Please help me identify what I’m dealing with

[gazzaza]

Hi all
I started my tank in December, but I translated everything into a new tank about a month back. Before the transplant I had exactly the same algae. My tank was clean for a week after the transplant, but things soon deteriorated. All my sand, rock and 50% of my water was moved to the new tank. Everything seems healthy, it’s just really ugly.
At first I thought it was dinos, but I don’t see many under the microscope. It’s definitely photosynthetic as it doesn’t grow very much under overhangs or where corals are shading the sand. It’s very clumpy, I can remove it by hand. My tank is about 600 liters. Currently I have a 15w UV plumbed directly into my display. My Orphek lights ramp up to a maximum of 60% and run for 11 hours a day

I’m feeding a block of mysis at night two large pinches or algae flakes in the morning.

CuC:
Cleaner shrimp
5x nassarius snails
30x turbo snails
1x hermit crab

corals:
various euphillia
Zoas
Trachies
Clam
Bubble coral
Leather coral

Fish:
Lawnmower blenny
2x staghorn damsels
1x Randall’s accessor
Magnificent foxface
Convict tang
6 line wrasse
1x cardinal

Nitrates: 4
Phosphates: 0,08
RO TDS: 0 (1 after RO membranes, 0 after DI)
Salinity: 1.025
Temperature: 26


Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[blaxsun]

A few small conches to help turn over the sand wouldn't hurt.

 

[CoralB]

Might be cyano

 

[dvgyfresh]

Maybe amphidium Dino’s? Tank is still super new maturity wise , did you start with dry or live rock?

 

[Reffetsevla]

I'm unsure the actual type of algae, but when you transferred tanks you likely started another smaller cycle, doubtful it'll be like a full cycle but you'll experience some. Which is likely where this is originating from IMO as well as the tank still being fairly new before the transfer.

Nassarius snails, although they are sand dwellers, are carnivores. They won't touch the algae. Get a conch or add several Cerith snails. Spaghetti Worms are actually really good at keeping the substrate clean. I didn't add them myself, but my tank has a number. Hitchhiker at some point but do a great job cleaning the substrate.

Your Liverock looks pretty light in color still, did you add new rock when you switched tanks too? Just trying to think of things that would prolong this. You may have to actually increase your NO3 and PO4 some so you can generate some more bacteria on the rocks. I fought GHA for months until I got my NO3 20-30 and PO4 at about 0.15. Until it was that high the algae out competed the bacteria. Then the algae started to back off, and the live rock started to really color. It naturally brought those parameters back down. Now I sit at 0.04-0.08 PO4 and about 10 NO3.

Do you run a skimmer and/or UV by chance?

 

[gazzaza]

It’s the same rock as the original tank, but it was originally dry rock (Aquaforest). The rock has some algae on it, but most of it is clean. Im running a skimmer and a 15w UV sterilizer, but I’m thinking that the UV might be a bit small.

 

[Reffetsevla]

It’s the same rock as the original tank, but it was originally dry rock (Aquaforest). The rock has some algae on it, but most of it is clean. Im running a skimmer and a 15w UV sterilizer, but I’m thinking that the UV might be a bit small.

What size tank? Do you run a refugium too?

 

[gazzaza]

What size tank? Do you run a refugium too?

1400x60x60 cm. I don’t have a refrugium, finding macro algae here is almost impossible

 

[sheeb]

1400x60x60 cm. I don’t have a refrugium, finding macro algae here is almost impossible

Refrugiums are great! Even if you can’t find macro algae yet, it’ll come around and it just gives more water volume to deal with and therefore more stability. Plus hides a bunch of your hardware if you have a skimmer , heater , UV, etc

 

[gazzaza]

Refrugiums are great! Even if you can’t find macro algae yet, it’ll come around and it just gives more water volume to deal with and therefore more stability. Plus hides a bunch of your hardware if you have a skimmer , heater , UV, etc

Ah, a sump. Yes, I have a 3 compartment sump with filter roller, skimmer, bio balls and some live rock. Its about 900x400x400. I’ve been wanting to add cheato to the section that contains the live rock

 

[gazzaza]

These images were taken just after the transplant

 

[Reffetsevla]

Ah, a sump. Yes, I have a 3 compartment sump with filter roller, skimmer, bio balls and some live rock. Its about 900x400x400. I’ve been wanting to add cheato to the section that contains the live rock

Chaeto would help export the nutrients your algae in the main tank is feeding on, also helps balance pH if you run the lights opposite your main tank lights

Quick fixes to help would be run blue lights only for a few days and shoten the photoperiod some. This will starve the algae a bit, but it will come back without finding a way to remove it. I'd get some Cerith Snails or Conch's to help keep the bed clean and stirred a little. Lots of ways to go about it but I feel those are good safe starting points. Adding Chaeto would really help too, but then you do have to watch your PO4 and NO3 from bottoming out completely. I run into that occasionally if I run my fuge too many days in a row lol