Tank is turning green

[MBVette]

I started my tank about 5 weeks ago and in the last few days my tank has started to turn pretty green.

 

I have 0 nitrates and phosphates; and calcium is around 300 now.

 

The green does not look slimey or hairy, so Im not sure what it is. Any advice here would be great.

 

The picture is not great as I took it with my phone.

[ctenophore]

That green algae is primary succession. Sort of like a burnt forest, a new, sterile substrate will be colonized by the simplest, fastest growing plants first. It will go away when it is outcompeted by more complex algae, like coralline, hair algae or other macroalgae. You can reduce your photoperiod to only a few hours per day to help get rid of it, as long as you don't have any light-loving animals (corals, clams, etc) in there yet. Otherwise, let the clean-up snails do their job and wait for the microscopic 'pods & critters to establish themselves.

[MBVette]

so since I started this tank at work, I guess I will shut the lights off for the weekend. But since its in my lobby I dont want to run with the lights off durring the day. So I will start with that and see where that takes me.

 

Right now I only have 3 chromis, and 2 oc clowns. I have a CUC that is probably to small for the tank as a lot of my snails have died off and only started with 30 or so for my 210 tank.

[ctenophore]

The snails probably died since there was not a lot of algae for them to eat until just recently.

 

Try not to add any more carnivorous fish until the pod & bug population is established. This will help prevent algae outbreaks over the next few weeks. If you start seeing hair algae look at adding a tang.

 

Re: lights, can you run only actinics, or otherwise low light rather than full lighting?

 

You can also use a UV sterilizer to help keep algae at bay.

[MBVette]

I can definitely just leave the actinics on, that might work for a bit.

 

I want to add a tang next, just taking my time and only adding fish every few weeks and I added the two clowns last weekend. Looking to add a blue or a sailfin next.

[Sharkey18]

It sounds like you have a lot of fish (and are planning more) in a very young tank.

 

5 weeks in is a really short amount of time. I would wait a few more weeks to see how things go before adding any more livestock.

I ran my new 120 for two months before adding any livestock. Overkill, maybe, but I was sure the tank could handle the livestock once I started adding it. You are still in the algae succession phase. Be careful about pushing too fast.

 

Laura

[WaterDog]

It sounds like you have a lot of fish (and are planning more) in a very young tank.

 

5 weeks in is a really short amount of time. I would wait a few more weeks to see how things go before adding any more livestock.

I ran my new 120 for two months before adding any livestock. Overkill, maybe, but I was sure the tank could handle the livestock once I started adding it. You are still in the algae succession phase. Be careful about pushing too fast.

 

Laura

+1 I waited a few months in the 46 BF before adding anything besides a few snails and I don't regret it. Better safe and boring than quick and crashing.

[gmubeach]

Wait I didn't and I had problems!