GREEN ALGEA ID? FIXES?

[MrGisonni]

Have 3 sand sifting stars in tank... have tried a refugium once before and just bottomed out nutrients so have had one in a long time.

I have never had luck with a refugium either. But a little macro in my display has been the trick for me.

 

[HankstankXXL750 Verified Sponsor]

You have had the algae for 6 months you said. How old is the tank?

Guessing fairly mature as the GSP on the back and the coralline. And if so your clean up crew is doing awesome as your Liferock looks brand new.

How deep is your sand bed?

 

[Dan_P]

Anyone know how to get rid of this algea? I've tried everything... has been on sand roughly 6 months...I've siphoned sand plenty of time. RODI is all new filters. Tank is not getting sunlight from window. Some disappears at night. Comes back fast after siphoning. 12hr photo period with 2 hour ramp up/down.

Waterbox 130
2 kessil a360x
2 icecap 4k gyres
Socks/skimmer/carbon

Feed 1 cube a day
3 tangs
Midas blenny
Royal gamma
Tomato clown
Anthias
Chromis
Tons of snails/hermits
2 conchs

Parameters:
(All have been stable as a rock)
Alk 8.0
Cal 434
Mag 1397
No3 5
Po4 0.03
Ph 8.1 - 8.3
Temp 78

Looks like cyanobacteria.

 

[WallyTime7]

2 conch... 30 assorted snails... 10 nasariius.. around 10 hermits... non of wich wants to touch the stuff.

Get 1 or 2 urchins

 

[bblumberg]

If you want biological solution then I'd give trochus and cerith snails a try. This is a good article about cyanobacteria control

Dealing with Cyanobacteria

In my time working at a local fish store, I have come to realize that hobbyists that have been keeping saltwater tanks for years often run into similar

www.algaebarn.com

If all else fails, you could always nuke it with erythromycin. I'd buy the pure product from Grainger, rather than messing around with stuff like Chemiclean. Dosing is 250 mg/10 gallon. Remove carbon and other chemical media, remove skimmer cup, but leave skimmer on. Pure erythromycin does not make skimmer go nearly as crazy as chemiclean. Treat every 3 days for 3 treatments total. A 25% water change between treatments is helpful, particularly after the first treatment kills the bulk of the cyano.

 

[NickyReefs]

You have had the algae for 6 months you said. How old is the tank?

Guessing fairly mature as the GSP on the back and the coralline. And if so your clean up crew is doing awesome as your Liferock looks brand new.

How deep is your sand bed?

About 2 years old... 2" sanbed

 

[NickyReefs]

Get 1 or 2 urchins

Have an urchin

 

[NickyReefs]

Just did full maintenance and spyphon... looks great again but by tommorow it's usually bad.

 

[WallyTime7]

Just did full maintenance and spyphon... looks great again but by tommorow it's usually bad.

Takes time....
Think of the root cause if something changed a month or two ago. Did you change flow? Add something sand sifting to the tank? Maybe your skimmer is not 'wet' enough? Change the lights spectrum or timing?

 

[NickyReefs]

Takes time....
Think of the root cause if something changed a month or two ago. Did you change flow? Add something sand sifting to the tank? Maybe your skimmer is not 'wet' enough? Change the lights spectrum or timing?

Ran airline to outside a month ago...other than that nothing has changed or been added.

 

[CoralsAddiction]

I’ve been dealing with the same issue for a while now. I have 3 urchins. They mostly take care of glass but not sand. Just like OP’s experience, siphoning out the algae doesn’t extinguish the problem.
one suggestion made to me was to change the salt mix. I use Coralife. Might try something different when I run out.

 

[NickyReefs]

I’ve been dealing with the same issue for a while now. I have 3 urchins. They mostly take care of glass but not sand. Just like OP’s experience, siphoning out the algae doesn’t extinguish the problem.
one suggestion made to me was to change the salt mix. I use Coralife. Might try something different when I run out.

Yes!!! Basically what my sand looks like by end of the week haha. Not a single thing eats it. I'm using Reef Crystal's... but I haven't done a watter change in quite some time.. trying to raise my Nutrients. But I do dose my elements.

 

[TokenReefer]

I’ve been dealing with the same issue for a while now. I have 3 urchins. They mostly take care of glass but not sand. Just like OP’s experience, siphoning out the algae doesn’t extinguish the problem.
one suggestion made to me was to change the salt mix. I use Coralife. Might try something different when I run out.

Your corals look good, I'd hate to disrupt that myself... What's the link to the salt?

Nothing groundbreaking but I think its just a matter of tipping the scales. There are nutrients obv because the corals look good and the algae is growing; just gotta keep removing until it can't outcompete the corals. Same old story, I know...sounds simple I know...huge pia too. If it's back in 3 days do it again in 3 days, if it comes back the next day, do it the next day, every time its absent from the system (right after cleaning) your corals benefit as the major nutrient uptakers... eventually it just wont come back... It can't outcompete manual removal imo

Probably nothing you haven't heard already sorry but what's the alternative, chems?

 

[I never finish anythi]

I had the same thing on my sand . Sunnyx is method. Worked a treat .

 

[I never finish anythi]

Extreme Water Clarity and Cyano Eradication, Made Easy!

Can anyone recommend an alternative brand of Calcium Carbonate than the one the OP recommended? Thank you! This is the one I have used from Amazon that seems to do the job well….

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Orito]

I believe it's cyano, I had it and went away when I increased the flow a lot with a gyre

 

[HankstankXXL750 Verified Sponsor]

Have an urchin

Yes I saw him in one of your pictures. Does he eat you coralline. If I remember right some do, not sure if all do?

 

[NickyReefs]

Yes I saw him in one of your pictures. Does he eat you coralline. If I remember right some do, not sure if all do?

He kinda goes back n forth... sometimes algea and sometimes coraline....he's got a couple Coraline hats he's acquired haha

 

[Kmst80]

Get yourself a cheap microscope and find out for sure what it is rather than guessing and maybe taking the wrong approach to fix the problem. At the very least you can eliminate certain types of algae. There are microscopic pictures of diatomes, cyano, dinos... all over the internet.
It could be Spirulina, a Cyanobacteria. Hard to say though without a microscopic picture.

 

[MrGisonni]

I tell you the erythromycin route will work with a blackout, extra air from air pumps etc....but it may toast some of your critters. Get nitrates up a bit, add macroalgaes, get a few hundred cerith snails, shorten your photoperiod a bit, tone down your red spectrum, and keep beating it down manually. Saying all that I used chemiclean when I had cyano bad last year.