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Dark Green ish Brown Algae

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kmtfishchannel View Drop Down
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    Posted: January 25 2018 at 9:41am
On my tank glass I keep getting a Dark Green ish Brown Algae. If left for a long time it gets really hard to see into the tank. And looks kinda like sludge or fine fine fine hair. What is this and what causes it? It only grows on the glass.

Tank Tests
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm

Phosphate: 0.05ppm 
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shaggydoo View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote shaggydoo Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 25 2018 at 10:38am
That sounds pretty normal. How long does it take to build up into this sludge? Most tanks will build up a green/brown film on the glass over a day or two without being scraped with a magnet.
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kmtfishchannel View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kmtfishchannel Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 25 2018 at 10:45am
It does take about 2-3 days for it to build up where you can no longer see well into the tank.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote redleader Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 25 2018 at 10:58am
How many snails do you have in your tank?  

Snails will eat the algae film on the glass.  However you will still need to clean the time regularly.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kmtfishchannel Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 25 2018 at 11:15am
We have a 60 Gallon cube. And right now about 6 Astrea Snails, 2 Turbo, and One that looks like a very large Astrea snail. (along with some hermits, ans a couple sand burrowing snails) We had more but they have died over the year. Recommendations of how many we should have? 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote shaggydoo Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 25 2018 at 11:56am
I also have a 60 G cube, and I'm afraid there really is no way to get around daily or at least every other day scraping with a magnet. If you do this regularly, it will never build up enough to block vision into the tank. I scrape daily.

In regards to snails/hermits. I would get a lot lot more. I have around 20-30 hermits and well over 100 snails mixed mostly between astrea, cerith, and margarita snails. I found these are the best varieties to clean without risking them disturbing corals/rockwork. 

However, even with all these snails I still have to clean the glass regularly or else it looks like a bunch of crazy racetracks on my glass after a few days.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote redleader Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 25 2018 at 1:02pm
General recommendations for clean up crews start around 1 per gallon.

I have a 100 gallon tank and try to maintain a healthy population of crabs and snails, of at least 1 snail per gallon and 1 crab per gallon.

Every couple months I'll add 20 - 30 more of each.

Also something to consider is what is your water care routine?  The numbers you posted above are good, but you need to consider how much nutrients are being consumed by the algae that is growing on the glass.

What type of filtration are you running  how often and how much are you feeding, what is your overall bio load and so forth?

On my 100 gallon tank I do a little scrubbing with a mag float every 3-4 days.  But it never gets to a point that I can't see into the tank.  I scrub the sides even less often than the main front panel, like maybe once a week.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Adam Blundell Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 25 2018 at 1:11pm
Pictures?

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kmtfishchannel Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 25 2018 at 2:57pm
We feed Every other day. and switch between pellets and frozen mysis shrimp. (for the most part everything gets eaten. And what is not eaten we clean out of our mesh filter sock. Our main filtration is our Fuge filled with cheto. The light is on from 6pm-10:30am each day. Along with Marine Pure blocks and Chemipure Elite as chemical filtration.

Also I do not have a photo of this algae. I'll have to take some next time it build up. 
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