• Moss overgrowth.

  • Christopher4108

In two days, while I was away, the aquarium became heavily covered with green moss. Dear forum members, how can I deal with this? Thank you in advance.

Stacy6866

hermits, snails, a little dog to help... pleasing to the eye and beneficial for the aquarium

Jasmine

hermits, snails, etc. are a consequence. The cause needs to be addressed. Temperature, phosphates, silicates, skimmer.

Devon107

The hermits look at this with indifference. They are not very interested. The temperature fluctuates between 24 and 27. I don't have a refrigerator. The heater works fine. I haven't checked the rest. There was a small cluster on the stone, and in two days the entire aquarium turned green.

Jacob4800

Maybe something died in the forest?

Kayla7655

No, everything is alive. I installed new lighting before the holidays. It's probably very good for algae growth.

Shane

Return the old lighting and monitor the changes. It is important to determine the cause.

Lauren

I wonder what’s new: power, spectrum, type of lamps, etc.?

Alicia5489

I installed actinic lamps and changed the metal halide from 20 to 14 silvanians. I can't go back to the old one, the metal halide died. I just cleaned the sand a bit, but it won't last long. I reduced the light period by almost half.

Angela7060

Yes, can someone tell me what those small red mushrooms are in the first photo? They multiply at an incredible rate.

Darrell5975

it looks like the overgrowth of J.K. (live rocks) with Carolina, buy a dog-algae eater from filamentous algae

Maria6659

This is Botryocladia stsbergii or Red Valonia. Actually, I like it; no one wants to know the reasons why this happened, but everyone is advising on how to get rid of it. Usually, it's customary to deal with the cause, not the consequence. They've suggested various creatures, but no one cares that maybe the animals are already overflowing... (I'm exaggerating, of course).

Mitchell7972

The very fact of such greening in 2 days suggests some kind of catastrophe. For example, the electricity might have gone out, or the pump in the skimmer got clogged, or the skimmer in the aquarium splashed, or maybe the external filter got blocked. The return pump might have stalled or ground up a snail. The temperature could have jumped, or the timer for the light might not have worked, and the lamps were on for 2 days. Check the equipment, clean the hoses and tubes, change the water, and wait for changes. Also, the grass on the sand is concerning; has it gone bad?

Maria6659

I had that happen when I left the light on for 2 days and 2 nights in the aquarium! The hermit crab didn't even come close to that moss!

Brent7831

I wasn't home, but my wife was. The electricity was fine. The pump can't grind the snail (there are just none). The skimmer works constantly in one mode, the foam is fluctuating. The lighting turned off normally (my wife was sleeping in that room). The temperature keeps jumping from 24 to 27, there is no refrigerator.

Paul

These are too obvious reasons; it's hard not to notice them. For the topic starter to get any suggestions, they need to start from the beginning, namely: what kind of water treatment? equipment? water parameters in the aquarium? Lighting? Recent actions before leaving. In general, introductory information is needed, and then I think the answers will be more varied.

Christopher4108

There is an elementary "syndrome" of the startup period, when at the very beginning questions such as the quality of live rocks, the quality of the source water, the lighting regime in the first weeks after the system was launched, and proper monitoring of hydrochemistry with the implementation of appropriate measures were not properly considered. However, not everything is that bad. The system will eventually manage to cope with the lower levels on its own. To achieve this, it is necessary to reduce the lighting by half, refrain from stocking the aquarium with fish, except for herbivores, and prevent the accumulation of organic matter, while adding more macrophytes in the sump.

Amanda5586

My opinion is that your boxer shrimp may have knocked out all the creatures from the rocks and substrate, and recently the aquarium was apparently fed.

Chris

Nonsense...

Susan9583

So, it turns out that everyone who has a boxer doesn't feed the fish??? You are the first person I've heard this from. There's also a brittle star sitting under the rock; isn't it doing anything bad there?

Chris

It depends on how to feed. When I started my aquarium, I fed the fish with the current turned off and in such a way that the food didn't reach the bottom. My boxer was pinned down by the brittle star, or maybe the brittle star just dragged the half-dead boxer into the cave (something like that). Why? There was no one to finish the leftovers, so it started to rot.

Emma

Why are you buying fish? It would be better to provide information about your system; maybe we could find the reason without the fish. After all, it's not a given that the dog will solve the problems for you.

Sydney

I have a budget aquarium. It's a 200-liter tank with a direct drain, an Atman pump rated at 3000 liters, a Boyu WG-524 protein skimmer located in a 100-liter sump, and a Boyu WM-1 wave maker for 300 liters. The lighting consists of a 14000K metal halide from Sylvania, plus 2 T5 actinic lights and a night light. That's all. I understand that the protein skimmer is weak, but I reiterate, the aquarium is budget-friendly. I don't have the funds for more.

Melinda

I have a budget aquarium, not you, with a volume of 45 liters, and everything is growing. A skimmer Resun for 72 and a pump Atman 302, a couple of live rocks, and everything is alive and reproducing.

David3217

That's how it multiplies for me too. Just not what I need.