annoying algae.

[Brandon42]

okay so at this point iv battled so many types of algae and my tank is actually in a decent condition but i still cant beat the grow back, is this a never ending battle? iv increased my cuc which has helped a ton on my rocks but doesnt do much for my sand bed (i have a sand sifting star for this but doesnt seem to keep up) so iv moved on to nutrients i know i had a bad phosphate problem for a little while but have sense gotten a reactor and havent seen any sense.

ph - 8.2
po3 - 2ppm
po4 - 0 (starting to question test kit though- nutrafin)
alk - 8.5 dkh
cal - 420

iv got a skimmer, chaeto refuge, brs mini reactor, and a 25w uv sterilizer so i guess my question is what other nutrients can fuel algae growth? its more under control than ever currently in my tank but i would like to end it for good if possible.

 

[Brandon42]

Also my lights are only on 8 hours a day with another 5 with only moonlight led's.

 

[Brandon42]

@brandon429

 

[Tahoe61]

The tank looks somewhat young? I do not see much coralline algae growth.
There are a few good algae eaters and detritus stirrers that you probably do not have. Chitions, limpets, nassarius, urchins see link below. There is plenty of film and green algae to feed these in your tank. Do you have a mag float for the glass.

http://www.reefcleaners.org/aquarium-store/tank-cleaners

You might consider an Algae Turf Scrubber/ATS. There are plenty of DIY threads as an example of how to make one.

Algae problem solutions seem to take a long time to take hold, solving algae issues takes awhile. If your water source is appropriate and you're not over feeding the tank than the tank will come around.

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

You can manually remove the algae with a scraper or scrubber & add more livestock that removes algae It will lessen the algae promblem...

-MJ

 

[Brandon42]

yeah i was looking at this site for awhile but ended up just buying 10 snails at a time. iv got 5 bumble bees,5 cerith, 15 trochus, 3 turbos, 3 peppermint shrimp, 1 sand sifting star, and a algae blenny. it could be larger i just felt like the 300 something reef cleaners told me a needed was a bit steep. they seem to be doing a great job with the rock its the glass and the sand it wont stay off.

 

[Brandon42]

and iv got a scraper, i usually have to use it every other day on the glass.

 

[Brandon42]

The tank looks somewhat young? I do not see much coralline algae growth.
There are a few good algae eaters and detritus stirrers that you probably do not have. Chitions, limpets, nassarius, urchins see link below. There is plenty of film and green algae to feed these in your tank. Do you have a mag float for the glass.

http://www.reefcleaners.org/aquarium-store/tank-cleaners

You might consider an Algae Turf Scrubber/ATS. There are plenty of DIY threads as an example of how to make one.

Algae problem solutions seem to take a long time to take hold, solving algae issues takes awhile. If your water source is appropriate and you're not over feeding the tank than the tank will come around.

oh and yes it is rather young, its been up and running for a little over 5 months.

 

[brandon429]

I agree with all so far. Variation comes into play now since this is a guiding issue and not a restoration issue, the tank looks to be as it should considering age and stocking levels \grazer balances we can ascend to in time

An untapped frontier/simplicity still exists in light spectrum adjusting. The work load I do for glass scraping has been greatly diminished running more blue less white, to the point of significance worth reporting.

I wouldn't attack with chems here, if hand razor scrape to keep glass clean is annoying it's ok to either hit the po4 and nitrate with the ways listed that's what I'd do if I had a large reef that prevented me from just changing all the water at once. Easy complete water resets may be a pico reefers luxury, but you guys and gals get all the cool fish.

 

[Brandon42]

I agree with all so far. Variation comes into play now since this is a guiding issue and not a restoration issue, the tank looks to be as it should considering age and stocking levels \grazer balances we can ascend to in time

An untapped frontier/simplicity still exists in light spectrum adjusting. The work load I do for glass scraping has been greatly diminished running more blue less white, to the point of significance worth reporting.

I wouldn't attack with chems here, if hand razor scrape to keep glass clean is annoying it's ok to either hit the po4 and nitrate with the ways listed that's what I'd do if I had a large reef that prevented me from just changing all the water at once. Easy complete water resets may be a pico reefers luxury, but you guys and gals get all the cool fish.

hmm i will try running more blue light and see if that helps, and keep building my cuc. and yes changing out 150 gallons is no easy task lol

 

[brandon429]

I have kessils so the tune from blue to white was easy, I don't even know the spectrum specifics I just know this is bluer than id normally run. its not harming my sps, growth is great and I change literally nothing else but wipe less brown diatoms from the glass now vs before when I was running what looked like about 10K

is now about 20K in looks and it did help me. This may not be a deal fixer for you but its among the easier tweaks to run that stands a good chance...takes about a mo or two to see results if any, it did in my tank. it wasn't adding blue to the whites, it was reducing the whites and making up for that w blue. I read that some white is required, but to go beyond helps these low level invaders.

true light spectrum geeks hate the blue/white moniker but im just anti algae don't care about much else heh

nice job guiding your rocks and major scape clean, this is collectively guiding the maturing tank into compliance vs those that go hands off, then do a much worse catch up. a bigger uv never ever hurts lol

plant filtration also good and free/cheap, all open for experiment.

 

[Brandon42]

I have kessils so the tune from blue to white was easy, I don't even know the spectrum specifics I just know this is bluer than id normally run. its not harming my sps, growth is great and I change literally nothing else but wipe less brown diatoms from the glass now vs before when I was running what looked like about 10K

is now about 20K in looks and it did help me. This may not be a deal fixer for you but its among the easier tweaks to run that stands a good chance...takes about a mo or two to see results if any, it did in my tank. it wasn't adding blue to the whites, it was reducing the whites and making up for that w blue. I read that some white is required, but to go beyond helps these low level invaders.

true light spectrum geeks hate the blue/white moniker but im just anti algae don't care about much else heh

nice job guiding your rocks and major scape clean, this guiding the maturing tank into compliance. a bigger uv never ever hurts lol

lol yes me and this tank have come a long way in terms of algae issues! thanks for the input and i am okay with the wait this post was more preventive than anything so a lighting tweak is the perfect idea. it takes a good amount of neglect to get to a bad level of algae right now but i am with you on anti algae. and i would love a bigger uv but my wife would most likely kill me for asking for a new one lol! a new bulb is not a bad idea though.

 

[Brandon42]

I agree with all so far. Variation comes into play now since this is a guiding issue and not a restoration issue, the tank looks to be as it should considering age and stocking levels \grazer balances we can ascend to in time

An untapped frontier/simplicity still exists in light spectrum adjusting. The work load I do for glass scraping has been greatly diminished running more blue less white, to the point of significance worth reporting.

I wouldn't attack with chems here, if hand razor scrape to keep glass clean is annoying it's ok to either hit the po4 and nitrate with the ways listed that's what I'd do if I had a large reef that prevented me from just changing all the water at once. Easy complete water resets may be a pico reefers luxury, but you guys and gals get all the cool fish.

I finally got around to replacing all my bulbs and I went with mostly blue spectrum. I have deffinitly noticed much less algae growing on the glass now that I have much more blue.