*update* unending algae! with pics now...any ideas?

[safeuerwehr]

Im at my wits ends with my tank...to the point of considering breaking it down...I aquired it in late may and was told that it would go through a mini cycle, which i figured since i disturbed the natural balance....I had some fine powder algae for about a week, then it turned green for about another week, then it started growning hair algea which i have been dealing with since and it seemed to be receeding...now this weekend it looks like another algae is growing....it looks like spider webs all over my rock and has taken over the hair algae....it may be cyano but not sure....Im so wishing this algae problem will end....any ideas....

[ou812pezz]

to much nutrients or maybe your light cycle needs to be adjusted. Best thing I found for green algae is a lawnmower benny. Are you supplementing phytoplex or others? How's your skimmer doing? Do you test for phos and nitrates? How much and how many times do you feed your fish? How often do you do water changes?

[betiuminside]

In my little experience.... the best thing for me... was increase the flow..... and of course check all the things above....

[Texreefer]

first, cut your light cycle in half
second , do several small water changes to remove some of the nutrients, remove and scrub any rock that is easy to take out
third, get you a small cleanup crew like turbo , astrea snails,
fourth, add protien skimmer if not already on
Fifth, add small refugium if you have room
sixth, slowely bring light level up over next 2-3 weeks, in creasing maybe a half hour every other day
last,, definitly increase water flow

[alton]

Algae takes about six months to correct. One thing we have to remember it takes time to get an established tank that is easy to maintain. I agree with with everyone else escpecially the flow. Your mag 9 is not enough.

[safeuerwehr]

well besides adjusting light cycle everything else is in check, all common tests are at zero, 10% water changes every week, added a large clean up crew, Protein skimmer running full skim, have a med size fuge, and water flow in main tank is very good using 2 mj1200 mods, and this is not a new system it was an established tank which i moved so i expected the normal mini cycle and not sure about removing and scrubing the rock as i have read that doing this will increase nitrates due to die off.....so i will adjust lights today and see

[Ping]

PM sent.

[beareef19]

What are you using for water topoff? Have you checked your TDS on your topoff water?

[safeuerwehr]

ro/di at 15 tds....cant get it any lower.....plus i have a 55g that use to use regualar tap water and never got this bad of an algae problem....

[urban79]

cryno is bad right now. I haveing trouble with it.. And if you go any shop in town there having trouble too.. so I hope the rain we just had will bring up the water and make it cleaner..

[GaryP]

OK, here we go again. The source of any algae problem is nutrients, especially phosphorus. Cutting back the light may slow its growth, but then it will also slow the growth of other things like corals and coralline algae that are competing for the nutrients. That means the nutrient levels just get higher. So, you may actually be hurting yourself.

Even if your phosphorus tests are showing 0, that doiesn't mean they are low. There are two forms of phosphates and your kit only tests for one of them.

Fish will graze on hair algae, but won't totally eliminate. Grazsing actually stimulates growth. Most snails are very content to graze on the powder algae on the glass and aren't likely to chow down on hair algae growing on the rock. For that, I usually recommend small hermits. I've seen them cleean up a badly covered tank in a week, not months, if they are stocked heavily enough (1-2 per gallon).

However, remember that no matter what type of clean up grew you add, you have to deal with the source of the problem first. That's the phosphates. To do that you need to use a combination of things such as aggressive skimming, physical filtration, siphoning, water changes, and using a phosphate absorber such as PhosGuard or PhoSorb.

Another thing, tap water has little or no phosphates in it. Unless water is a putrid green color there is usually very little phosphate present in natural waters. This usually only happens when there is fertilizer of sewage run off going into water. Phosphate is usually in very high demand and gets used up quickly. You are the major source of phosphates in an aquarium system. Every time you feed the tank you are introducing phosphates. Most food are very rich in phosphates (~1% on a dry weight basis). NO, I am not suggesting you cut back on feeding. Most of us don't feed enough as it is. Rather, I am suggesting that we often need to develop strategies in our system management to address the problem through the steps I mentioned earlier.

[safeuerwehr]

thanks gary.....im fixxen to get a "mando" sized skimmer.....i didnt cut back on the lights as i read a similar article regarding lights on the RC site....i did add the critters as you suggested but when i orders the small blue legged hermits they looked more like micro hermits so i think i need to get more now.....when you say physical filtration what do you mean by this? and im running phoSorb as you recommend, should i increase the dosage on this or change out more requently?

[GaryP]

Change it out more frequently. The small blue legs are good eaters. You just may need to add more.

By physical filtration I mean something like a sock filter or some other kind of filtration media like floss to remove suspended solids and planktonic algae. These should be changed or cleaned at least once a week or whenever they become clogged. You don't want stuff staying in the filter so long that they start to break down and release nutrients back to the water as dissolved organics.

All of these strategies fall under the heading of nutrient exports. You are removing nutrients (export), in either a live or dead form from the system. This helps balance the imports, which as I said earlier is mainly food.

[safeuerwehr]

ok when you say sock filter where does this go and where do i get or can i use a panty hose to do this? and currently i have some filter media on the sump intake which gets dirty pretty fast...should i replace this media every time or can i rinse it out when its dirty?

[Sherri]

pantyhose works great....place it in a good flow area in sump....?

[safeuerwehr]

ttt

[ckorb7]

looks like dinoflagellates to me. i had what looks like the exact same problem as you a while back. it wasnt me who cause the problem, i had my mother feeding my tank or should i say WAY over feeding it while i was on vacation. i scooped out as much of the stuff as i could with a net and bumped up my cleaning crew. oh also two 20% water changes per week for about 1 month.

[mathias]

also more water movement...

[Richard]

Yes that is dinoflagellates. Several water changes and the use of kalkwasser to keep the ph high will clear it up pretty quickly.

[lhoy]

You will know if it is dinoflagellates if your snails die. If turbos are doing fine, it isn't dino. I have been dealing with dino after moving from a smaller tank to larger tank (disturbing sand causes this a lot to start). If it is dino, light reduction is a good treatment. For more information see Sprung's book on algaes.

Lee

[GaryP]

I've fought dinos in the past. Not much will eat it, its toxic. Amphipods are about its only thing that will and you'll need a few million to chomp down on it. As Richard said, is to keep the pH up with Kalk and buffer. Dino is very sensitive to high pH (above 8.5).

[safeuerwehr]

ok so pete (ping) came over and took a look at my tank which i really appriciate (thanks again pete), so he assured me that i dont have dino just a bad case of hair algea with cyano layering it like icing on a cake...on a plus side things seem to be getting normalized in regards to the algea which seems to be receeding...yaaah....we attribute this to the new skimmer which is working full steam producing some nasty skimmate...so now my zoas are actually opening up and most of the softies are engorging...so go figure my problem was an under powered skimmer (sea clone on a 125g)....will up date more as things change....thanks to everyone for their input...

alfred

[GaryP]

Uh Yea.... A sea clone on a 125 would be your problem. I was just barely able to keep things under control on a 50 gal. with a sea clone.

[oceanview85]

i know that i am posting ind of late but i had that problem once with the alge on the rocks all i did was get four large mexican turbo snails and in no time it was gone trust me if you want i can send you pictures.

[safeuerwehr]

yeah....please do
safeuerwehr@yahoo.com

thanks

[jtxstate]

try a sea slug, i got one and that sucker eats hair algae all day long!

[ckorb7]

large mexican turbos eat it, that what i bumped my clean up crew with. they will wipe it out.