Question about big algae bloom

Mavric · Jul 6, 2018

I got my intank media basket yesterday and put it in before I went to work this morning. I took out the sponge filter from the 2nd chamber in my sump and took out the fluval biomax and activated carbon and put those in the 2nd shelf of the basket along with 2 bags of chemi-pure blue nano and purigen. I then filled the 3rd chamber with plastic bio balls and put poly filter floss in the 1st. Came home today and the amount of algae was crazy compared to before doing the change. Is this to be expected when changing filter media to a large degree like that?

brandon429 · Jul 6, 2018

no

algae bloom imo is caused by these factors:

lighting sometimes, need full tank shot

heavy fish bioloading

***any sandbed that if you reached in, grabbed sand and dropped it, would cloud the tank massively. if there's a sandbed meeting that condition here, then slight upsets to it feed algae, especially if this is a smaller nano reef with low active grazers in place.

*rocks that were simply allowed to start with algae in perfect conditions (algae grows in perfect waters, it doesn't require 'bad' water, it requires you to allow it where it naturally sprung up) will compel more algae growth by simply existing. Algae traps detritus like a mop; that degrades as on site algae fuel. sometimes simply hand cleaning the system will help

-somewhere in this system a clouding event can be triggered, either off the rocks, sand or both cant wait to see pics. none of the items you've added or changed causes algae unless they release a cloud, pumped back into the tank as the change occurred.