My algae is getting out of control

[PR_nano]

I have two spots on my rock that get gha and my cuc is broken. They all prefer the glass and pumps to the rocks.

So I been pulling by hand to shorten the strands in an effort to make it more palatable for them but that is of no hope. I might just need to get better at scraping the glass to give them less options.

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

Often chemicals are alternatives and not solutions and lead to other issues. Im seeing many using fluconasal (FLUX) which can often kill off algae quickly and cause other issues with water. Im not a fan of algaecides in a reef tank

This. I used FluxRx and after it killed off some of the gha, I ended up with cyano replacing it.

 

[vetteguy53081]

This. I used FluxRx and after it killed off some of the gha, I ended up with cyano replacing it.

When i said cause other issues- this is one of them which is often a results in cyano and elevated nitrate

 

[Dburr1014]

This is where I'm at.

I've been fighting it over a year and a half, complete rip clean with new sand once, just cleaned rocks with peroxide once, put a huge cuc and dwarf angel in, still can't beat it. I dosed fluc two weeks ago and have been manually removing some a few times a week , it's finally not growing back faster than I can pull it and I feel like I'm making progress. In the process of this, I also started feeding fish and corals way more to keep my nitrates and phosphates from being bottomed out since the algae was consuming all of it as far as I can tell. IDK if I'll do a second dose of fluc yet, depends on what everything looks like next weekend.

It was my last resort. It was killing a few acros by growing by the base under the limbs. Nothing could reach under them. I was tweezing manually to control it.
After dinos battle it set in.
I tried it all, blackout, less white light, less light time, raised nag to 1600 for months, controlled feeding, nutrient drop, peroxide, tang didn't eat it, more snails and hermits, cheato not doing it, ect.

Low dose of flux, going, going, almost gone.
No judgment.

 

[ReefDreamz]

I'm frustrated with GHA and the status quo replies to any questions about GHA especially "you need to find and eliminate the source", but without any further thoughts on how to actually identify and eliminate the source when nutrients are already low and in balance. The source is nutrients and light. You can't stop feeding your fish and you can't turn your lights off forever so how are you ever going to ever truly "eliminate the source", the source will always be there...

I have a 9 month old tank with practically every algae fighting piece of equipment you could buy. Algae scrubber, UV sterilizer, ozone, skimmer, GFO reactor, filter mats. I've read practically every post on R2R and in the FB groups about GHA. I've watched the YT videos including Richard's MACNA talk. I test twice a week, I use only 0 TDS RODI, I do monthly ICP tests, I don't have direct sunlight, I manually remove, I have 4 tangs that constantly pick at the rocks, I tried a Sea Hare which totally ignored the GHA and died after 3 weeks, I tried adding more CUC including 5 tuxedo urchins, I run only blue lights, I have a lot of coral to help suck up nutrients (some of which is slowly dying as it becomes smothered in GHA, especially zoas), I have a good Redfield ratio. Like I've done everything everyone says to do and done countless hours of research. My NO3 is 3.5 and PO4 0.03. As a last resort I tried Reef Flux and I'm currently on day 9 and not seeing much change if any on the GHA yet. It did wipe out my bryopsis by day 3 though. I did identify my GHA as normal Derbesia using a microscope, it's not some weird GHA like Lyngbya.

Even more frustrating than the GHA is that I can't keep Astrea, Trochus, or Turbo snails alive and for the life of me I cannot figure out what is killing them. This has been happening for months. They become lethargic, stop moving, and eventually fall to the sandbed and die. They are not being predated upon, they do not have Pyramid snails, my Mg is not excessively high, I don't have dinos, temp is normal 77-78. Like I cannot find an explanation to this no matter who I ask. Also, no I don't leave the snails in the tank to rot, I take out the dead ones daily.

 

[Lavey29]

My little piece of the ocean has bits of algae here and there because the big ocean has algae in it as part of its ecosystem so I see small manageable amounts as completely necessary for our reef environment.

 

[Dburr1014]

I'm frustrated with GHA and the status quo replies to any questions about GHA especially "you need to find and eliminate the source", but without any further thoughts on how to actually identify and eliminate the source when nutrients are already low and in balance. The source is nutrients and light. You can't stop feeding your fish and you can't turn your lights off forever so how are you ever going to ever truly "eliminate the source", the source will always be there...

I have a 9 month old tank with practically every algae fighting piece of equipment you could buy. Algae scrubber, UV sterilizer, ozone, skimmer, GFO reactor, filter mats. I've read practically every post on R2R and in the FB groups about GHA. I've watched the YT videos including Richard's MACNA talk. I test twice a week, I use only 0 TDS RODI, I do monthly ICP tests, I don't have direct sunlight, I manually remove, I have 4 tangs that constantly pick at the rocks, I tried a Sea Hare which totally ignored the GHA and died after 3 weeks, I tried adding more CUC including 5 tuxedo urchins, I run only blue lights, I have a lot of coral to help suck up nutrients (some of which is slowly dying as it becomes smothered in GHA, especially zoas), I have a good Redfield ratio. Like I've done everything everyone says to do and done countless hours of research. My NO3 is 3.5 and PO4 0.03. As a last resort I tried Reef Flux and I'm currently on day 9 and not seeing much change if any on the GHA yet. It did wipe out my bryopsis by day 3 though. I did identify my GHA as normal Derbesia using a microscope, it's not some weird GHA like Lyngbya.

Even more frustrating than the GHA is that I can't keep Astrea, Trochus, or Turbo snails alive and for the life of me I cannot figure out what is killing them. This has been happening for months. They become lethargic, stop moving, and eventually fall to the sandbed and die. They are not being predated upon, they do not have Pyramid snails, my Mg is not excessively high, I don't have dinos, temp is normal 77-78. Like I cannot find an explanation to this no matter who I ask. Also, no I don't leave the snails in the tank to rot, I take out the dead ones daily.

If you can grow coral, guess what, you can grow hair. If hair gets established, your in for a hard time to get rid of it *most of the time*, Without some suffering of the coral. They require the same water chemistry, lighting and flow.

 

[vetteguy53081]

If you can grow coral, guess what, you can grow hair. If hair gets established, your in for a hard time to get rid of it *most of the time*, Without some suffering of the coral. They require the same water chemistry, lighting and flow.

Wholey agree

 

[NkSde]

macro algae helped my ugly mitigation
Also introduced uv to try to help minimize growth from water column settling.

Newest addition if Dalmatian mollies shows promise they already pick at the glass build up and rock buildup in my marco rocks. See if they progress

 

[exnisstech]

This. I used FluxRx and after it killed off some of the gha, I ended up with cyano replacing it.

Same for me only I ended up with way more cyano than I had gha.

 

[Gtinnel]

Donovan just copying what Aquaclear used to sell. Run water slowly through different media to exhaust oxygen via nitrification forcing denitrification of anoxic conditions where bound nitrates could be used. However, entire process was based on feeding carbon. Carbon dosing solves that without the need for denitrification which is a slow process to establish and filters at a very slow pace. Carbon dosing much easier. More equipment isn’t always the solution.

I have heard mixed reviews of reefers carbon dosing directly into a sps dominant tank, which my reef tank is. I like the idea of dosing the carbon into a dedicated chamber so that hopefully a lot of it gets used by the bacteria before it exits the reactor.
Plus the equipment cost is minimal since I have everything except for the media.

Plus who doesn’t love more equipment in this hobby.

 

[Uncle99]

Keeping water chemistry pinned, a toothbrush and time.

 

[RZGreef]

I only have a 13.5gal, so tangs are a no-go for me. I couldn't get algae fully under control despite reduced feeding, improved flow, and vigilant husbandry, and all the usual recommendations, no matter how many snails I threw at it. I always avoided any kinds of crabs because people say they tend to go rogue eventually. What finally did the trick for me was adding (on top of the existing ceriths, astreas, etc) one tuxedo urchin and one pitho crab that I've been told will not go rogue. The two of them have been absolute machines and I can't find any evidence of algae at all. Since then I've upped my feeding, and also started giving a little nori to the pitho.

 

[FrugalReefer]

I have a nano with Astrea, Nassarius and Turbo Snails. I also have a Tuxedo Urchin.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have heard mixed reviews of reefers carbon dosing directly into a sps dominant tank, which my reef tank is. I like the idea of dosing the carbon into a dedicated chamber so that hopefully a lot of it gets used by the bacteria before it exits the reactor.
Plus the equipment cost is minimal since I have everything except for the media.

Plus who doesn’t love more equipment in this hobby.

Equipment = excitement. Carbon dosing can be beneficial if performed properly and reduces nitrates and phosphates, in turn using nitrates to feed bacteria and reduce likelihood of cyano, some algaes as well as organic waste

 

[GARRIGA]

I have heard mixed reviews of reefers carbon dosing directly into a sps dominant tank, which my reef tank is. I like the idea of dosing the carbon into a dedicated chamber so that hopefully a lot of it gets used by the bacteria before it exits the reactor.
Plus the equipment cost is minimal since I have everything except for the media.

Plus who doesn’t love more equipment in this hobby.

What exactly have you heard on dosing into SPS dominated because the n it’s simplest form one is just dosing carbon which is essential to all life. Might have been overriding it but even that shouldn’t cause issues and I’ve done that with only ill effect being white bacterial slime although no SPS. Lots of anecdotal assumptions in this hobby.

As for more equipment. I’m trying to minimize it because that’s less that can go wrong. KISS

 

[kevgib67]

Manual removal, uv, WCs and my cuc. My list of all stars in order of importance: tuxedo urchin, emerald crabs and turbo sails.

 

[Cheezle]

The only algae I've ever really had to battle is bryopsis, which I dosed Reef Flux a week ago today actually, and its cleared up pretty well. I have various mexican turbos, zebra turbos, some astrea snails, some bumblebees, a handful of hermits and a tuxedo urchin. They do their jobs great and most of them I've had for well over a year now. I also dose a COPIOUS amount of pods, for my mandarin and because they're a wonderful cleaning crew.

I also keep my mag elevated in the 1500-1600 range which I guess helps kill or slow down algae growth? No idea if that's actually true or how that works but I do it for my corals as well so its a win either way lol

 

[Gtinnel]

What exactly have you heard on dosing into SPS dominated because the n it’s simplest form one is just dosing carbon which is essential to all life. Might have been overriding it but even that shouldn’t cause issues and I’ve done that with only ill effect being white bacterial slime although no SPS. Lots of anecdotal assumptions in this hobby.

As for more equipment. I’m trying to minimize it because that’s less that can go wrong. KISS

There was a thread I read where a few users started having STN when they began carbon dosing. It may be coincidental, and dosing into a reactor may not really add any benefit compared to dosing the tank but I don’t mind adding a diy filter.
Also, in the thread started by Donovan he said that his design would help prevent bacteria blooms in the tank and reduce the odds of getting cyano (I don’t know if either of those things are common problems or not with normal carbon dosing).

 

[Lavey29]

If you can grow coral, guess what, you can grow hair. If hair gets established, your in for a hard time to get rid of it *most of the time*, Without some suffering of the coral. They require the same water chemistry, lighting and flow.

Aside from weekly manual removal, solid cleaning crew and raising magnesium to 1500, I did nothing different I kept my routine the same and let the tank mature on its timetable not mine. I had a huge GHA jungle and it was a good 3 months before the tide turned. No pun intended.