Algae bloom gone Crrazy

[Clinton]

Hey all,
Just did a water change after missing them for about 3 months (work a lot). The parameters are all great but I got this algae just going nuts. Is it 30% water changes once to 2 twice a week for me? Too little clean up crew?
Also, I have some awful stuff growing where I can't seem to get any water movement, what can I do for me dead spots?
Why aren't my tangs or foxface gnomming down?
155g w/55 gallon sump (~40g of water in sump) enough protein skimmer for a 300g tank.

 

[Zeal]

Holy... Dude honestly press restart.

What are your water parameters?

 

[uutank]

Hey all,
Just did a water change after missing them for about 3 months (work a lot). The parameters are all great but I got this algae just going nuts. Is it 30% water changes once to 2 twice a week for me? Too little clean up crew?
Also, I have some awful stuff growing where I can't seem to get any water movement, what can I do for me dead spots?
Why aren't my tangs or foxface gnomming down?
155g w/55 gallon sump (~40g of water in sump) enough protein skimmer for a 300g tank.

First I think you’ll need to manually take out large chunks of algae from the tank (lots of labour round the corner). Check your water parameters specially phosphate levels.
Do you have a separate qt tank or anything? If you can transfer your corals to a different tank, and switch off lights on this tank as it’ll help in slowing the algae propagation. And then take out as much algae manually as possible. Just keep on removing it and the rest of it would be removed by fishes and other inverts(like snails and all). Hope this helps.[emoji1303]

 

[Clinton]

That's just the thing, I've had no spikes
Ammonia, Nitrite 0
Nitrate did register ~10ppm
Salinity 1.025
Temp 80
Calcium is through the roof ~440
Ph is low 7.6

 

[ectoaesthetics]

My bet is on phosphate. Even if it reads zero it might just be being consumed as rapidly as it is being added. RODI or just treated tap? There are phosphate removers similar to activated carbon in application. Highly recommend them as well as manual pulling of the hair algae. If you simply starve it you will be stuck in a cycle where it dies releasing phos into the water only to grow more. Phosphate will either be organic or inorganic your test kit will test for one of them -at best... but not for all sources.

Hope this helps.

 

[Clinton]

Didn't think to check phosphates derp... do Kenya trees need light? I have been giving this tank a ton of light. Didn't think to back that off.
I have an engineer goby I need to get out of there. Would it be worth pulling out and scrubbing all my rock and kill 2 birds with 1 stone. I do have a QT tank where the goby will stay permanently. But I don't think Kenya trees need a lot of light?

 

[Zeal]

pH needs to be around 8.0 give or take 1 or 2.

Something similar happened to me when I first started my tank I noticed ugly green hair algae and I took out every rock and drenched it with perioxide and scrubbed it until everything came off then let it sit in tank water for about an hour.

Also are you using RODI water?

 

[ectoaesthetics]

You could cut photo period to slow growth but as long as it is being fed it will still grow. I’ve gone back and forth on scrubbing vs pulling hair... I think I’m a fan of pulling but it is easier to play armchair quarterback when it’s not my tank and efforts, lol. I had one tank that I really struggled with hair algae in -years ago. I’ve only had small bouts ever since. But I now also run my phosphates as low as possible as a result. It really is a pain in the butt.

Don’t put chems on your rock if you scrub them. Just scrub them. A toothbrush works great. I went to pulling because when you scrub it is nearly impossible to get all the loose algae off the rock before you put it back in. At least when I pulled I could manually remove it with ease.

 

[Clinton]

All of it is always RODI, and I have a UV sterilizer, but I think it's time for a new bulb

 

[Zeal]

Also light could be an issue. I turned my red and yellow to 10% I read that those colors promote algae growth

Edit love the setup and the pillers on the left side. A nice encrusting coral on each of the pillers would looks beautiful
Saw you also mentioned water movement you wavemakers look awfully small for that size of a tank

 

[Clinton]

I think i'm going to take all the rock out, then take it out to the garage with air compressor and high pressure blow it off? What do you guys think? I need to take it all out to get to that engineer anyway. Also, close to a 40% water change..

Taking everything out with my DSB is going to be a chore getting back in haha thanks all!

 

[Zeal]

I think i'm going to take all the rock out, then take it out to the garage with air compressor and high pressure blow it off? What do you guys think? I need to take it all out to get to that engineer anyway. Also, close to a 40% water change..

Taking everything out with my DSB is going to be a chore getting back in haha thanks all!

Becareful doing that... I've read horror stories of people getting palytoxin posioning for doing that

 

[Clinton]

Also light could be an issue. I turned my red and yellow to 10% I read that those colors promote algae growth

Edit love the setup and the pillers on the left side. A nice encrusting coral on each of the pillers would looks beautiful
Saw you also mentioned water movement you wavemakers look awfully small for that size of a tank

They're 2100 GPH wave pumps from Orbit Current.

 

[TheBackAndForth]

Hey man, I'd cut your losses and restart with new dry rock. my guess is that your rock is leeching phosphates.

Completely empty, rinse the sand, then start a cycle. It wont cost that much money, and this will tank months to clear. reefcleaners.com is a great place to get cheap and quality rock.

If youre committed to clearing the algae, an army of pencil and pincushion urchins would go a long ways. Keep in mind, they do destroy coraline too, but at this point, it's a fair trade

 

[TheBackAndForth]

Also, recommend a shorter photocycle for now (6 hours). Kenya trees dont need much light.

 

[Clinton]

Hey man, I'd cut your losses and restart with new dry rock. my guess is that your rock is leeching phosphates.

Completely empty, rinse the sand, then start a cycle. It wont cost that much money, and this will tank months to clear. reefcleaners.com is a great place to get cheap and quality rock.

If youre committed to clearing the algae, an army of pencil and pincushion urchins would go a long ways. Keep in mind, they do destroy coraline too, but at this point, it's a fair trade

I could always reintroduce coralline algae later
What would make the current rock be so phosphate rich?

 

[TheBackAndForth]

I could always reintroduce coralline algae later
What would make the current rock be so phosphate rich?

**leaching

I believe it's long dead organics in the rock.

two things in our reefs cause explosive algae growth: nitrogen and phosphate. For nitrogen, nature has the nitrogen cycle to break it down. No such phosphate cycle exist, and it persists as PO4 until it is all used up (some compounds, like limestone, can bind it--but i am not too familiar with this). It's much easier to just remove the source of phophate IMO

 

[Clinton]

Hey man, I'd cut your losses and restart with new dry rock. my guess is that your rock is leeching phosphates.

Completely empty, rinse the sand, then start a cycle. It wont cost that much money, and this will tank months to clear. reefcleaners.com is a great place to get cheap and quality rock.

If youre committed to clearing the algae, an army of pencil and pincushion urchins would go a long ways. Keep in mind, they do destroy coraline too, but at this point, it's a fair trade

Also, it was up and going for about 10 months before this bloom

 

[TheBackAndForth]

Also, it was up and going for about 10 months before this bloom

that seems more suspicious of nitrogen then. Limit feeding, change 2x a week with reef salt (higher PH), and get some urchins, hermits, and a ton of snails. i would start with like 10 pencil urchins and a crew of hermits.

Also, feed tiny amounts. FIsh have much different metabolisms than us. they can survive on tiny amounts of food (but can still feed lots of stripped nori, this is a low bioload item)

 

[TheBackAndForth]

I have found one cleaning crew member per gallon plus urchins to be okay. i have 80 gallons and have about 30 hermits, 50 plus snails, one pencil, one pincushion.