Please help - insane algae problem

[Cleverbs]

You have NO clean up crew? That is certainly a problem. They have a harder time when the algae gets long... probably need an urchin, crabs, bigger snails (turbo?) at this point.

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.

 

[damsels are not mean]

Most wrasses don't go after snails though it depends on the type. Trochus are pretty robust. Crabs are probably not gonna last but that's good because crabs suck anyways.

 

[Tamberav]

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.

at least it should be an easy fix.

I started a 5g recently and was slow to get CUC added... algae forest... just two days later there are bare trails on the rocks and snail poops all over.

Meanwhile your tang is clearly not keeping up probably just fertilizing them at this point. Tangs get wayyy too much credit.

Looks like some cyano or dino or diatoms?? on the GHA too.

 

[FiddlersReef]

Don’t know if it helps or if I was just lucky.

I started my tank the same way, but about the time algae and cyno started covering the sand, I started a monthly dose of AlgaeBarn copepods and daily dose of live phyto. It was about $50/month, and my goal was to do it for a few months to build the pod population because I wanted a mandarin at some point.

We’ll surprise, the algae on the sand disappeared within a month or two and the rocks shortly after, and stayed gone. That micro-diversity really does a lot.

 

[Bfragale]

I saw someone said it looks like Dinos. I would tend to agree- Dinos are not fun, and not easy to rid the tank of. Your tank is young which I find tends to be more likely it’s Dinos- there is not enough beneficial bacteria to put compete. There are many types of Dinos, and I had one strain that looked just like this.

does it go away at night and come pack in the morning? If your clean rocks- how long before it returns?

I find most* types of Dinos go away (or reduce) with lights out- and comes back pretty fast when lights are on. Also if your clean rocks and it comes back fast as well.

I started with a 3 day black out, doses bacteria and H2o2- it took me a few months before I saw it completely gone- and honestly im
Not sure if it was something I did or if the micro biome just matured or a combination of both.

Good luck my friend and HAPPY REEFING!

 

[Cleverbs]

Most wrasses don't go after snails though it depends on the type. Trochus are pretty robust. Crabs are probably not gonna last but that's good because crabs suck anyways.

Agreed. I got a good amount of snails. I really like the guy who runs reef cleaners. He always does great service and delivers a quality product.

I saw someone said it looks like Dinos. I would tend to agree- Dinos are not fun, and not easy to rid the tank of. Your tank is young which I find tends to be more likely it’s Dinos- there is not enough beneficial bacteria to put compete. There are many types of Dinos, and I had one strain that looked just like this.

does it go away at night and come pack in the morning? If your clean rocks- how long before it returns?

I find most* types of Dinos go away (or reduce) with lights out- and comes back pretty fast when lights are on. Also if your clean rocks and it comes back fast as well.

I started with a 3 day black out, doses bacteria and H2o2- it took me a few months before I saw it completely gone- and honestly im
Not sure if it was something I did or if the micro biome just matured or a combination of both.

Good luck my friend and HAPPY REEFING!

It does not go away at night or even reduce. It takes about 2 days to come back if I remove from the rock.

You make some good points though. Its so strange. Iv seen many types of algae during my reef hobby but iv never seen this. The algae is almost bacterial in a way like cyno but its obviously not cyno. its so thin and slimy. it grows so long so fast. even on my glass ill have a 3-5inch string of it grow in hours.

Im going to continue to research and try organic methods to reduce.

 

[BrianAnthony]

Ok... I'm going to ask a question... A lot of ppl are not thinking about.

1- What is your RODI water source? A well or public water?
2- If public water, do you have a carbon block capable of removing chlroamine? Water companies can add these all the time or choose to add them whenever they deem necessary.

 

[Cleverbs]

Ok... I'm going to ask a question... A lot of ppl are not thinking about.

1- What is your RODI water source? A well or public water?
2- If public water, do you have a carbon block capable of removing chlroamine? Water companies can add these all the time or choose to add them whenever they deem necessary.

Public water, I don't use anything other then my 5 stage RO/DI system.

 

[BrianAnthony]

Public water, I don't use anything other then my 5 stage RO/DI system.

Ok, 5 stages.. but do you have a carbon block in there able to remove chloramines. Thing is... You may have never had an issue until now, because the water company decided to add chloramines. Chloramines in your tank can cause an imbalance to the good stuff leaving room for the bad. If you don't have a filter specifically for chloramines, you can add tap water conditioner to the tank per the instructions to remove the chloramine.

 

[BrianAnthony]

Ok, 5 stages.. but do you have a carbon block in there able to remove chloramines. Thing is... You may have never had an issue until now, because the water company decided to add chloramines. Chloramines in your tank can cause an imbalance to the good stuff leaving room for the bad. If you don't have a filter specifically for chloramines, you can add tap water conditioner to the tank per the instructions to remove the chloramine.

 

[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 dont like the 0 nitrate. You should be dosing nitrate to get something in the tank. Do you have an algae scrubber or macro algae fuge? If so, you should probably try dosing some of that Chatogro or 2LF Iron supplement. On a macro photo, irs hard to see, but the story seems like one of dinoflagellates. Dinos are best identified with an inexpensive microscope. So you need to do more homework on chemistry especially if you are growing algae as nutrient export. If so, adding iron and getting some detectible levels of nitrate should make it go away

 

[Dom]

If your dry rock wasn't cycled prior to being placed in the tank, it is likely the main cause of your problem. It is the organics in the dry rock which cause such issues. And this is why we cycle dry rock in buckets prior to placement in the display.

How do I know this?

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, I made the same mistake. I placed dry rock directly into the tank without cycling. BOOM! Algae explosion.

Be patient; it will correct itself over time. Manual removal and keep up with regular, weekly water changes.

 

[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.

The posts im seeing that are legit possibilities all say the same thing. You have some chemistry homework to do first. Your source water, iron, make sure you dont have cooper leaching into your system (or other heavy metLs) getting some nitrate in the tank, then go from there.

 

[Cleverbs]

I dont like the 0 nitrate. You should be dosing nitrate to get something in the tank. Do you have an algae scrubber or macro algae fuge? If so, you should probably try dosing some of that Chatogro or 2LF Iron supplement. On a macro photo, irs hard to see, but the story seems like one of dinoflagellates. Dinos are best identified with an inexpensive microscope. So you need to do more homework on chemistry especially if you are growing algae as nutrient export. If so, adding iron and getting some detectible levels of nitrate should make it go away

I am not growing algae as an export. Nitrate is not 0 its ~2.5ppm.

At least im not trying to grow algae as an export. Obviously I am growing some unwanted algae right now haha

 

[SlugSnorter]

lol oops, fixed that typo.

I mean...Iv started many new tanks. Iv just never seen this before. I find it shocking its just "New tank".

Some Cyno, diatoms and whatnot I would get. Infact right before this started I had the Cyno phase. It went away and the tank was looking great and clean. Few days later this started.

I hope you are right, I hope it just passes. I just thought it would be best to put this out in front of other who have maybe delt with something similar.

this looks like "green cyano"

 

[ReefRxSWFL]

If your dry rock wasn't cycled prior to being placed in the tank, it is likely the main cause of your problem. It is the organics in the dry rock which cause such issues. And this is why we cycle dry rock in buckets prior to placement in the display.

How do I know this?

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, I made the same mistake. I placed dry rock directly into the tank without cycling. BOOM! Algae explosion.

Be patient; it will correct itself over time. Manual removal and keep up with regular, weekly water changes.

The dark side has some abilities to others that seem …..un natural

 

[ReefRxSWFL]

I am not growing algae as an export. Nitrate is not 0 its ~2.5ppm.

At least im not trying to grow algae as an export. Obviously I am growing some unwanted algae right now haha

How old is the tank?

 

[Cleverbs]

The posts im seeing that are legit possibilities all say the same thing. You have some chemistry homework to do first. Your source water, iron, make sure you dont have cooper leaching into your system (or other heavy metLs) getting some nitrate in the tank, then go from there.

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.

 

[Cleverbs]

How old is the tank?

~5 months

 

[Dom]

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.

"Should"

Test your RODI for phosphates.