Algae Outbreaks: What's your BEST defense against it?

[LanaDelNeighh]

Ive been battling GHA since I set up my tank about 1.5 years ago (bought it completely set up, just had to move it) and GHA went nuts after everything was settled in my house. Recently I have started to get a handle on it, I have a pair of saltwater mollies that go HAM on it. Those little fatties are constantly mowing it down, better than my lawnmower blenny. Have a couple of mexican turbos and they have been annihilating the GHA on the walls. I have noticed my nitrates go up slightly and the amount of GHA go down. Still a ways to go, but this is the first time I felt like its not spiraling out of control.

 

[Reeferbadness]

I recently set up a new 200G tank and had to deal with a cycling algae outbreak + have had to battle dino's in my original 180 g tank.... my methods are the same: Keep a close eye on parameters, have some grazing fish (tangs, foxface, hawkfish and diamond goby for the sand), hydrogen peroxide and my real secret weapon which I couldn't win these battles without - Vibrant. If the problem get's pretty bad, i will double down on the # of Vibrant doses per week (2x vs 1x) and have had no issue with my mixed reef tanks.

 

[RoweReef]

Fluconazole and weekly vibrant dosing, just went through some crazy long hair algae. Tank was almost spotless in two weeks. That tank is still young 6 months old.

This. I also was battling hair algae. I recently dose Reef Flux and two days later I dosed Vibrant. I am shocked on how much the tank improved. I have 3 tuxedo urchins that mow thru algae, which is helping.

 

[wonroc]

i just close my eyes

 

[skip0211]

Haven’t had algae problems in years.. Chaeto in refugium.. stable ph, no3 and phosphates. 5 tangs, 1 fox face, 3 dwarf angels... 1” - 2” of sand. Algae doesn’t stand a chance..

 

[gmflex]

Just bought vibrant for the 1st time.. Started dosing today.. I hope it works on my 208 gallon tank.. Tank has been up for 3 months..

 

[AlexG]

I use refugium's, UV, manual removal, and urchins to deal with major algae issues. There is always a balance to be achieved with algae control. If you provide a more suitable environment for algae to grow outside of the display tank with a capacity to utilize the nutrient in the system then algae can still grow but not in your display tank. It also takes time an patience to eliminate algae there is no overnight cure. it took about 7 months to remedy algae from the displays of my last system. I am sure it will be similar in the new system.

For my last system when algae broke out I started to slowly add urchins and increase the light intensity over my refugium as a first step. A UV sterilizer was also added in part for algae control which helped clear up the dinos and cyano. Every couple of weeks a manual removal would also be done to export some of the nutrients locked in the hair algae. Over time more urchins, snails, and fish were added to consume the algae in the displays along with more lighting in the refugium until the algae was cleared from the displays.

 

[king aiptasia]

i dont really care much about my algae, it grows fairly thick at times, and blooms come and go. its really all about the available nutrients. As for thick hair algae I find mollies usually do surprisingly an all right job chewing on the aufwuchs along with standard grazers

 

[Fish man]

I try to keep phosphate and nitrate low. I have some kind of weird algae but it doesn't spread much so I just pull it off if it starts to clump. It's short, very dense, feels like steel wool and when you try to manually remove it it peels off like velcro. Other then that my tanks pretty mature and I don't have much algae probs. When first starting out I had a gha outbreak and did a 3 day total blackout. That totally eradicated it and I've never had any since but refer back to my first sentence.

 

[DeniseAndy]

Well, I do have a good defense, but it doesn't always work quite right. After a long battle with GHA I think I am finally ahead to the point where my defenses work. Takes time to build it up.
My algae scrubber is my main defense.
Now, if it could just get rid of my dinos.

 

[reef4now]

Keep your lights on for 8 hours,change your poly filter, and do weekly 10%water change.

 

[BigRedReefer MT]

I've always had algae in my tank since the uglies. Its changed from simple film algae to GHA, to cyano, to bubble, and back to GHA and film. I find upping my water changes to 30% every 1-2 weeks and using vibrant has worked the best to control growth. Tank is finally looking like something I might post a photo of on R2R. Almost.

 

[Treefer32]

I run an algae turf scrubber from Turbo aquatics. I'm debating if I need a second one for my 340 gallon display. But, with phosphates at .56-.66 ppm I still have no algae in the display. Film algae grows on the glass in the matter of hours. But, nothing else grows on the rocks. I think the defense here is Coraline or other things covering the rocks preventing algae from taking root.

That and I think macro algaes require nitrates to take root in the display and I suspect my scrubber consumes most of the nitrates further preventing algae from growing in the display. I don't know how else to explain no algae in the display with such high nitrates.

 

[DaddyFish]

I feed a lot and love lots of fish, so...

Lots of flow
Lots of UV
Tangs
Overcrowded Astrea snail population
Mexican Turbo snails for outbreaks
Occasional Fluconazole (Reef Flux)
Occasional Polyquat - Poly [ oxyethylene(dimethyliminio) ethylene(dimethyliminio)ethylene dichloride]

But by far, my best algae control is when I leave it alone, let it be ugly for a while and give nature time to re-balance. If I could buy patience in a bottle I'd be gold!

In the absence of liquid patience, I'm about to fire up a huge algae scrubber on my biggest tank ever.

 

[Kfactor]

My issue is always bottoming out po4 and no3 But I find if I have no3 above 3 to 4 my corals hate it . Now my corals are dying and don’t understand why lol

 

[sp1187]

I have high NO3(40/60) & PO4(.9/1.2)
one would think I would have a massive algae problem.
I don't and never have. I get a weird bacteria breakout twice a year.
I have small patches of a low growing algae that the herbies love.
strangely it only grows in low light areas.
never had the sand covering cyano others talk about.
my guess is because I've had multiple conchs in the tank since it
was safe to put livestock in. they do a fantastic job turning the sand
with out the debris field from sand sifters.

no live/dry rock in the system.

mechanically I run a SURF4X in my sump and that's it.
no socks. no skimmer.

feed 3 cubes and 1-2 Tbsp of R.O.E. nightly and Benepet twice a week.
plus pellets every now and then.
started doing weekly water changes months or so ago only because of
an ICP test that came back hgh in aluminum. (MarinePure Blocks leaching)
tank has been up since Aug 2018.

 

[Kevin_Mac]

I use a product called Chemi-pure Blue keeps the algae away, have to feed CUC with Algae pellets once in a bit . Do water changes every two weeks 30 %
Haven't had any problems since introducing the Chemo-pure Blue to sump

 

[David Gaskins]

Had a bad outbreak of gha. I took the hydrogen peroxide route. Worked great but you have to be very careful on dosing. I used 3% food grade. Started with 10ml twice daily for 3 days. Then uped it to 20ml then up to 30 ml over a period of 2 weeks. Worked wonders. Corals close up for a few days but have opened up since. Make your water crystal clear also after a few days. Fish had no side affects at all. I'm not saying this is the way to go I'm just saying it worked for me. 170 Ltr reef tank.

Could you list your tank size/dosage? Might help so that someone doesn't get the wrong idea and overdose.

Sincerely,

David

 

[Steph72]

I deal with a "major" type of outbreak every single year at least.

I deal with it at least once a week! Lol

 

[SaltwaterandLime]

A good CUC, chemi-pure blue, and every other week small doses of vibrant, as well as being careful with my lighting.....

Now, if I could say the same about my planner freshwater tanks I'd be happy!!