Algae issues

Matt F · Jul 7, 2019

In the last couple days a lot of algae has been growing on my rocks that haven’t been there since I started the tank. The tank is 11 months old. I have a tang in there but recently I got velvet from some frags at a drag show to they are in QT. My cheato I have in the refuge has just been melting away it was growing like a weed for a while and all of a sudden it just started melting. Anything will help

Peace River · Jul 7, 2019

Matt F said:
In the last couple days a lot of algae has been growing on my rocks that haven’t been there since I started the tank. The tank is 11 months old. I have a tang in there but recently I got velvet from some frags at a drag show to they are in QT. My cheato I have in the refuge has just been melting away it was growing like a weed for a while and all of a sudden it just started melting. Anything will help

The picture looks like blue-green cyano.

Hopefully others will chime in soon to confirm. #reefsquad

rkpetersen · Jul 7, 2019

Your nutrients may be way up.
When chaeto stops growing and starts to fragment, it releases all those stored up nutrients back into the water.
Not just nitrate and phosphate but all kinds of organic molecules. Cyano thrives on that stuff.
Best to get the failing chaeto out to salvage as much of the nutrient export that it's already achieved, and then reseed with fresh chaeto.
Why chaeto fails isn't entirely clear but the two main factors from what I've seen are inadequate water flow through it or inadequate trace elements.
Could try increased water changes, blowing and siphoning, adding activated carbon, increased skimming.

Big G · Jul 7, 2019

The cheato "melting away" could suggest that something else is eating the food the cheato needs, unless the parameters are out of normal range. Probably the algae in the tank. Kinda normal for the new tank uglies. Looks like you have some Bubble algae in the tank, too.

Matt F · Jul 8, 2019

Big G said:
The cheato "melting away" could suggest that something else is eating the food the cheato needs, unless the parameters are out of normal range. Probably the algae in the tank. Kinda normal for the new tank uglies. Looks like you have some Bubble algae in the tank, too.

I’m testing everything once I do a clean up of the sump. I’m off on vacation for 2weeks and have someone taking care of things. Also I have a apex dosing pump that I use as auto water change does 1 gallon a day and takes one gallon out too. I been running gfo and carbon one to get my phosphates down which they came down to where I wanted them.08. I have been dosing vibrant to clean up the bubble algae so that shouldn’t be bubble algae maybe just trapped air bubbles from sump. But I will try and do a weekly water change when I get back. Thanks