Bad algae growth

[Jrswish]

I get constant film algae on my glass after just wiping it off, insane hair algae growth now. I have 3 fish, maroon, starry blenny, lyretail anthias. My phosphate reads 0.01 but thats pbciously not accurate. i have a lot of chaeto in my aio chamber area. what can be causing this? I feed reef frenzy/mysis daily 1-2x. this started out of no where, some of my zoas dont even fully open. i use my own ro/di water as well i havent added anything in months in terms of fish

 

[MnFish1]

lets forget the chemicals for now. EVERYONE has to wipe their glass. but - have you checked the TDS of your RODI? Second - what are the rest of your parameters? Third - my guess is that most people have to wipe their glass more often than the crystal-clear pictures. You are not alone

 

[Garf]

I get constant film algae on my glass after just wiping it off, insane hair algae growth now. I have 3 fish, maroon, starry blenny, lyretail anthias. My phosphate reads 0.01 but thats pbciously not accurate. i have a lot of chaeto in my aio chamber area. what can be causing this? I feed reef frenzy/mysis daily 1-2x. this started out of no where, some of my zoas dont even fully open. i use my own ro/di water as well i havent added anything in months in terms of fish

What algae munchers do you have?

 

[Lavey29]

What are your complete current parameters?

 

[Uncle99]

Your water chemistry is off.
Likely high nitrate, high phosphate.
Perhaps light in the red green spectrum.
Maybe to long a photoperiod.

test and adjust nitrate and phosphate into the range.
Consider using vibrant, a toothbrush and suck out all you can.
Lower lighting, especially the white, lower the photoperiod.
Keep salinity rock solid.

Let tank mature this way.

 

[Jrswish]

my nitrates are low, 5-10 PPm i test daily twice, i have TONS of chaeto, its a 32.5 gallon flex. its dricving me nuts man idk what to do

 

[Duffer]

The algae and cheats are consuming your phosphates where you are getting a false reading.

 

[Jrswish]

Out of nowhere it started becoming bad. 32.5 gallon, 1 maroon, 1 starry blenny, 1 lyretail, 3 shrimp, 2 snails. That’s it! I use my own ro/di water from BRS.

 

[Garf]

Out of nowhere it started becoming bad. 32.5 gallon, 1 maroon, 1 starry blenny, 1 lyretail, 3 shrimp, 2 snails. That’s it! I use my own ro/di water from BRS.

Can you get hold of an urchin, and more snails? Looks like a dry rock start up, if so, did you put any live rock in with it? A full tank pic might be nice.

 

[Clown2020]

I would cut back to once daily feeding, and increase clean up crew size significantly.

Either dr Timms or vibrance wouldn’t hurt to help speed up the clean up while adding more clean up crew but still need to address the cause or will come straight back

are you adding amino acids or feeding any coral food like reefroids or similar? What are you using for lighting and schedule?

Do you have any form of wavemaker? And how old is The tank? What are you running in the filter?


I too have a 32.5 flex that’s been up for 7 months and ive had my fair share of alge issues. With the flex they have very poor flow and need a good wave maker. Running somthing like chemipure or purged and phosgaurd will help too what I found worked best for me is more cleanup crew and less food.

I have around 15 stomotella snails 5 trochus snails 6 mini brittle stars and a bunch of pods and they are now starting to win the battle after cutting way back on amino acids and coral food.

 

[damsels are not mean]

Why would a tank with stable 30ppm nitrate grow any more algae than stable 0.1 ppm? Measurements of the amount in the water give you no idea of how much is coming in and going out or being sequestered by the life in your tank.

Any environment that corals will grow fast in will also grow algae fast (remember our corals rely on algae directly)

Tons of people chase low numbers trying to eradicate algae and have no sucess and at the same time tons of "high" nutrient tanks are near algae-free.

What matters in algae growth is not your nutrient levels but whether you have enough competition and predators for the algae. You can't replicate the ocean in your chemistry, skip all the wild algae controls, and then expect the tank not to grow algae. It's important to remember that algae growth doesn't mean you're doing something wrong. It's natural in a new tank and especially one with dry rock and hardly any coral. The solution to most algae blooms is to WAIT IT OUT. Dumping antibiotics and chemicals into your water is not a sustainable solution. You have to let the tank work it out and fill it up with more corals.

 

[vetteguy53081]

This stuff is becomming filamentous and likely slimy. It is similar to lingbya.
Your Phosphates are likely higher than you realize.
A skimmer would be helpful as well as reducing both white light intensity and duration of white light time. Best remedy is take rock out and place in a bucket or tub of tank water and scrub with firm toothbrush and agitate rock and return to display tank.

Is tank at or near a window?
Also what test kit(s) are you using ?

After cleaning rock, add some cleaners such as pin cushion urchin, chitons, cerith snails, nerite snails and blue leg carribean hermits

 

[damsels are not mean]

This stuff is becomming filamentous and likely slimy. It is similar to lingbya.
Your Phosphates are likely higher than you realize.
A skimmer would be helpful as well as reducing both white light intensity and duration of white light time. Best remedy is take rock out and place in a bucket or tub of tank water and scrub with firm toothbrush and agitate rock and return to display tank.

Is tank at or near a window?
Also what test kit(s) are you using ?

After cleaning rock, add some cleaners such as pin cushion urchin, chitons, cerith snails, nerite snails and blue leg carribean hermits

This seems extreme. If you soak and scrub the rocks, what's stopping this from happening again? You're not just disturbing the algae but also setting back growth of coralline algae, biofilms, microfauna, and any coral stuck on the rocks. All of those are what makes a "mature" system and are part of the long term solution. If the herbivores are the solution, why wait? You can always add more if you it's not keeping up. If the algae is living off of "new tank" symptoms, it will starve itself out and a more balanced ecosystem will find its place. I would only advocate doing something crazy like this to eliminate a pest algae that can't be handled easily like valonia or bryopsis. Even then, a bit extreme.

Some of the symptoms I am seeing here suggests more than an algal bloom. Zoanthids not opening up because of nutrients? I don't think so. Nutrients make corals grow faster, not slower. Only "extreme" nutrients supposedly slow their growth, but I have seen pretty extreme nutrient tanks with more healthy sticks than I could count.

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

What kind of lights are you using, if they are t5bulbs how old are your bulbs?

 

[vetteguy53081]

This seems extreme. If you soak and scrub the rocks, what's stopping this from happening again? You're not just disturbing the algae but also setting back growth of coralline algae, biofilms, microfauna, and any coral stuck on the rocks. All of those are what makes a "mature" system and are part of the long term solution. If the herbivores are the solution, why wait? You can always add more if you it's not keeping up. If the algae is living off of "new tank" symptoms, it will starve itself out and a more balanced ecosystem will find its place. I would only advocate doing something crazy like this to eliminate a pest algae that can't be handled easily like valonia or bryopsis. Even then, a bit extreme.

Some of the symptoms I am seeing here suggests more than an algal bloom. Zoanthids not opening up because of nutrients? I don't think so. Nutrients make corals grow faster, not slower. Only "extreme" nutrients supposedly slow their growth, but I have seen pretty extreme nutrient tanks with more healthy sticks than I could count.

Thats where the peroxide comes in. Ive dealt with this and with a few cleaners and control light and feeding, it will not returm unless youre using high phosphate water, have poor filtration or water flow and even overfeeding. I ad this in a 93 cube 3+ years ago and havent seen it since

 

[vetteguy53081]

This seems extreme. If you soak and scrub the rocks, what's stopping this from happening again? You're not just disturbing the algae but also setting back growth of coralline algae, biofilms, microfauna, and any coral stuck on the rocks. All of those are what makes a "mature" system and are part of the long term solution. If the herbivores are the solution, why wait? You can always add more if you it's not keeping up. If the algae is living off of "new tank" symptoms, it will starve itself out and a more balanced ecosystem will find its place. I would only advocate doing something crazy like this to eliminate a pest algae that can't be handled easily like valonia or bryopsis. Even then, a bit extreme.

Some of the symptoms I am seeing here suggests more than an algal bloom. Zoanthids not opening up because of nutrients? I don't think so. Nutrients make corals grow faster, not slower. Only "extreme" nutrients supposedly slow their growth, but I have seen pretty extreme nutrient tanks with more healthy sticks than I could count.

I have literally no phosphate and nitrate at .06 and these are my zoas below. Apparently you are not open to suggestions/fix. Good luck with your tank and these are some of my zoa in low nutrients

Mature tank ?? Coralline does not make any of my tanks mature which are free of coraline

 

[NS Mike D]

I'll throw this out anecdote out since it sounds eerily similar to my experience. My take was over taken by Dinos. The two aspects of your account are that 1) glass get covered right away and 2) zoas are suffering. Typical reef filtration won't get rid of Dinos, they just break up into small cells and immediately regroup. This sounds like what you described. Secondly, in my case the Dinos covered my corals to the death. I could be wrong and I may be mixing this up with cyano (which I also had) is that one of the two (or both) have toxins that that harm the corals and the clean up crew wont touch.
Check out the Dino thread, get a microscope if you don't have one (a well worth investment for a reefer even if you use it but once very five years) so you can post a pic and rule out Dinos or take necessary actions steps if you do have them.

Sorry I can't give you more definitive Information but there are others here who can help.

 

[Jrswish]

My tank is next to a window but its not always beaming on it, and I get red algae on my sand too

 

[vetteguy53081]

My tank is next to a window but its not always beaming on it, and I get red algae on my sand too

The UV from indirect light from window is much stronger than you realize even penetrating blinds and shades. I asked about window as that will be enough to do this. I found out the hard way when my store tanks were near a window so no light would hit them. They all started to get algae/hazing. I placed posters and graphics on the windows and the issue ceased in a couple of weeks.

 

[hsosa]

what was mentioned earlier feed less once a day or skip a day. ad a UV to your sump and reduce your photo period this will help your tank rebalance itself.