Not sure what to do - Dealing with Algae

[Patrick Cox]

My 100G mostly SPS tank took a turn for the worse a while back. New algae started to pop up and I have not been able to get control of it. I also let my Salinity get pretty high and thus the Alk got high so I have lost / am losing some corals. However they have also suffered recently while I installed a new sump.

I decided to add a refugium to my system hoping this would help me deal with the algae. And I still have this hope but I don't yet have it fully up and running. While changing out my sump I ran into an issue with the overflow bulkheads leaking so it took me a week to put the tank back together. It's still not there 100% but the sump is finally running again.

Now, I am faced with how to move forward. I am not optimistic that this algae is going to disappear so I am actually thinking about cutting out my corals and then starting over with new rock. I wouldn't mind re-aquascaping anyway.

I have tested the Nitrate and Phosphate and they never test high but I assume they are because the algae is growing. Alk has been running about 10 and salinity at 35.

So, I would appreciate your suggestions. Here are some pictures... Thanks!

 

[Rtaylor]

Reef flux will take out hair algae and bryprosis. You’ll probably need to manually remove the caulerpa if you don’t want it in your display. If you do, put it in the refugium.

 

[Lavey29]

Cleaner crew? Honestly doesn't look to bad to manage without doing a tear down. Did you put caulerpa in the DT?

 

[Patrick Cox]

Reef flux will take out hair algae and bryprosis. You’ll probably need to manually remove the caulerpa if you don’t want it in your display. If you do, put it in the refugium.

I am not familiar with Reef flux. I'll look into that. I have tried removing the caulerpa but I am obviously not getting all of it because it keeps showing up.

 

[Patrick Cox]

Cleaner crew? Honestly doesn't look to bad to manage without doing a tear down. Did you put caulerpa in the DT?

I definitely need to add more snails. I had more but have lost some. I will try that. I did not put the caulerpa in the DT. It just appeared and I have not added anything to the tank in a long time. My rock was Tampa Bay Saltwater so maybe it had some buried in it. I have had this tank for 6 years and the caulerpa just showed up in the last year.

 

[Traviitrav]

Turbo snails devour that stuff

 

[Lavey29]

Turbo snails devour that stuff

Yea couple of those and 2 urchins and the lawn will be mowed down in a few weeks.

 

[dvgyfresh]

Reef flux will kill all the algae even caulerpa , that said I see little cuc , need to hire some lol

 

[vetteguy53081]

Pull as much as you can by hand, reduce white light intensity and add the following cleaners:
Pin cushion urchin
Turbo grazer snails
astrea snails
cerith snails
nerite snails
1-2 trochus snails
about 10 carribean blue leg hermits

Is tank at or near a window?

 

[Patrick Cox]

Pull as much as you can by hand, reduce white light intensity and add the following cleaners:
Pin cushion urchin
Turbo grazer snails
astrea snails
cerith snails
nerite snails
1-2 trochus snails
about 10 carribean blue leg hermits

Is tank at or near a window?

Thanks. I guess I let my CUC get too small. I’ll start with that. Thanks

 

[Patrick Cox]

Pull as much as you can by hand, reduce white light intensity and add the following cleaners:
Pin cushion urchin
Turbo grazer snails
astrea snails
cerith snails
nerite snails
1-2 trochus snails
about 10 carribean blue leg hermits

Is tank at or near a window?

@vetteguy53081 ,

Thanks for your suggestions. I do have a couple of questions.

First, to answer your question on the window, no, the tank is not near a window.

Regarding the hermits, won't they kill the snails? I have shied away from hermits in the past for this reason.

Regarding the white light, I have an eight bulb ATI fixture running 3 Blue+, 2 Coral+ (whitest bulb), 2 Actinic, 1 Purple +. So should I remove or maybe replace the Coral+ with less white bulbs?

Thanks!

 

[vetteguy53081]

@vetteguy53081 ,

Thanks for your suggestions. I do have a couple of questions.

First, to answer your question on the window, no, the tank is not near a window.

Regarding the hermits, won't they kill the snails? I have shied away from hermits in the past for this reason.

Regarding the white light, I have an eight bulb ATI fixture running 3 Blue+, 2 Coral+ (whitest bulb), 2 Actinic, 1 Purple +. So should I remove or maybe replace the Coral+ with less white bulbs?

Thanks!

No on hermits. These are very miniature- Make sure you get carribean, not regular blue leg hermits
for the future, go white but lower like a 5500K

Carribean hermits:

 

[Patrick Cox]

Thanks all. I had another thought. I am manually removing as much algae as I can for now and then I thought about moving a couple of pieces of my rock with more algae on it to the refugium without any light for a few days to kill the algae. Is that something I should do?

I can also vacuum under the rock... Thanks.