my puffer's tank is DISGUISTING

[volcomkrew4life]

Okay before anyone starts criticizing me on my care for my puffer, just know that I do 40% water changes weekly and the water conditions are perfect. This post is strictly for the LOOK of my tank, not the quality of the water. Anyway, there is brown algae EVERYWHERE. I wipe it off the sides of the glass but then it goes into the water and all over his white sand. There is also piles of pieces of black stuff (small pieces of old food, algae, ect.) all over the sand. It's just such an eyesore to look at his tank. I use a gravel vacuum when I do the water changes and run it along the top of the sand but no matter how hard I try I can never seem to get all of the junk off the top of the sand. The vacuum will suck the stuff up but then once it gets halfway up, the vacuum just dumps it back out. I don't know what to do=/ I know huge water changes are bad but i really just wanna empty out the entire tank, clean the glass real well, take some of the old sand out, put new sand in, and clean all of his decorations. I could always empty out all the tank water and instead of discarding it and putting new water in I could put like 50% back and put 50% new water in so it'd basically be like doing a water change. What do you guys think? Any suggestions are appreciated.

[J-P]

any chance of some pics?

consider this a hospital post....
what are the feedings.. SG levels, live rock, tank set up time ... all that is helpful. including lighting schedule....

[volcomkrew4life]

Well I feed him a few small pieces of mysis shrimp or clam (or a little of both) everyday and a snail or two every three days or so. He always eats most, if not all, of his food.

The SG is around 1.017.

There is no live rock.

I set the tank up about 4 months ago.

His light is on a timer of 16 hours on and 8 hours off and the tank isn't in any direct sunlight.

Hope this info. helps.

[J-P]

no LR ... that is a tough call.

I don't know because that would not be a route I would take. You are missing all the little critters that would act as your clean up crew :/

[Dadof4]

A few things that are controllable for you to fix the problem. First, when your puffer is done eating (about 3-4 minutes), remove the old food, simple. This will reduce a huge chunk of the mess, not only the "black food" also eliminate the food source for the algae. If there is black rotting food in the tank I highly doubt that your water parameters are in line. Can you post what your test results are, what you're using for testing equipment? Are you using tap water? If you are you may be having a diatom bloom instead of an algae bloom.

[xrayjeeper83]

what are you using to vacuum the sand? How far down does your hose go, IE does it go from the tank to a sink, or outside on the ground? The further below the water level the end of the hose is the more suction you will get.

[sevenyearnight]

Your light cycle is very long. I'd go with 8 hours on since you have no clean up crew, no plant life or corals that require the lights and use up the extra nutrients that the algae is taking advantage of. You can also do a siesta blackout mid day, for an hour or 2, then back on. So for example, on at 9 am, off at 1 pm, on at 3 pm, off at 7 pm.

[Pufferpunk]

It would be helpful to know more about your tank/puffer/parameters.
library/water-filtration/brownalgaediatoms/

[RTR]

I second all the suggestions and questions above, especially the excess lighting. Tropical day length never exceeds 12 hours total, and that includes dawn and dusk - but those tend to be shorter than in temperate zones. Eight to 10 hours should be max for a BW tank. Reducing light directly reduces algae.

If you are using tap water to make up the BW, call your utility and ask for the soluble silicate level in your water. Diatom alga is controlled by the level of soluble silicates in the water.

Do you plan to take the tank on to full SW density?

[bertie 83]

If I need to scrape algae off I syphon it out whilst scraping use a net to catch or scoop the muck out, instead of tearing down and starting again do 3 or 4 large changes over a week or so removing as much crud as you can each time, once under control a good regular cleaning schedule and a few preventative measures will keep your tank spotless and fully enjoyable. Removing and scrubbing ornaments is fine so feel free , soak first in hot water to loosen grub up

[RTR]

The above is good advice if you do not have water high in soluble silicates. If you do have water high in soluble silicates, back-to-back partials will intensify the problem, not reduce it.

[bertie 83]

Rtr you know too much lol. Could you please explain that to me in simpler terms as I am as a bit dim scientifically lol. I am curious as to what soluble silicates are

[El Scorpio]

Water soluble silicates inhibit rusting in metal water pipes and are commonly added to munincipal water supplies for that reason. Unfortunately for us, brown diatoms require silicates in order to grow, as they have a silicate shell, which gives them their rough, sandy feeling.

[RTR]

+1 to El Scorpio's comments, plus some waters are naturally high in soluble silicates. Diatoms require soluble silicates for their "shell" - really "tests". Their shells/tests are insoluble, so the act of growing the required shell actually removes soluble silicates from the Water, and it does not recycle. This is the reason diatoms tend to be heaviest in new tanks (100% "new" water) and then die back to lower levels long-term. That is in large part because after setup, hobbyists rarely do 100% water changes. But if you do daily 50% to do a major cleaning, you increase the available soluble silicate levels and get more diatom growth. If much of the problem was diatoms, you are making the limiting nutrient (soluble silicates) more available to give increased diatom growth. This is also known as shooting yourself in the foot - your efforts to improve the tank actually have the opposite effect.

If you want to do such clean-up with multiple closely-spaced partials, you need to use absorbent resins to lock up the soluble silicates (and phosphates) before the water goes into the tank..\

Phos-Guard will pre-remove silicates from the water before uses the water in the tank.

If the tank is planted or has plenty of inverts, it is wise to add phosphate back to normal requred levels.

HTH

[sevenyearnight]

If the tank has plants or inverts, would doing smaller water changes be an alternative to using Phos-Guard? Does this product remove both silicates and phosphates indiscriminately? Is this product something you use on/in your exchange/new water only?
Or could you add it the DT, if only temporarily, then replenish the phosphates?