Alage and more alage

[Alan098]

hi i will attach pics but the main problem is a green coating on all my rock that is not shaded and brown sand

The sand im assuming is diatoms?

The green seems to be bright and covers all rock that can see the light , when my tux urchin goes over it he leaves a white clean trail so its something he is eating , i think I have the same stuff on my glass and its difficult to remove cant be wiped with mag float,

The tank is not mature its only 2 months old
All levels are fine apart from ph low cant get it up its at 7.6
Thanks alan

 

[brandon429]

how many gallons is this tank, volume is the most important factor to know in determining a fix option. the rationale is that smaller tanks have it easy when access is needed, and large tanks do not so they have to try all kinds of dosers and param changes. how many gallons is the tank

 

[Alan098]

A

how many gallons is this tank, volume is the most important factor to know in determining a fix option. the rationale is that smaller tanks have it easy when access is needed, and large tanks do not so they have to try all kinds of dosers and param changes. how many gallons is the tank

Hi its only a 32g tank

 

[brandon429]

excellent, you get to opt out of weeks and weeks of wait. I have two giant threads to show in repeating patterns what Im describing below, this is the summary.


small tanks have the ability to just be taken apart and cleaned out, put back like its day 1, and nothing is bad about that. large tankers can't stand the cheat lol because they have to take months for something we can cause overnite, the uninvaded condition.

it involves taking apart the entire reef, cleaning the sand first then its uninvaded.

secondarily is cleaning the rock a special way, so that its uninvaded no longer full of clouding waste feed, and only this cleaning approach solves the cause.

all other forms of dosers kill algae and stack dead cells on top of the feed already in the rocks, and sand, without removing it.

if you use a doser or a parameter change to beat the algae, and those are possible, you get a much worse invasion of another opportunist by december.

but if you rip clean the system, then it looks sharp as soon as you are done and all the life goes back in, skip cycle. we do this for 36 pages straight in the sand rinse thread alone and the after pics are shockingly nice.

there is no instability from cleaning to attain the uninvaded condition; there is instability in not cleaning to attain it

ok ready to scrub in for surgery, or are you opting for the fluconazole pills lol

as your tank stands right now if we lift in and grab 1 test rock and swirl it mid tank, a massive cloud will come off clearly on the cell phone video.

same for sand, only worse

thats why only surgical cleaning is the right mode, although 99% will not do it they'll sooner lose the tank. invasion/uninvasion is a matter solely of will for nano reefs.

for large tanks its a matter of biology and chemistry and botany.

but for nanos, if we want to be invaded we do not run the above method, and if we do not want to be invaded we run it-easy choice.

 

[brandon429]

until we guide more coralline onto your rocks, these opportunists are going to make use of the open, bright reflective rock surfaces. your params arent bad, its that your tank lacks the right grazers which are human hands and will, snails wont clean out your invader food they add to it with poops.

the right time for a clean up crew isn't during the invasion, its after cleaning, in the non invaded condition, hoping to be employed as growback preventers but most likely not, just waste contributors. see how if you want the job done right, there's not many ways that come with pages of prior practice on file? its always usually a bunch of guessing, but not for nanos we rip them into shape all the time, daily.

one of the big threads is right below this one, the pest algae challenge thread.

its ok to try all other methods first and save this one for when you are plainly fed up, we're used to being the last option. its best to be the first, we sure save a lot of headaches but will accept any job any time for more after pics logging.

there simply isn't any harm to a deep clean, its either too much work or its not, but the after pics are clearly on file for inspection.

 

[Alan098]

until we guide more coralline onto your rocks, these opportunists are going to make use of the open, bright reflective rock surfaces. your params arent bad, its that your tank lacks the right grazers which are human hands and will, snails wont clean out your invader food they add to it with poops.

the right time for a clean up crew isn't during the invasion, its after cleaning, in the non invaded condition, hoping to be employed as growback preventers but most likely not, just waste contributors. see how if you want the job done right, there's not many ways that come with pages of prior practice on file? its always usually a bunch of guessing, but not for nanos we rip them into shape all the time, daily.

one of the big threads is right below this one, the pest algae challenge thread.

its ok to try all other methods first and save this one for when you are plainly fed up, we're used to being the last option. its best to be the first, we sure save a lot of headaches but will accept any job any time for more after pics logging.

there simply isn't any harm to a deep clean, its either too much work or its not, but the after pics are clearly on file for inspection.

Thanks for the detailed reply , breaking down and cleaning is certainly an option I have 5 large chunks of rock so nothing major there , im just confused if i scrub this off im 99% sure im not going to get it all then it will just come back won't it ?

What do you think it is ?

Some people seem to think its green coraline but seems far to fast growing

Do you think the brown is diatoms ?

 

[brandon429]

We dont bother to ID or take test readings, we either want the invader or we dont and if we dont want it, totally easy to remove. the ID wont change the fact of the looks of the tank, only the action sequence.


we should do one test rock before we begin for that very assessment concern. ive always hated how other algae approaches experiment with your whole system before knowing what works.

the rationale on test-rocking is, if we can get one rock to comply even with the feed in the bed left in place and the other rocks, then it's likely to really comply when placed in a cleaned up reef.

growback is affected by your water quality, lighting hue and intensity (whites cause green algae and blues help dial it back but look uglier in person, corals like the heavy blue mode though) and availability of grazers.

my system is about finding what works in the clean condition, vs just allowing takeover and experimenting for things that kill algae but never remove waste.

you are cleaning not just to be uninvaded, its so that your tank is better set against future invasions. I kicked up the peroxide thread just now, check out those jobs we arent having algae issues we are getting clean tanks.

you would remove one rock and use a knife, not a brush, a kitchen knife to precision pick and scrape off all the algae so you can see how it anchors, whether it rubs off easily or stays in place and you can tell if its coralline because you scraping coralline off rock is like scraping concrete, and algae will just come off.

after the rock is forced clean due to dental detailing, outside the tank in the air, you put peroxide over the cleaned parts that have no more algae but are now finally exposed rock.

let sit a couple mins in the air, then rinse off and put back it doesnt matter if you rinse that treated area in salt or freshwater none of it is harmful. live rock is tough and will not recycle,

watch your one test rock several days, see how it compares to the others to get an idea of how long a cleaning will hold

 

[Alan098]

We dont bother to ID or take test readings, we either want the invader or we dont and if we dont want it, totally easy to remove. the ID wont change the fact of the looks of the tank, only the action sequence.


we should do one test rock before we begin for that very assessment concern. ive always hated how other algae approaches experiment with your whole system before knowing what works.

the rationale on test-rocking is, if we can get one rock to comply even with the feed in the bed left in place and the other rocks, then it's likely to really comply when placed in a cleaned up reef.

growback is affected by your water quality, lighting hue and intensity (whites cause green algae and blues help dial it back but look uglier in person, corals like the heavy blue mode though) and availability of grazers.

my system is about finding what works in the clean condition, vs just allowing takeover and experimenting for things that kill algae but never remove waste.

you are cleaning not just to be uninvaded, its so that your tank is better set against future invasions. I kicked up the peroxide thread just now, check out those jobs we arent having algae issues we are getting clean tanks.

you would remove one rock and use a knife, not a brush, a kitchen knife to precision pick and scrape off all the algae so you can see how it anchors, whether it rubs off easily or stays in place and you can tell if its coralline because you scraping coralline off rock is like scraping concrete, and algae will just come off.

after the rock is forced clean due to dental detailing, outside the tank in the air, you put peroxide over the cleaned parts that have no more algae but are now finally exposed rock.

let sit a couple mins in the air, then rinse off and put back it doesnt matter if you rinse that treated area in salt or freshwater none of it is harmful. live rock is tough and will not recycle,

watch your one test rock several days, see how it compares to the others to get an idea of how long a cleaning will hold

Thanks will certainly give one rock a try