i made a 10 gallon saltwater tank for my puffers, its cycled just fine, water paramaters are all in check, EXCEPT FOR THE F***ING ALGAE! how do i stop it??? i dont have this problem in any tank i own save the saltwater one...

SG is 1.021

unfortunatly i have to use the strip tests for the time being, but they are all showing "ideal" on the water conditions and i used 2 different brands of strip tests and they both confirmemed one another, i dont know what to do, ive been using the algaefix in the pic below and i swear its had no effect what so ever.




stuff doesnt work!!!! that gravel is supposed to be white! its all white! -.-

is the algae in the water or in the glass wall and gravel?
if it is in the water, increase the lateral surface area or
volume of the filtering media.... if it is in the glass wall,
just scrub the glass and let the system do the cleaning while
in the pebbles, just do the vacuuming or stir it once in a while....
i am sure only the top portion is covered with algae.

its not suspended in the water, that is crystal clear, but the light for this thing is apparently suited for coral life and algea grows like crazy in it! i scrape it off the glass when i clean the tank, and i try to vac it up with my gravel vac when i do water changes but the shit is growin in like a thick matt on the bottom and holds the gravel together and makes it hard to break loose! i would use a different chemical in there but at this point im afraid to because there is so much algae in there that if i killed it off all at once i would have a bad spike in amonia from the stuff dying off and wouldnt be good for the puffer fishs.

its not hurting anything, infact as best i can tell, the algea is eating the nitrates(or is it nitrites) and is actually beneficial right???? or am i infact completly wrong?

i have a SMALL amount of algae growing in my other 10 gallon tank (only on the end thats butted up next to this tank) on a clay pot, but its not on the glass or gravel at all, and that tank has been setup over 2 years, and its taken that long for the algea to cover that pot and doesnt even look to be the same kind of algea, its much much darker in color. my two 55 gallon tanks are algae free, with the occasional tiny spot growing in my oscars tank directly under the light on one of the fake plants, but the pleco eats that pretty quick and it doesnt spread.

its just hidious to look at! it makes me think of those pathetic algae boxes at my LFS! so ugly. this tank is only a few months old btw, it shouldnt have that much algae in it!


here you can see it rampant in the new tank on the left, and not even close to the same in the right thats been running over 2 years. i think its the lighting being so much better in the newer tank.

what i can see are two beautiful tanks and an idle AK47 lying on the
edge of the table, that pose danger whenever it accidentally fall down


light and foods are two main factors: brown is due to the lack of light,
low oxygen and too much foods; green for too much light and foods, and less
surface area of filtering media.

lol i had actually used the bright light unit off that tank to work on my gun earlier, and had just reassembeled it and set it down when i checked the forum. i dont leave it sitting just siting there, it hangs proudly on the wall over my bed. was doing some rapid fire drills yesterday and my trigger group got loose on me after my sheppards hook in the action decided it needed to break! quick and easy fix, no permanent dammage done.

and your right about the filtration, they are both 10 gallon tanks, the new one is using the shitty 5-15 gallon filter that came with it, and the right is using an upgraded 10-20 gallon filter i had to get to house the dragonfish i had kept in it. he was a messy beast.

and i dont see there being too much food in either tank. the puffers leave nothing left! they are voracious. ive never once had to go and clean uneaten food from that tank, they always finish every last scrap and would eat more if they were given the chance! the right tank however DID have a planaria problem due to the nasty shrimp pellets i had to feed the dragon fish, but that is all gone now as after i donated the dragongoby to my moms work, i cleaned the gravel thoroughly and now the only thing in it is a snail and 1 electric yellow, and a butt load of ghost shrimp that clean up every spec of the tank! they are the ones that ate the planaria! (fed the very last of the ghosties to my puffers yesterday and i need to go buy more) generally speaking i clean the puffer pooh out with a net every other day, its pretty easy to spot, bright orange/red (dried shrimp color) balls on the bottom of the tank, and i try to get all of it with my net if possible, and what doesnt get caught with the net gets out via gravel vac on my weekly waterchanges.

i know what you mean...but juices alone of the foods your puffer tore
down is also foods for the algae forming bacteria.

do you really have that dragonfish (not an aro huh)?
that is very dangerous! i was hit by that when i was a boy
and it immobilized me for two days..... :angry: :angry: :angry:

whaaaaat??? i think we are talking about two different fish.

common names
Dragonfish , Dragon Goby, Violet Goby



ive handled it bare handed with no ill effect.

sadly it died when it escaped from the aquarium i had moved it to a week or so ago.

are you maybe talking about a lion fish or a stone fish?

no, not that one... they are gentle fish... what i am referring to
is the one that is posted in the PTOM contest...

ahh the lion fish! i thought as much! i will be putting a dwarf fuzzy one of those in the tank i have my oscar in now along with a snowflake eel and my puffer fishs when i get my O moved to my 120 and i have time to recycle both tanks.

paul how do you think puttin a towel over my puffer tank for a few days would do for the algea? i know if the stuff doesnt get any light, it cant grow.

if it is a brown one, you will be promoting their growth.
add lights and oxygenate the tank. rippling the discharge help
keep the algae under check...

if it is a green algae... yes it will help... and additional
flow rate and lateral surface of media keep it under check

hope this help.