Suggestions on a Canister Filter

[Cirenus]

It was originally being ran a lot because I had a condy nem, that i was transferring from the old tank to this one, but when I saw that he was starting to stress out due to the water quality not being as good and aged as the old tank, I went ahead and gave him to a friend whom had a good tank going. And to top everything off, it looks like something spawned in the tank. Did not notice this earlier when I did a water change, but I have little spots on top of the water now, thousands of little whitish/clearish specks that almost look like they could be offspring...

[Cirenus]

Thank you guys for all of your advice =)

[matty]

You should post a picture of the tank and offspring.

[Toby Flenderson]

BRS reactor, half carbon half GFO. So cheap, very very effective.

[Cirenus]

I got back from work this morning, ( i work graves) and it looks like all the hatchlings got eaten, they almost resembled little shrimp though.

[Totoro]

...dark yellowish green water...

 

...my scallop, and snails go crazy as the water gets darker, the scallop starts to feed like mad on things in the water...

 

...I have little spots on top of the water now, thousands of little whitish/clearish specks that almost look like they could be offspring...

 

...looks like all the hatchlings got eaten, they almost resembled little shrimp...

 

From how you describe the color and the delighted livestock, this sounds like a diatom bloom: first, the algae blooms, then you get a zooplankton bloom that clears your water, and then the pod population crashes when they run out of diatoms to eat. As their teeny-tiny corpses decay, they release the nutrients they consumed back into the system and set the stage for another algae bloom.

 

And this looks to me like a possible smoking gun:

 

I have to use tapwater for my water changes

 

Check with your water utility to see if you have dissolved silicates in your tap water. Diatoms will outcompete green algae for phosphorous at high Si:P ratios.

 

Also, this fits:

 

this started happening shortly after this tank finished cycling

 

Newly established tanks typically have very low phosphorous levels, so if your tap water has any measurable silica content, the diatoms are in business.

 

It's worth noting that newly set up aquariums often display the same progression of dominant algae types typical of the annual population cycles seen in freshwater temperate lakes and ponds: first you get a diatom bloom, then a green algae bloom (this is normally a phyto bloom in the wild, but we usually just get green nuisance algae), and then a cyano bloom. This progression also happens in tropical lakes (...and fish tanks!) except the clock is never reset after cyano takes over because there's no winter.

 

As for what to do about it, Islandoftiki is exactly correct: treat the problem, not the symptom. Most anything that eats algae loves diatoms, which means that right now, the symptom is resolving itself -- over and over and over again. But the delicious and nutritious diatoms are getting preferentially consumed while nuisance algae is ignored. Over time, this will select for nuisance algae in your tank, and as phosphorous gradually accumulates in the substrate, the competitive advantage the diatoms are now enjoying over the green algaes will go away. So unless you can either export your way out of your predicament or identify and address the source of the excess nutrients, at some point your diatom blooms will stop and your real algae woes will begin.