Please help with algae outbreak

[Dmsick]

My tank is nearly 2 years old. A couple of months ago I noticed increasing amounts of algae growing on the sand and on the rocks. Generally my nutrient levels have run very low. I sent a water test off to ATI and it came back with very high phosphates (3.0!) At the time I was in between changing from an algae turf scrubber to a chaeto reactor. Since then my nutrients have come down specifically my phosphate. I’m using GFO in reactor and my macro reactor has been thriving. Nitrates are almost always nearly undetectable in my tank for some reason. The algae largely grows in mate but I’ve noticed in almost shrub like appearance in many places both on the rocks and on the sand. At it’s worst it was over growing some of my corals. I initially thought it may be bryopsis and started treating with fluconazole. I have also been doing as much manual removal as I can. I started the fluconazole 12 days ago I dosed 20 mg per gallon. I cannot tell that it’s making a difference. The algae continues to grow. My phosphates are around .05 or lower according to the Seachem test I have been using. The picture of the test I ran today shows a control of my RODI water. Every time I have had it tested it tests perfect so I am confident there are no phosphates in the RODI water. The two samples look nearly identical.
My other parameters remain very stable. I run an Apex system with a trident. PH stays around 8 Alk around 8 Ca 450 Mg 1400, Lights are a hybrid T5 with LEDs.
Can someone please give me some insight as to what this may be if it is not bryopsis or hair algae and perhaps some guidance as to what I can do next? I am really getting discouraged.

 

[Dmsick]

Here are a couple more pics. The first one shows a stocklike area of the algae growing out of one of my Zoa colonies. The next one just shows the algae forming a mat on the bottom of the tank. The pic in my original post shows the algae after I pulled one of the mat like areas out of the tank. The white objects you can see are granules of sand so the picture is zoomed quite a bit.
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[waleedreef]

phosphate readings are not accurate when you have algae bloom. remove all algae, wait 1 hour and test phosphate again.

why you have algae if you have GFO and chaeto reactor? are you over feeding? how many times you feed daily? are you using ROWAPHOS GFO media?

before you feed frozen food, put it in RODI water and catch food by net and introduce it to tank. This will help to reduce phosphate.

There is no way you solve overfeeding issues even if you have best filtering system.

Algae can grow when you have high iron? how much iron you have since last ICP test?

Do you have good amount of cleaning crew?

get more snails, blue legged hermit crab, rock blenney, cucumber, redsea sailfin fish. tangs.


Did you cure the rocks before introduce to tank 2 years ago? maybe your rocks are leaching phosphate. increase PH up to 8.4. try to buffer it by increase of alkalinity.

 

[waleedreef]

this is cyano bacteria not algae. I just see the picture.

Cyano is bacteria which require light and phosphate and it like spots where no much water movement. manual removal everyday will help to limit the presence of cyano. Cyano caused due to imbalance of nutrient import and export going on. To solve this, you need to increase the power of gyres, manual remove, fix GFO to remove phosphate till 0.05. start adding carbon dosing such as NOPOX. If this not work, you need to start the antibiotic product called chemiclean or non-antibiotic such as RED X.

 

[Dmsick]

Thanks so much for the response. I was afraid it could be cyano but didn't know it could grow like bushes and that it was green when removed from the tank.
To answer your other question, I have 7 fish (2 clowns, royal gramma, chromes, purple tang, foxface and melanarus wrasse). I have a bunch of snails (ceriths, nerites, turbos, dwarf ceiths) some bumble bees due to a vermetid problem I had, a couple fighting conchs, a few crabs etc. I feed once a day, frozen food 1/4 tsp thawed and drain off the liquid. I have a lot of flow in my tank, but can try to increase.

 

[waleedreef]

Thanks so much for the response. I was afraid it could be cyano but didn't know it could grow like bushes and that it was green when removed from the tank.
To answer your other question, I have 7 fish (2 clowns, royal gramma, chromes, purple tang, foxface and melanarus wrasse). I have a bunch of snails (ceriths, nerites, turbos, dwarf ceiths) some bumble bees due to a vermetid problem I had, a couple fighting conchs, a few crabs etc. I feed once a day, frozen food 1/4 tsp thawed and drain off the liquid. I have a lot of flow in my tank, but can try to increase.

I believe in your case since you have the right filtering system, you should start Red X or chimeclean.

top up water is 000 TDS?
what gfo media you are using? which brand? Rowaphos is good brand
can you fix UV Light? pentair is good brand.

 

[Dmsick]

ATO water is O TDS. I change my DI media as soon as it starts to register any TDS. GFO is Kolar brand. It seems to work. I don't have a UV light but could consider. I happen to have chemiclean and will likely start it tonight. I forgot I tried it a few months ago. I was concerned based on the color it could be cyano but I think it didn't work because my phosphates were out of control at that time.
Thanks so much for the help!

 

[Aqua Man]

Rip clean

 

[Dmsick]

Rip clean

Can you elaborate a little? Is that a product I use or a philosophy I should adopt ha ha?

 

[waleedreef]

yeah you can use chemiclean. but if phosphate level stays same, cyano will come back.

try using rowaphos as a GFO media. it's #1 in the world. and fix UV light, it will help to control it.

 

[Dmsick]

yeah you can use chemiclean. but if phosphate level stays same, cyano will come back.

try using rowaphos as a GFO media. it's #1 in the world. and fix UV light, it will help to control it.

Will order some rowaphos. Thanks so much!

 

[Aqua Man]

@brandon429 will be able to walk you through a Rip clean.

It’s philosophy, use chemical and treat the water Or rip out the offending algae and clean the rocks of detritus. Rip out that sand bed and rinse thoroughly.

Chemical option sometimes works, Rip clean always works if done properly

 

[Dmsick]

@brandon429 will be able to walk you through a Rip clean.

It’s philosophy, use chemical and treat the water Or rip out the offending algae and clean the rocks of detritus. Rip out that sand bed and rinse thoroughly.

Chemical option sometimes works, Rip clean always works if done properly

Thanks for the feedback. I'm hoping to avoid doing that. I think my parameters are in line now. I don't really want to remove my sand because I have a wrasse but can do it if that's what needs to happen. I'll see how it goes the next several days after the chemiclean.

 

[Dmsick]

At this point I've finished 3 days after dosing chemiclean and I can't tell any improvement. My nitrates and phosphates continue to be undetectable. However, chaeto grows in my macro reactor and whatever algae I'm fighting continues to grow. I'm beginning to think I have dinos. I've treated 2x with chemiclean with minimal to no improvement. I also did a round of fluconazole in between as I thought it might be bryopsis.
Is it worth trying Dino-x? @ReefSquad

 

[Dmsick]

Pretty sure at this point Dinoflagellates were the culprit. I ran carbon for a week and did 2 water changes to try to rid the tank of any fluconazole or chemiclean (neither of which helped my issue). My nutrients continued to show undetectable. The stuff just kept growing. I decided to go ahead and try DinoX as a last resort before either a rip clean or just giving up and tearing it down. I started DinoX last saturday and did the 5th dose last night. Dinos are essentially gone. By last night (48 hours after the last dose) I wasn't seeing any on the sand. I'm starting to see some green algae on the glass, which I haven't seen in forever. Nitrates are now around 2.5 and have been undetectable in my tank for months maybe longer. Phosphates are still .05 or less. I did have an acro frag RTN ( unfortunately a Walt Disney) and another 2 others that have small areas of STN. I actually think that has more to do with having to stop dosing my usual Ca/Alk supplements. I had to switch to kalkwasser and it bumped my alk a little above where my Trident normally keeps it. Otherwise all corals and livestock seem ok. All in all I think it's working. Hopefully a success story and maybe helpful for those who have similar struggles.

 

[Aqua Man]

That’s great news! Thanks for updating