Algae bloom gone Crrazy

cooltowncorals · Jul 3, 2018

Phosphates leaching from rocks is a pretty widely held belief I also recall a thread somewhere where someone was curing rocks for a display can’t remember live or dry and and they were testing and using phosphate media and they spent like three weeks and a replacement of media until phosphate levels went to 0 and stayed there.

Retro Reefer · Jul 3, 2018

cooltowncorals said:
Phosphates leaching from rocks is a pretty widely held belief I also recall a thread somewhere where someone was curing rocks for a display can’t remember live or dry and and they were testing and using phosphate media and they spent like three weeks and a replacement of media until phosphate levels went to 0 and stayed there.

There is a big difference between new rock releasing phosphates during the curing process such as your describing and rock that’s been in a system for upwards of a year.. new rock will almost always initially release a lot of phosphates from the surface contaminates and dead organic material, the OP’s rock is way past the curing stage and would still need to be releasing large amounts of phosphates to fuel his algae growth.. that’s the part I don’t buy into, I have never seen any scientific data supporting the claims of well cured rock in a established system leaching substantial amounts of phosphates

cooltowncorals · Jul 3, 2018

Makes sense

Super Fly · Jul 3, 2018

Please be patient and dont' do anything drastic. I wouldn't remove rocks to soak/scrub them in chems to kill the GHA as it'll also kill off the beneficial bacteria that has been established and then the rocks have to be recured. Since ur GHA is so tall, they'll be easier to manually pull off. Read this article by Melev about GHA, he uses Phosphate RX to weaken the GHA root to easily pull them off the rocks rinsing his fingers in clean water after each removal. http://www.melevsreef.com/articles/getting-rid-of-green-hair-algae. Reducing light hours will also go a long way to reduce GHA, and 48 hrs lights out will have a dramatic effect on tank.

Clinton · Jul 3, 2018

Super Fly said:
Please be patient and dont' do anything drastic. I wouldn't remove rocks to soak/scrub them in chems to kill the GHA as it'll also kill off the beneficial bacteria that has been established and then the rocks have to be recured. Since ur GHA is so tall, they'll be easier to manually pull off. Read this article by Melev about GHA, he uses Phosphate RX to weaken the GHA root to easily pull them off the rocks rinsing his fingers in clean water after each removal. http://www.melevsreef.com/articles/getting-rid-of-green-hair-algae. Reducing light hours will also go a long way to reduce GHA, and 48 hrs lights out will have a dramatic effect on tank.

I like the 48hrs no light idea... I'll still be pulling all my rock to get to that dang engineer goby

TheBackAndForth · Jul 3, 2018

Retro Reefer said:
There is a big difference between new rock releasing phosphates during the curing process such as your describing and rock that’s been in a system for upwards of a year.. new rock will almost always initially release a lot of phosphates from the surface contaminates and dead organic material, the OP’s rock is way past the curing stage and would still need to be releasing large amounts of phosphates to fuel his algae growth.. that’s the part I don’t buy into, I have never seen any scientific data supporting the claims of well cured rock in a established system leaching substantial amounts of phosphates

I don’t know that anybody was suggesting this. OP’s tank was up for 8 months before this growth. None of us believe it is phosphate or suggest that once we new it wasn’t brand new.

PO4 does bind strongly to calcium carbonate. Newer recured or dry rock can containe quite a lot

Retro Reefer · Jul 3, 2018

TheBackAndForth said:
I don’t know that anybody was suggesting this. OP’s tank was up for 8 months before this growth. None of us believe it is phosphate or suggest that once we new it wasn’t brand new.

PO4 does bind strongly to calcium carbonate. Newer recured or dry rock can containe quite a lot

Maybe you should carefully read the post I quoted or better yet the entire thread the OP said his tank was up for 10 months prior to outbreak not 8.. good luck in med school

Clinton · Jul 5, 2018

Took the rock all out, scrubbed it, did 30% water change and finally got that stupid engineer goby out of there. Found that my UV sterilizer was near to burnt out and my carpet blenny no longer exists.. I think his rotting corpse may be the answer to my nitrate being anything other than zero. Also I think the fact I never found spikes is because the algae ate up all the nitrate.

Halal Hotdog · Jul 5, 2018

I have that exact tank, absolutely love my 155 bowfront. Great suggestions have been made and it seems like you have already done a ton of work. I wanted to let you know you could also approach this chemically. Hydrogen peroxide, fluconazole, and vibrant have a mass following for correcting a situation like yours. They chemically kill all the algae, but do nothing for the nutrients. They give you more of a blank slate to fix the underlying issue, but if not corrected then algae returns within a few months. Personally I'm not a fan of the restart option.

TheBackAndForth · Jul 5, 2018

Clinton said:
Took the rock all out, scrubbed it, did 30% water change and finally got that stupid engineer goby out of there. Found that my UV sterilizer was near to burnt out and my carpet blenny no longer exists.. I think his rotting corpse may be the answer to my nitrate being anything other than zero. Also I think the fact I never found spikes is because the algae ate up all the nitrate.

I think you found your problem anyway. Low light, water changes, and small feeding. More cleaning crew. Wait a few months and good as new!

Clinton · Jul 7, 2018

It's all looking a lot more manageable. None of my snails are covered in hair algae anymore and I've got a good feeling the cuc is about to clean house. The foxface and hippo have been going ham on a lot of the algae. Makes me feel good.