Green algae problem and coral bleaching

[Whiteydenewf]

So this is my son’s tank. Every week it is a fight to control the hair algae. He currently has a clown, peppermint shrimp, skunk cleaner shrimp, Halloween hermit crab, emerald crab, a couple astrea snails, 2 turban snails, 2 bumblebee snails, 4 margarita snails, and a cowrie snail.

Every week we do water changes. Phosphates are good. Nitrates are good. Every month we vacuum the back of the tank and change up the carbon and GfO. During water changes we suction the sand to remove waste. And I pinch as much of the hair algae as possible to reduce growth. But every week the darn stuff keeps coming back. We use the product Vibrant weekly as directed. Saltwater is at 33ppm.

He’s had this tank for 2 years and we have solved problems through this site’s forums, but I’m going crazy. Can anyone throw out some suggestions?

thanks

 

[Whiteydenewf]

So read BRS options: and determine what you need and your own budget. I’m thinking the 4 stage with tds monitors would do.

This has been especially helpful. Thanks so much. I’ll get on ordering this. And thanks for all the helpful input. I’ll follow up with hopefully improvement.

 

[Dav2996]

So this is my son’s tank. Every week it is a fight to control the hair algae. He currently has a clown, peppermint shrimp, skunk cleaner shrimp, Halloween hermit crab, emerald crab, a couple astrea snails, 2 turban snails, 2 bumblebee snails, 4 margarita snails, and a cowrie snail.

Every week we do water changes. Phosphates are good. Nitrates are good. Every month we vacuum the back of the tank and change up the carbon and GfO. During water changes we suction the sand to remove waste. And I pinch as much of the hair algae as possible to reduce growth. But every week the darn stuff keeps coming back. We use the product Vibrant weekly as directed. Saltwater is at 33ppm.

He’s had this tank for 2 years and we have solved problems through this site’s forums, but I’m going crazy. Can anyone throw out some suggestions?

thanks

Here are your choices to help you
1. Scrub with tooth brush.
2. Add microbacter 7 daily to outcompete algae, keep refrigerated
3. Add brightwell phosphate remover which will make hair algae brown. Weakens it.
4. Add a skimmer to reduce access to nutrients it can use.
5. Add scarlet blue hermit crabs. I added 10 and they eat it up. They love algae.
6. Add herbivore fish. My flame angel cured my hair algae. 50% chance they eat coral.
7 use Rodi, buy Rodi water from local fish store, or buy distilled and only pure water no chloraine in it.

Dont expect it to go away in one night. May take weeks to months. Just keep it off the corals and tooth brush it off the rocks. Don’t give up I got past it. Salt water is a fight and a good one.

 

[Whiteydenewf]

I wanted to follow up on my original post. So the phosphates are under control! Also, I took the advice from the respondents and lifted that rock and scrubbed that algae off with a toothbrush. There are small morsels left but it is handled. It’s also not growing back so major thanks to everyone who gave the suggestions.

I am yet to get a RODI system. Honest question. I understand RODI is effective in making deionized water, but is there a difference in RODI water and distilled wrt quality? Appreciate any input you can offer here.

Also, I have recorded my light settings on my Aquaknight LEDs. There are 3 settings and each setting has 3 channels. I currently have the following:
8:00am, A 10, B 25, C 5 (C is white)
10:30am A 50, B 50, C 10
3:30pm A 1, B 1, C 1
Reminder that the tank is a 20G rectangular tank and not exactly too deep. I was concerned that the lights were responsible for bleaching months ago and reduced intensity.

Also good news on some of my corals. The acan is bouncing back and my frogspawn is stretching out again. The zoas were never really affected except they were covered with the algae.

thanks again for all the advice and suggestions.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Hi. I just read through this thread. Sounds like things have turned a corner and are getting better! One comment I'd like to make: there's no need to let Instant Ocean saltwater sit for a week after mixing. It can be used as soon as the water is clear (everything is dissolved). Is there a particular reason you wait before using it?
(On the flip side of that coin, since you have such a small system, you CAN mix a larger batch and store the extra in a closed/covered container for up to a month without any issue; just double check the salinity before use in case there's been any evaporation).

 

[Whiteydenewf]

Hi. I just read through this thread. Sounds like things have turned a corner and are getting better! One comment I'd like to make: there's no need to let Instant Ocean saltwater sit for a week after mixing. It can be used as soon as the water is clear (everything is dissolved). Is there a particular reason you wait before using it?
(On the flip side of that coin, since you have such a small system, you CAN mix a larger batch and store the extra in a closed/covered container for up to a month without any issue; just double check the salinity before use in case there's been any evaporation).

Hi Erin, that’s exactly what I do. I mix, cover, and store on the same night that I change the water. I had found that my specific gravity would change slightly upon mixing. Not a whole lot, but again with a small system, everything was more affected by slight change.

 

[Dav2996]

I wanted to follow up on my original post. So the phosphates are under control! Also, I took the advice from the respondents and lifted that rock and scrubbed that algae off with a toothbrush. There are small morsels left but it is handled. It’s also not growing back so major thanks to everyone who gave the suggestions.

I am yet to get a RODI system. Honest question. I understand RODI is effective in making deionized water, but is there a difference in RODI water and distilled wrt quality? Appreciate any input you can offer here.

Also, I have recorded my light settings on my Aquaknight LEDs. There are 3 settings and each setting has 3 channels. I currently have the following:
8:00am, A 10, B 25, C 5 (C is white)
10:30am A 50, B 50, C 10
3:30pm A 1, B 1, C 1
Reminder that the tank is a 20G rectangular tank and not exactly too deep. I was concerned that the lights were responsible for bleaching months ago and reduced intensity.

Also good news on some of my corals. The acan is bouncing back and my frogspawn is stretching out again. The zoas were never really affected except they were covered with the algae.

thanks again for all the advice and suggestions.

Rodi water is the best water because it is free of TDS and other things like arsenic that are bad for the coral and fish.

 

[Dav2996]

I wanted to follow up on my original post. So the phosphates are under control! Also, I took the advice from the respondents and lifted that rock and scrubbed that algae off with a toothbrush. There are small morsels left but it is handled. It’s also not growing back so major thanks to everyone who gave the suggestions.

I am yet to get a RODI system. Honest question. I understand RODI is effective in making deionized water, but is there a difference in RODI water and distilled wrt quality? Appreciate any input you can offer here.

Also, I have recorded my light settings on my Aquaknight LEDs. There are 3 settings and each setting has 3 channels. I currently have the following:
8:00am, A 10, B 25, C 5 (C is white)
10:30am A 50, B 50, C 10
3:30pm A 1, B 1, C 1
Reminder that the tank is a 20G rectangular tank and not exactly too deep. I was concerned that the lights were responsible for bleaching months ago and reduced intensity.

Also good news on some of my corals. The acan is bouncing back and my frogspawn is stretching out again. The zoas were never really affected except they were covered with the algae.

thanks again for all the advice and suggestions.

Keep green lights low

 

[Whiteydenewf]

Rodi water is the best water because it is free of TDS and other things like arsenic that are bad for the coral and fish.

Then with a distiller, or distilled water, you still can have contaminants? I assumed when the water is distilled, all of the contaminants get left behind. Is there a good resource where I can research and understand this better? Thx for the response.

 

[Whiteydenewf]

Keep green lights low

There is no green. It’s a purple, blue and white.

 

[Dav2996]

There is no green. It’s a purple, blue and white.

I run ai prime so I can control all the red and green because that grows algae. I have a nano as well. I don’t know about your light because I don’t own that brand.

 

[Whiteydenewf]

Another follow up. So this is the tank. 2 photos here because my phone’s camera don’t really take pictures of my tank that well. A third is of my skimmer. I did a water change tonight and the skimmer is full within an hour. My thought is the sand bed isn’t being shifted that well and when I remove water I stir up the bed to remove the underlying waste. I wonder if it might be a good idea to sift through the bed frequently to get that stuff stuck in the sand caught in the filter and skimmer? Any thoughts? Once again major kudos to all the people who took the time to reply. Thx so much.

 

[peterjones]

So this is my son’s tank. Every week it is a fight to control the hair algae. He currently has a clown, peppermint shrimp, skunk cleaner shrimp, Halloween hermit crab, emerald crab, a couple astrea snails, 2 turban snails, 2 bumblebee snails, 4 margarita snails, and a cowrie snail.

Every week we do water changes. Phosphates are good. Nitrates are good. Every month we vacuum the back of the tank and change up the carbon and GfO. During water changes we suction the sand to remove waste. And I pinch as much of the hair algae as possible to reduce growth. But every week the darn stuff keeps coming back. We use the product Vibrant weekly as directed. Saltwater is at 33ppm.

He’s had this tank for 2 years and we have solved problems through this site’s forums, but I’m going crazy. Can anyone throw out some suggestions?

thanks

The major issue what comes up in this sort of things is changing of water plus less of sunlight what I feel. Even I had face same algae issue last month.

 

[Dav2996]

Another follow up. So this is the tank. 2 photos here because my phone’s camera don’t really take pictures of my tank that well. A third is of my skimmer. I did a water change tonight and the skimmer is full within an hour. My thought is the sand bed isn’t being shifted that well and when I remove water I stir up the bed to remove the underlying waste. I wonder if it might be a good idea to sift through the bed frequently to get that stuff stuck in the sand caught in the filter and skimmer? Any thoughts? Once again major kudos to all the people who took the time to reply. Thx so much.

Also how close is the tank to a window or direct sun light? That can cause it to grow.

That looks like nice skimmate from the skimmer!

 

[Whiteydenewf]

So this is my son’s tank. Every week it is a fight to control the hair algae. He currently has a clown, peppermint shrimp, skunk cleaner shrimp, Halloween hermit crab, emerald crab, a couple astrea snails, 2 turban snails, 2 bumblebee snails, 4 margarita snails, and a cowrie snail.

Every week we do water changes. Phosphates are good. Nitrates are good. Every month we vacuum the back of the tank and change up the carbon and GfO. During water changes we suction the sand to remove waste. And I pinch as much of the hair algae as possible to reduce growth. But every week the darn stuff keeps coming back. We use the product Vibrant weekly as directed. Saltwater is at 33ppm.

He’s had this tank for 2 years and we have solved problems through this site’s forums, but I’m going crazy. Can anyone throw out some suggestions?

thanks

Also how close is the tank to a window or direct sun light? That can cause it to grow.

That looks like nice skimmate from the skimmer!

The tank is in my son’s basement bedroom. He’s a teenager so the curtain is closed and it’s North facing. Not too much light. Scrubbing the rock with a brush and keeping the phosphates in check has helped a lot. The frogspawn is starting to stretch out again, which is great considering I thought we’d lose it.

That skimmer is busy. It’s collecting all the settled stuff in the sand after the sand is stirred up. I left it for just an hour and got that much. It’ll be full again by morning. I’m hoping to stir the sand daily to hopefully remove excess waste in the sand bed.

 

[Whiteydenewf]

The tank is in my son’s basement bedroom. He’s a teenager so the curtain is closed and it’s North facing. Not too much light. Scrubbing the rock with a brush and keeping the phosphates in check has helped a lot. The frogspawn is starting to stretch out again, which is great considering I thought we’d lose it.

That skimmer is busy. It’s collecting all the settled stuff in the sand after the sand is stirred up. I left it for just an hour and got that much. It’ll be full again by morning. I’m hoping to stir the sand daily to hopefully remove excess waste in the sand bed.

Just decided to check now actually. Full again

 

[Dav2996]

Just decided to check now actually. Full again

Be careful if you haven’t been stirring the sand bed. Depending how old the bed has been sitting it could release hydrogen sulfide. I have had that happen. Do sections at a time. I just have nassaurius snails stir my sand now. They are kinda cool because they have a tube come out of the sand like a submarine looking glass haha

 

[Whiteydenewf]

Be careful if you haven’t been stirring the sand bed. Depending how old the bed has been sitting it could release hydrogen sulfide. I have had that happen. Do sections at a time. I just have nassaurius snails stir my sand now. They are kinda cool because they have a tube come out of the sand like a submarine looking glass haha

Thx for letting me know that. The tank is 2 years. The bed is stirred weekly upon suctioning the water out for change. I often just stir it with the vacuum nozzle. I was going to get a nassaurius for the tank, but I was low on sand. I think they need 2-3 inches and I had around an inch deep. Do you think it a good idea to add more sand and add one to the tank?

 

[Whiteydenewf]

Tell us about:
1. Lights and lighting schedule are the lights on a timer.
2. Rock, originally live rock or dry, bought used, die off etc.
3. Is the tank receiving 3 hours of direct sun each morning when you’re at work and kids are at school.
4. phosphates are good hmm? What are they.
5. Pellets and Reefroids every day?
I’m totally on your side bud. Answer each one. It’s all cause and affect. Let find it.

I followed up on your reply because initially I felt that everything you suggested I did. My follow up question as phosphates and nitrates are good is could my problem be excess CO2? Every week near water change time that hair algae grows back. Not as bad as it initially was in my original post but it’s a nuisance. I just ordered a CO2 scrubber to see if it helps.

 

[Glenner’sreef]

I followed up on your reply because initially I felt that everything you suggested I did. My follow up question as phosphates and nitrates are good is could my problem be excess CO2? Every week near water change time that hair algae grows back. Not as bad as it initially was in my original post but it’s a nuisance. I just ordered a CO2 scrubber to see if it helps.

CO2 can be fatal to fish and invertebrates if overdone. Keep us posted.

 

[Whiteydenewf]

This thread got me on track. To all of you…a big thanks.