Types of Algae to expect in new aquarium

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by Michael

Perhaps one of the more experienced reefers can explain what algae to expect in an algae bloom. I've read here that a new aqarium will go through an algae bloom (maybe after 4 months)and then the problem will correct itself (assuming all water parameters are correct).
--How long will this normal bloom last for?
--What algae should one expect to get...hair ?, bubble?, slim? all of them?
--how long does the cycle last for before you should do something?

www.garf.org suggests buying the snails/reef critters to handle the problem.

Thanks for the feedback.

Michael

Once your rock cures and the tank is cycled, definitely add reef-safe snails and perhaps even hermit crabs. The astrea snails we have keep fuzzy green algae off the rock. Wouldn't do without them in any cycled reef.

Slim algae, aka cyanobacteria, can appear anytime in a reef. I found a little red cyano on the sandbed nearest the window in our 42 hex just this morning. Turkey basted the sandbed and all the rock to get the detritus up into the water column and into the foams we have in the 802 prefilter and in the Whisper filter (a puny thing we had on hand used only to provide more movement at the water's surface). Once the tank clears, I remove the foams and clean all the crud out of them in tap then RO water. Today, they'll be filthy

Our not-yet cycled 3 week old 2.5 nano has grey cyano on rock and sandbed for the past week. I've been following the same turkey basting method detailed above on this tank too.

Bubble algae is a different matter. It may or may not appear. I treat it with radical measures by rubbing CLR with a q-tip on the affected portions of rock, then rinsing the rock like crazy afterward so no CLR gets back into the tank. Have recently done this in our 7 gal nano with no ill effect, but I rinsed the living heck out of that rock with RO water before it went back into the tank. Just popping the bubble algae seems to make it spread throughout the tank, so I don't recommend doing that. Don't know of any critters that'll eat it either.

HTH.