Please help me with my Algae Issues

[RyanHoan]

Hello,

I'll try to include as much info as possible

Tank:
Red Sea Reefer 250
Good skimmer
TONS OF FLOW
chaeto refugium
RO/DI - 0 TDS
9 months old
Fish: two tangs and a few other small fish
CUC- pretty heavy load of trochus, cerith, conchs, urchin

Parameters:
All normal, phos 0, nitrates 0

Before the bloom my Phos was 0.03ppm, Nitrates at 5. Then the bloom brought them to undetectable levels.

I started my tank out with very heavy filtration (GFO, Carbon, NOPOX, chaeto refugium) and had great success, up until my tank turned 8 months old.
At this point I beat ulva and the tank was looking great. I decided to take GFO offline for good. I began dosing red sea coral nutrition A & B at 3ml each every day. Things were still going well.
Feeding: ~10 pellets dusted with reef roids, 3 times a day via auto feeder. frozen food when 4 times a week.

during this month, a few things happened:

I added a third reefled90 light
I accidentally added 10mls of Melafix to the tank and did a 30% water change
I vacuumed my sump for the first time
I added a lot of sps frags

3 weeks ago I had a massive brown algae bloom.

I stopped adding Coral Nutrition.
stopped auto feeding and only doing frozen food once a day.
I've done a ton of water changes and bubble scrubs. brown dusting is back in less than an hour.
I tried a little GFO. no change
I've been adding MICROBACTER7 every day for 3 weeks. No change.
My chaeto stopped growing
I reduced by led output to 30% for 4 days. No change in algae bloom.
I've been siphoning my sand every few days. No change in algae bloom.

Although I DO NOT have a confirmed algae ID, my snails DO eat it, but they can't keep up. it's dusty brown on the equipment and slimy brown on the sand.

Any help is greatly appreciated. I'll add pics soon.

 

[RyanHoan]

Pics of algae, 100% white light

 

[Dom]

That doesn't look like Algae to me. I think you're dealing with Cyanobacteria or Dinos.

 

[Omarons]

That doesn’t look like algea ... also for Chaeto not growing try to add some iron , they could have stripped all the iron from the tank

 

[Bizzy bee reef]

That doesn’t look like algea ... also for Chaeto not growing try to add some iron , they could have stripped all the iron from the tank

Aww mate get a tomini tang my whole tank was just like yours and it’s spotless now in just a couple of days

 

[Scdell]

Yep! Too low nutrients. Get your nitrate and phosphate back up. It'll magically dissapear.

 

[Uncle99]

Something wrong with your Nitrate and Phosphate tests.
They should never read zero.
N in the range of 2-10 ppm and phosphate in the 0.03-.1 is a good area to be in, or corals will starve.

 

[RyanHoan]

Yep! Too low nutrients. Get your nitrate and phosphate back up. It'll magically dissapear.

Hmm but my Phos was .03 just before the bloom, as I was adding a lot of Coral Food.

 

[Scdell]

Hmm but my Phos was .03 just before the bloom, as I was adding a lot of Coral Food.

You want help? Then listen. Get your nutrients up and it will dissapear.

 

[RyanHoan]

You want help? Then listen. Get your nutrients up and it will dissapear.

I respect and appreciate your advice - I just wanted to be clear that I think the bloom began because of HIGH nutrients.

 

[Scdell]

If you don't get the nutrients up all your SPS will turn brown and slowly die.

 

[Scdell]

I respect and appreciate your advice - I just wanted to be clear that I think the bloom began because of HIGH nutrients.

It's not algae. Dino's or Cyno. They are bacteria.

 

[Scdell]

.03 phosphate is very low. Your playing a dangerous game with ULN if you don't understand it.

 

[RyanHoan]

OK. Starting today I will resume my dosing of 3ml Coral nutrition A and 3ml of B.

 

[JoshO]

You want help? Then listen. Get your nutrients up and it will dissapear.

Ways and means to get points or advice across, let's keep this polite

 

[ScottR]

Pretty sure those are dinos (and it’s not a bacteria). Water changes will actually help them out. Adding in things like amino acids will only further send them into feeding frenzy. It’s a long battle and no CUC will help you here. There are lots of dino threads. A microscope would be helpful to ID the type and to help you narrow down how to fix. A UV filter would be most useful here.

 

[Scdell]

OK. Starting today I will resume my dosing of 3ml Coral nutrition A and 3ml of B.

Test every day. You want at least .1 phosphate. Keep an eye on your sps for browning.

 

[ScottR]

OK. Starting today I will resume my dosing of 3ml Coral nutrition A and 3ml of B.

Nooooooo!!!! Don’t do it!!!

 

[Scdell]

Nooooooo!!!! Don’t do it!!!

He needs to get his phosphate up.

 

[ScottR]

He needs to get his phosphate up.

Coral Nutrition is not phosphates. It’s carbohydrates, vitamins and aminos. Maybe some other stuff. The aminos are pure food for dinoflagellates. It will send them into a feeding frenzy. Also, getting nutrients back up is just helping algae and other organisms feed in hopes that they’ll start to outcompete the dinos. It’s a long process and nothing beats a UV for starters.