never thought my tank would be this ugly
 

Well I'm very disappointed with my tank at the moment. It's only 5 months old and has 2 clowns and a yellow tang, and it's really gross looking. The glass is always covered in algae. I scrub it off and it's back the next day. Recently I've got these light purple dots on the glass that are really hard to scrub off. The substrate is dirty and has some algae spots, there are these brown algae plants growing on 2 of my rocks, and there are always salt deposits on the outside of the glass. I'm really frustrated! There's not much of a cleaner crew, just some turbo snails and hermit crabs. Is there anything I can add to help my problems? Any ideas? Thanks.

Jess

Re: never thought my tank would be this ugly
 

The purple dots of algae on the glass is called Coraline algae (the same purple stuff that's on your rocks).

Salt on the outside glass would lead me to believe that you have a lot of salt spray coming from your tank. Either that or you splash the water onto the glass when you clean the tank. Do you have a lot of microbubbles in your tank that pop and spray a mist of water everywhere?

To control your algae problem you must control the root of the problem. I would suggest a few things:
a) regular water changes (preferably with R/O)
b) more snails (Ceriths, Nassisarius, Astrea, Trochus, etc)
c) less feeding
d) more skimming

I agree with Harvey's suggestions and comments. I would like to add that the brown algae plants are a good thing. As they grow, they will utilize the nutrients in your tank so there will be less nuisance algae.

How are your alkalinity, calcium and magnesium levels?

Thanks for your help guys. I will test my calcium, magnesium, and alk levels and see how they are. I sure wish that coraline algae would leave my glass alone and stick to the rocks! Do you guys leave it on the glass, or what? There is a glass cover on the tank, so I'm confused by the salt deposits, but there is some splashing in the tank and I'll try to minimalize that. Thanks again!!

I scrape the coraline algae from the front and sides, but leave it on the back and bottom of my tanks.

Learn to love coralline algae. I think its the best kind of algae to have. Trust me, it could be worse :wink:

Christy :)