Please help - insane algae problem

[BrianAnthony]

there is no copper or Iron in the system and there should be no issue with my source water or my RO/DI system. Everything has been tested.

Ok dude, good luck to you.

 

[Cleverbs]

"Should"

Test your RODI for phosphates.

Good thought, Just checked it and it shows 0ppm with the Hanna

Im sure you are right about the dry rock though, I have always cycled it in a Brute for a few months prior to using it and didnt this go around.

 

[ReefRxSWFL]

How old is the tank?

~5 months

Well, since you cant start over, and there are already fish in the tank, id turn off the lights for a few weeks, add some Dr Tims one and only, no skimmer, or just turned down enough that it doesn’t produce skimmate, and just removes your CO2, then slowly turn back on the lights, and acclimate the lighting over 60 days to the PAR levels for corals you plan to keep.

Im going back a while, because I havnt cycled a tank in over a decade. I add the aquascape, fill it , add hardy corals (no fish) and one fist size piece of live rock from another tank, then start adding fish in a 6 weeks as long as the corals are doing well.

 

[ReefRxSWFL]

Ok dude, good luck to you.

"Should"

Test your RODI for phosphates.

Phosphates arent bad. You do want some iron, because dinoflagellates don't like iron, except for the dinos in your corals, which will use trace amounts.

 

[ReefRxSWFL]

Good thought, Just checked it and it shows 0ppm with the Hanna

Im sure you are right about the dry rock though, I have always cycled it in a Brute for a few months prior to using it and didnt this go around.

If you used a dry rock like Marco, or Carib sea, there is nothing in the rock to break down, so no need to cure. There is no biological material in the rock to break down by curing. Curing is necessary for rock that is dry, but has been used before, either from the ocean, or in another tank.

 

[ReefRxSWFL]

I’ll be honest I didn’t really realize how much work they did. In my other tank I have maybe 20 snails. No crabs or anything and it’s a 220g. No algae but it’s also 8 years old. Not having a cleanup crew in it yet was probably an oversight lol.

as for length it comes right off with a tooth brush. I’ll just brush all the rocks down and do a water change. Should be manageable for the cleanup crew then. It’s definitely long right now.

I saw a clean up crew. Its yellow. If your tank is less than 120, one hungry tang can clean it, if its not a “healthy tank” algae

 

[ReefRxSWFL]

I have had this algae outbreak for a few weeks now. I’m not new to the hobby as I have 10 years in it but Iv never had anything close to this. Honestly I’m not even sure what type of algae this is. It’s so thin and almost bacterial like cyno but it’s not the right color and Iv seen plenty of cyno. Chemiclean had zero impact.

the algae is just overtaking everything. Iv scrubbed the rocks clean and did a 20% water change twice in the last two weeks. Two days later it looks like this again.

took a fresh set of parameters for this post. All taken with Red Sea tests or Hanna test. RoDI water is used that shows 0 TDS, using Red Sea for my salt.


Tank 93g - ~110g total volume
NH3-4 - O
No2 - O
No3 - 2.3ppm
Mg - 1400
Alk - 9.4
Ca - 442
Po4 - .02
Ph - 8.09
Temp - 78

Tank was started 10/15/2021

Nothing but dry rock was used. No live rock has been in the tank. Sand is ocean direct sand that was bought new.

lighting - eco tech xr30 g4 with two reef bright strips. Set at 40% on soft/lps setting and 6.5 hour light cycle.

I zoomed and saw the bubbles in the snot. Thats dinos. Ill bet water changes make it worse, no?

 

[ReefRxSWFL]

I zoomed and saw the bubbles in the snot. Thats dinos. Ill bet water changes make it worse, no?

No clean up crew will eat that. They will just die, because dinos release toxins.