Should i just restart?

[ryanjohn1]

Haha that's exactly how I feel.

Not my current tank but the one before I had like a 2 year ugly period. Stupid question. How your Rodi system?

 

[Pvtgloss]

Not my current tank but the one before I had like a 2 year ugly period. Stupid question. How your Rodi system?

0 tds.

 

[vetteguy53081]

This algae just keeps coming back. It spreads and spreads. I feel like I've tried everything. Lowered the lights, just blues and UV channels.
In January I rip cleaned the whole tank and all the rocks. Replaced all the sand with new sand I rinsed out fit 8 hrs, lol.
Lowered n03 and p04 to 14 and .04.
I've tried every snails, hermit crab, emerald crab, urchins, and sea hares. I'm going broke. Lol. I'm buying them by the dozens every few months. I bought a small yellow tang, saltwater mollies. Nothing eats it.
So I'm thinking bryopsis. I've probably done 7 doses of fluconazole within the last year. I just finished up a single dose for 21 days or so and then hit it with a double dose for another 27 days. Didn't faze it.
I go in twice a week pulling. Once a week with a nylon brush and siphon hose going to a filter sock in the sump. I scrub and siphon meticulous. 2 or 3 hours while siphoning a d blowing off all time rocks. The tank looks good for a few days but of I go out of town for a few days it looks like this.
Should I just pull the corals and put them in spare tanks while break the tank down and bleach the rocks? Or should I just keep what I'm doing and pull time rocks out every few months and rip clean the tank? I feel like I'll waste more effort trying to control it then if I were to just restart. I have extra tanks around to put the livestock in while I restart.
What is this stuff?

I don’t see a need for rip clean as we’ve been here with the various uglies
With a little patience, you’re going to pull through
Start with the pain of manual removal by hand. Sounds useless but it’s an effective first step
To follow, reduce white intensity for a week or turn off white for 5 days
Utilize a protein skimmer for removal of organics
Remove rock and scrub in lieu of tearing down the tank and starting over and going through ugly phases and cycle again
Then add snails such as astrea-turbo- nerite-cerith and fighting conch plus a pencil urchin or two
Is this tank by chance at or near a window?
Do you use any tap water even for top-off?

 

[UMALUM]

Ok so first of all your not going through what people call the ugly phase. Your initial rock selection was a poor choice but now that you have 2 years on it you really should try to save it unless live rock is an option. Carib sea rock is the absolute worst when it comes to phosphate absorption. IMO there's two ways you can attack the issue while saving your bacteria ect.

Set up a holding tank using existing water for your coral and inverts and strip the rock and substrate with gfo or phosguard in tank. Removing the coral will allow you to do this quickly with no I'll affects.

Second would be to remove the rock into a container and perform 100% water changes until you show no or very low consistent phosphate.

The bottom line is your rock is full of phosphate and will be fighting you with one thing or another until it's removed.

 

[vandy]

I don’t agree that this is bryopsis, just green algae. It gets mislabeled a lot, it is a lot more rare than you think. I had a similar algae issue in my AIO, but manual removal while consistently keeping phosphates low will keep it from coming back. Unfortunately when it’s that long, nothing will eat it. You need to trim it back all the way to the base, and then throw two pin cushion urchins in there and they will clear it up completely. I think you should try a refugium again though, once it’s gone. This will be a month long process though, it won’t get cleared over night

 

[Semper.Reefing]

Don’t give up! I had a big outbreak of this in my waterbox 20. I added an army of 30 assorted hermits and they literally picked it clean. For bryopsis I used reef flux. The main thing is to get your nutrients under control so the algae doesn’t come back after being cleaned up. Manually remove as much as you can first.

 

[slythy]

I had a terrible case of GHA algae in my 70, I ended up puting 50 top crown snails and 2 urchins in there. with manual removal of the algae and all those snails it cleared up in a month.

 

[kenchilada]

I’d cut back feeding, clean the sand, blow off the rocks, switch to frozen food, manually scrub the algae off, do frequent water changes. Repeat till it starts turning grayish. The algae is growing because it’s happy and you’re feeding it.

 

[Nano_Man]

Ok so first of all your not going through what people call the ugly phase. Your initial rock selection was a poor choice but now that you have 2 years on it you really should try to save it unless live rock is an option. Carib sea rock is the absolute worst when it comes to phosphate absorption. IMO there's two ways you can attack the issue while saving your bacteria ect.

Set up a holding tank using existing water for your coral and inverts and strip the rock and substrate with gfo or phosguard in tank. Removing the coral will allow you to do this quickly with no I'll affects.

Second would be to remove the rock into a container and perform 100% water changes until you show no or very low consistent phosphate.

The bottom line is your rock is full of phosphate and will be fighting you with one thing or another until it's removed.

Hi could he do what you’re saying and strip the phosphate out with L chloride

 

[UMALUM]

Hi could he do what you’re saying and strip the phosphate out with L chloride

I would think so but I haven't studied it enough to understand the possible effects on micro fauna if not used properly.

 

[Biff0rz]

That isn't even that bad tbh. I dealt with a LOT worse for 3yrs almost. Uglies, gha, cyano, 3 different types of dino... You name it. (pics in dino thread https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/d...-tired-of-battling-altogether.293318/page-537)

My advice to you, don't quit. Manually remove what you can. Use some fluconazole treatment to kill the gha off, and install an ATS. I had a fuge and it didn't help much. Once I installed an ATS all the algea grew in there and instead of the tank. I was super skeptical at first but a local guy who's super successful with sps recommended it to me... And sure as heck, it worked amazing. Won't have another tank without one again. I know it sounds a little snake-oil-ish but I swear it works lol.

 

[Pvtgloss]

I don’t see a need for rip clean as we’ve been here with the various uglies
With a little patience, you’re going to pull through
Start with the pain of manual removal by hand. Sounds useless but it’s an effective first step
To follow, reduce white intensity for a week or turn off white for 5 days
Utilize a protein skimmer for removal of organics
Remove rock and scrub in lieu of tearing down the tank and starting over and going through ugly phases and cycle again
Then add snails such as astrea-turbo- nerite-cerith and fighting conch plus a pencil urchin or two
Is this tank by chance at or near a window?
Do you use any tap water even for top-off?

I blacked out my windows. And use 0 tds for top off and rinsing equipment.
I scrub the rocks while siphoning into a sock in the sump. Could I be spreading it? I take time and try to siphon everything up.i do this for 2 or 3 hours whole blowing the rocks off trying to siphon every bit of algae

 

[Pvtgloss]

Ok so first of all your not going through what people call the ugly phase. Your initial rock selection was a poor choice but now that you have 2 years on it you really should try to save it unless live rock is an option. Carib sea rock is the absolute worst when it comes to phosphate absorption. IMO there's two ways you can attack the issue while saving your bacteria ect.

Set up a holding tank using existing water for your coral and inverts and strip the rock and substrate with gfo or phosguard in tank. Removing the coral will allow you to do this quickly with no I'll affects.

Second would be to remove the rock into a container and perform 100% water changes until you show no or very low consistent phosphate.

The bottom line is your rock is full of phosphate and will be fighting you with one thing or another until it's removed.

Could I still be leaching po4 if I test .04 to .08 steady?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I blacked out my windows. And use 0 tds for top off and rinsing equipment.
I scrub the rocks while siphoning into a sock in the sump. Could I be spreading it? I take time and try to siphon everything up.i do this for 2 or 3 hours whole blowing the rocks off trying to siphon every bit of algae

Cleaning within the tank or sump Can promote spreading

 

[Pvtgloss]

That isn't even that bad tbh. I dealt with a LOT worse for 3yrs almost. Uglies, gha, cyano, 3 different types of dino... You name it. (pics in dino thread https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellates-–-are-you-tired-of-battling-altogether.293318/page-537)

My advice to you, don't quit. Manually remove what you can. Use some fluconazole treatment to kill the gha off, and install an ATS. I had a fuge and it didn't help much. Once I installed an ATS all the algea grew in there and instead of the tank. I was super skeptical at first but a local guy who's super successful with sps recommended it to me... And sure as heck, it worked amazing. Won't have another tank without one again. I know it sounds a little snake-oil-ish but I swear it works lol.

I've been throwing around the idea of ATS. I might pull the trigger on one. Which one do you have?
Thanks

 

[Pvtgloss]

Cleaning within the tank or sump Can promote spreading

Dang

 

[Biff0rz]

I've been throwing around the idea of ATS. I might pull the trigger on one. Which one do you have?
Thanks

ATS-100 Algae Turf Scrubber

Harness Natural Filtration with an Adaptive Reef Algae Turf Scrubber Fight Algae with Algae Helps Remove Nitrate and Phosphate Includes In-Sump Stand for Easy Installation The Adaptive Reef Algae Turf Scrubbers (ATS) offer a sleek, leak-proof design without traditional PVC pipes, featuring...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

I'll acknowledge that they are stupid expensive for what they are. In hindsight, I would have just built my own or bought a used one. Get the biggest one you can fit if you decide to buy one. The up side is you won't need a fuge.

I dealt with about 5 rounds of gha/cyano/other stuff because I had used vibrant and it basically reset the tank each time.

 

[Nano_Man]

ATS-100 Algae Turf Scrubber

Harness Natural Filtration with an Adaptive Reef Algae Turf Scrubber Fight Algae with Algae Helps Remove Nitrate and Phosphate Includes In-Sump Stand for Easy Installation The Adaptive Reef Algae Turf Scrubbers (ATS) offer a sleek, leak-proof design without traditional PVC pipes, featuring...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

I'll acknowledge that they are stupid expensive for what they are. In hindsight, I would have just built my own or bought a used one. Get the biggest one you can fit if you decide to buy one. The up side is you won't need a fuge.

I dealt with about 5 rounds of gha/cyano/other stuff because I had used vibrant and it basically reset the tank each time.

I think @PaulB made his own

 

[NeedAReef]

salt water mollies?

 

[UMALUM]

Could I still be leaching po4 if I test .04 to .08 steady?

Absolutely, that's why it's growing on your rock. LOOK

INVERTS, DIMMING LIGHTS, FLUX, TURF SCRUBBERS, MOLLIES, PROTEIN SKIMMERS, TOOTH BRUSHES, REFUGIUMS, ECT. Are not going to unbind bound phosphate. These are mostly used as a preventative or preventatives. I'll bet if you take a rock out now and place it in a gallon of freshly made saltwater you'll get 0.4 - 0.8 tonight or maybe even higher.