Almost Ready to Give Up!

[Rovert]

Howdy, folks. I'm wondering if one of you guys in the Northeastern PA area (NY: Orange / Rockland, NJ: Sussex, PA: Pike / Wayne) might be willing to stop by and give an opinion on what's going on with my tank. I'm willing to supply all the pizza and beer you can eat. ;-)

Backgrounder: A while back I was struggling with Dinos. I tried the lights-out with no success other than weakening my SPS to the point where they're now all dead. I then used DinoX and that helped, but now I'm being overrun with GHA. A couple weeks ago, I did a 10% water change and siphoned and scooped out the algae from the rocks and sand bed as much as possible, but it's right back.

What worries me is that this might all be attributable to the location of my tank in the house. It gets a lot of early day sun from the skylights, and if that's to blame, there's no easy fix. But if it's something else that's within my control, your input would be appreciated.

 

[slav621]

If you did a 10% water change a couple of weeks ago that won't be enough. A blackout worked for me but I see you already tried that. You need to be manually removing the algae and doing at least 25%-50% water change a week. I would also replace all filter media as well. This will be the only way to get rid of it. When I was going through this I manually removed/scrubbed my rock for about 2-3 weeks. I got rid of it as much as possible and then did a short 2 day black out. It didn't affect my corals or fish. My tank also gets about 3-4 hours of morning sun.

 

[brandon429]

How many gallons is this tank

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

It gets a lot of early day sun from the skylights, and if that's to blame, there's no easy fix.

Just to put this out there, while a number of people blame sunlight for algae, there are other tanks that are either entirely or partially lit by the sun that don't have algae issues - so it's not really the lighting (I can go into the technical details on this if you want, but, to be brief, algae grows under pretty much any spectrum).

 

[Rovert]

If you did a 10% water change a couple of weeks ago that won't be enough. A blackout worked for me but I see you already tried that. You need to be manually removing the algae and doing at least 25%-50% water change a week. I would also replace all filter media as well. This will be the only way to get rid of it. When I was going through this I manually removed/scrubbed my rock for about 2-3 weeks. I got rid of it as much as possible and then did a short 2 day black out. It didn't affect my corals or fish. My tank also gets about 3-4 hours of morning sun.

I guess I'll have to give it one more shot and see how it goes. If that doesn't work, I'm taking offers. ;-)

How many gallons is this tank

It's a CADE1800, so figure 170 in the display, another 25 or so in the sump.

 

[slav621]

I guess I'll have to give it one more shot and see how it goes. If that doesn't work, I'm taking offers. ;-)


It's a CADE1800, so figure 170 in the display, another 25 or so in the sump.

I totally understand lol. How old is your tank?

 

[Rovert]

I totally understand lol. How old is your tank?

About 2 years.

 

[Reefjnky]

Howdy, folks. I'm wondering if one of you guys in the Northeastern PA area (NY: Orange / Rockland, NJ: Sussex, PA: Pike / Wayne) might be willing to stop by and give an opinion on what's going on with my tank. I'm willing to supply all the pizza and beer you can eat. ;-)

Backgrounder: A while back I was struggling with Dinos. I tried the lights-out with no success other than weakening my SPS to the point where they're now all dead. I then used DinoX and that helped, but now I'm being overrun with GHA. A couple weeks ago, I did a 10% water change and siphoned and scooped out the algae from the rocks and sand bed as much as possible, but it's right back.

What worries me is that this might all be attributable to the location of my tank in the house. It gets a lot of early day sun from the skylights, and if that's to blame, there's no easy fix. But if it's something else that's within my control, your input would be appreciated.

How is the flow? I've had problems with algae on sand when there wasnt enough water movement..i got stronger heads and it went away. My lawnmower blenny took care of the hair algae on rocks and turbo and nassarius snails do amazing work to keep it in check. Get something to stir up and filter the sand like a diamond goby or conch.

 

[Rovert]

How is the flow? I've had problems with algae on sand when there wasnt enough water movement..i got stronger heads and it went away. My lawnmower blenny took care of the hair algae but if the tank is less than a year old stuff like that will always pop up

COR20 for recirc
2x Maxspect 350 Gyres at top for SPS
2x Maxspect 330 Gyres at bottom for deep flow.

 

[Dburr1014]

It took 2 years to get here. Roll up your sleeves and let's get to work.
Dinos are the worst. Same boat here, dinos, beat it, then gha. For a year I tried everything.
Beef up your clean up crew. Manually pull at least 3 times a week if possible. Urchins, snails, hermit crabs, fish(tang or blennies).
Watch nutrient levels. 0 to 5ppm no3 and 0.05 to 0.1 po4.
Algae is natural and better than having dinos.
Do all this for a while(months) and see if it starts to clear up.

You got this OP!

 

[Reefjnky]

COR20 for recirc
2x Maxspect 350 Gyres at top for SPS
2x Maxspect 330 Gyres at bottom for deep flow.

How is the movement over the sand? Rock and coral growth may be preventing the flow from reaching.