlando Posts: 25	Tank is a 46 Gal Bow tank..with 60 pds of live rock in it. it has only 5 fish- 3 damsels, 1 garnet clown and foxface... 38 turbo snails, emerald crab, racer shrimp, 1 horeshoe crab. 2 sand sifters snails... it's been rocking for 2.5 years.. same routine as always... SMALL pinch of flakes twice daily, twice weekly fed the good stuff of mysis shrimp, veggie cube for Foxy and red cube for clown... I would hate to cut that down. have skimmer, 400 emperor and plenty of love... nitrates less than 10. phosguard refilled every 2 weeks... just seems recently this has happened...