Added Reef Rock now have algae bloom?

[Cook]

Anyone know what I am dealing with here? I added some Marco Reef Rock that I cured for 3 weeks using Reef Brite Live Rock enhance according to the directions. Before I cured the rock, I bleached it and then soaked in Citric acid for 2 hours with the goal of removing any residual phosphate that might be there. I soaked in RODI several days with prime and rinsed well before starting my curing process. My phosphates were 0.07 and my nitrates were between 2-5 in this tank when I added the rock. The temp is 79F. I will need to check to see where I am tonight. I do not have a silicate test, but thinking it could be part of my problem.

I added the rock two days before I left the house for 5 days, which probably wasn't the smartest decision, but I was worried my garage would get too hot and create issues if I left the rock out there in the bin.

I came back to a mess. I have a light brownish slime that smothered my filter socks and filter sponge causing the sump to run through the emergency drains. It does not appear to be accumulating on the rock. It is growing quite well on my eggcrate racks. The protein skimmer is constantly overflowing. Since getting back yesterday, I have pulled the socks and sponges to keep the flow through the tank. I tried just rinsing the filter sponge and within 2 hours, the flow through the sponge was decreasing. I am letting the skimmer overflow into a bucket today and replacing the discharged water with fresh salt water.

A few other details: I have a seven stage RODI that I replaced all the filters and media in 6 weeks ago. My display tank is good meaning no slime. I am using a UV Aqua sterilizer on this tank with a new bulb set to a 90,000 micro watt flow rate. The slime seems worse in the sump where it is dark, but it may also just be accumulation. I haven't changed my lighting schedule. This should be about 20 pounds of rock in 50 gallons of total water volume. The first pic is today versus yesterday and I would say that things are worse today than when I first got back to see it yesterday evening. This tank was running for 6 weeks before I transferred the contents of my 40 gallon RS 170 that has been running for over a year into it. I made that transition slowly by swapping 5 gallons a day between the two tanks for 10 days.

 

[AquaPhilNJ]

If I heard you right, the tank is 6 weeks old, but the tank water is from your established tank. One thing to note is the nitrifying bacteria will live on the surface of the rock and sand; therefore transferring the established tank water IMO probably didn't accomplish much.

You said when adding the new rock the Phosphate was 0.07, but didn't say what it is now. Either way, I would use bacteria in a bottle such as MB7 to help establish the needed nitrifying bacteria, without things that easily thrive such as algae may appear. I do feel the outbreak is oddly fast and large scale, have you been using reef roids or other coral food that may have attached itself to the surfaces, thus allowing algae to easily grow since a lack of presence of nitrifying bacteria. Good Luck : /

 

[Cook]

If I heard you right, the tank is 6 weeks old, but the tank water is from your established tank. One thing to note is the nitrifying bacteria will live on the surface of the rock and sand; therefore transferring the established tank water IMO probably didn't accomplish much.

You said when adding the new rock the Phosphate was 0.07, but didn't say what it is now. Either way, I would use bacteria in a bottle such as MB7 to help establish the needed nitrifying bacteria, without things that easily thrive such as algae may appear. I do feel the outbreak is oddly fast and large scale, have you been using reef roids or other coral food that may have attached itself to the surfaces, thus allowing algae to easily grow since a lack of presence of nitrifying bacteria. Good Luck : /

Not really. I set this 40 gallon frag tank up separately to start with. I used AquaVitro Seed (works great) for 14 days and some Garf's Grunge (BTW, I wouldn't recommend this stuff) when I started it. I also transferred a little bit of live rock and a third of the marine pure spheres I had from the RS 170 I was looking to shut down to the refugium area of this tank's sump. The Red Sea 170 tank was up and running for almost a year and a half, so all of it's contents should have all the nitrifying bacteria it needs already. Once the 40 gallon frag tank cycled on its own, I started transferring 5 gallons a day between the two systems to ensure they matched each other to try to avoid having the tank cycle a second time. After that point, I transferred the small amount of live rock I had remaining, the rest of the marine pure sphere's and all my coral into the new system and shut the old one down. I had some algae, but it was brown and green, not this stuff.

 

[LRT]

Looks like the same kind of film algae I'm dealing with. Its exploded after adding a bunch of crushed coral. It will get stringy like that.
Getting ready to add more fritz 9 to my system. I should have taken the advice and soaked it in fritz 9 prior to placing in my system but live and learn.
Mexican turbos love it.

 

[Cook]

I did measure last night and my nitrates have dropped to 0 and the phosphates are 0.01. I have turned off my skimmer and Sterilizer. I'll increase my feeding schedule and dose some additional Seed bacteria to see what changes.

 

[Cook]

My problem did turn out to be an over abundance of bacteria and adding the rock increased the Alkalinity to about 13.5 dKh by Tuesday. I have the Sterilizer and skimmer running again. I am letting the skimmate drain back into the tank, there are still no nitrates and my phosphate is 0.015. I've done two 25% water changes to get back into range and the alkalinity is under 10 dKh now. I'm going to let it drop on it's own from here. As you can imagine there were some coral casualties. The slime peaked Tuesday and has gradually faded away the rest of this week to the point that it's gone as of tonight.

 

[naterealbig]

I saw the exact same thing when I started my QT. Keep up the good fight - the weird algae will go away as the tank matures. That algae is relative easy to blow off with a turkey baster, and the rest can be handled with a toothbrush (and some time). If you have a UV sterilizer lying around, it may be helpful to install until you are past this particular ugly phase.

Also, a substantial cleanup crew helped me through this. Blue leg hermits and snails will munch on this stuff.