Thought I had it under control

[sdt11]

About a month ago I had this algae problem. I did a deep scrub with toothbrush on all rocks and back glass. I added 20 Cerith, 20 Nassarius, 20 Astraea and 20 Nerite snails to the tank. my tank is 6'x2'x2' with 160 gallons in the display and the sump. I am running 4 XR15 G5 Pros on the AB+ setting on 33% power for about 6 hours a day. the tank is 7 months old with 12 small fish.

After the deep cleaning the only problem was my Nitrates and Phosphate were both 0. So i turned off the skimmer and dosed NeoPhos a couple of times to get the phosphates up to 0.03. Then work got in the way of me keeping up on everything.

My numbers as of Saturday with salifert kits
Temp 78.5
Salinity 1.26
Anmonia 0.0
Nitrite 0.0
Nitrate 5
PH 8.2
ALK 7
Calcium 450
Phos .03
Mag 1290

on Saturday I turned the skimmer back on, I thought I would run it for a day or so. I turned it off Sunday night.

Today I checked the Phosphate and it was back to 0, So I did another dose of NeoPhos.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[anemoneanatomy]

Do you have anything in your tank (or plan to have anything in your tank) other than fish + snails? I think, to some extent, algae is an inevitable reaction to the requisite nutrients being available. They always will be unless you're planning to go ULNS, so in addition to your cleanup crew keeping it under control you need organisms that can compete for those same nutrients and remove them from the water column.

 

[Jekyl]

Still just the ugly phase. Seed some coraline if you haven't already.

 

[Jekyl]

Instead of turning the skimmer off either tune it down or let it empty back into the sump. No sense in stopping the gas exchange

 

[sdt11]

Do you have anything in your tank (or plan to have anything in your tank) other than fish + snails? I think, to some extent, algae is an inevitable reaction to the requisite nutrients being available. They always will be unless you're planning to go ULNS, so in addition to your cleanup crew keeping it under control you need organisms that can compete for those same nutrients and remove them from the water column.

I do have a 3 Zoas. Was going to wait and add more after a while.

 

[sdt11]

Instead of turning the skimmer off either tune it down or let it empty back into the sump. No sense in stopping the gas exchange

Thanks I will turn it down.

 

[anemoneanatomy]

I see no real reason to turn off your protein skimmer, either now or ever. I would wait on SPS or LPS until your parameters are a little more stable since you're seeing swings of no algae then algae, but you might be able to add some hardy soft corals if you want as long as you are running lighting that will keep them comfortable.

Your rock is clearly not liverock, so it will take a while to build up beneficial bacteria. What's your substrate? Also, what filtration media are you using in that filter?

 

[Jekyl]

That is live rock. Looks just like every else's just not covered in coraline yet.

 

[anemoneanatomy]

What I mean by this is I'm concerned it may have been dried out prior to purchase and therefore may not have as much beneficial biofiltration going for OP's system. That's also why I'm asking about filtration media. It will build up over time even if I'm right, it just may explain why the cycling / grow out phase seems a bit long.

 

[Jekyl]

I started with dry rock and my uglies lasted about a year. Once coraline took over algae was never an issue again. I think his tank is right around where it should be. Algae sucks, but it's a normal part of the process.

 

[sdt11]

Yes it is reef saver rock. That i purchased of a local person that sat in his basement for a while.

I am also using filter floss that i change at least every three days, sometimes 2 days.

 

[anemoneanatomy]

Yes it is reef saver rock. That i purchased of a local person that sat in his basement for a while.

I am also using filter floss that i change at least every three days, sometimes 2 days.

I think one alternative, as stated above, is to simply be patient.

If you are not a patient person, however, you need to kickstart your biofiltration if you want to exit this phase. There are a few things you could try:

1. Buy live sand, the kind that is still wet. It contains bacteria that will compete with the algae, and they will proliferate throughout your substrate over time, so you don't need that much.​

2. Buy / borrow some liverock from a person who has an established, mature tank, or from an LFS that doesn't have obvious negative hitchhikers (no aiptasia, please). Again, the bacterial colonies in these rocks will be more established, compete more effectively with the algae, and help spread across your tank over time.​

3. Add products that contain beneficial bacteria to your water (like Re-Fresh, or Marine Quick Start)​

4. If you're okay with really messing around with your aquarium, add some some ceramic biomedia to the bottom of your tank and then cover them with sand. They make great mini-refugia for benthic bacteria.​

5. Rather than using biofloss and removing it every few days, perhaps look into some ceramic filtration media. If you have a local buddy who has some developed biofiltration methods in a mature tank, borrowing some could be very helpful for you, as well.​

​

Sorry if this list seems a bit repetitive, but there are only so many ways to encourage the growth of bacteria in your tank.

​

 

[sdt11]

I think one alternative, as stated above, is to simply be patient.

If you are not a patient person, however, you need to kickstart your biofiltration if you want to exit this phase. There are a few things you could try:

1. Buy live sand, the kind that is still wet. It contains bacteria that will compete with the algae, and they will proliferate throughout your substrate over time, so you don't need that much.​

2. Buy / borrow some liverock from a person who has an established, mature tank, or from an LFS that doesn't have obvious negative hitchhikers (no aiptasia, please). Again, the bacterial colonies in these rocks will be more established, compete more effectively with the algae, and help spread across your tank over time.​

3. Add products that contain beneficial bacteria to your water (like Re-Fresh, or Marine Quick Start)​

4. If you're okay with really messing around with your aquarium, add some some ceramic biomedia to the bottom of your tank and then cover them with sand. They make great mini-refugia for benthic bacteria.​

5. Rather than using biofloss and removing it every few days, perhaps look into some ceramic filtration media. If you have a local buddy who has some developed biofiltration methods in a mature tank, borrowing some could be very helpful for you, as well.​

​

Sorry if this list seems a bit repetitive, but there are only so many ways to encourage the growth of bacteria in your tank.

​

Thanks for all the input. I am patien, so I will wait it out.

Thanks again

 

[Deyan]

About a month ago I had this algae problem. I did a deep scrub with toothbrush on all rocks and back glass. I added 20 Cerith, 20 Nassarius, 20 Astraea and 20 Nerite snails to the tank. my tank is 6'x2'x2' with 160 gallons in the display and the sump. I am running 4 XR15 G5 Pros on the AB+ setting on 33% power for about 6 hours a day. the tank is 7 months old with 12 small fish.

After the deep cleaning the only problem was my Nitrates and Phosphate were both 0. So i turned off the skimmer and dosed NeoPhos a couple of times to get the phosphates up to 0.03. Then work got in the way of me keeping up on everything.

My numbers as of Saturday with salifert kits
Temp 78.5
Salinity 1.26
Anmonia 0.0
Nitrite 0.0
Nitrate 5
PH 8.2
ALK 7
Calcium 450
Phos .03
Mag 1290

on Saturday I turned the skimmer back on, I thought I would run it for a day or so. I turned it off Sunday night.

Today I checked the Phosphate and it was back to 0, So I did another dose of NeoPhos.

Any help would be appreciated.

Wow, that looks bad.. I am on the same journey.. but no where near that, actually made me feel better about the bit I got. Mine was introduced from a frag when I moved my stock from a small tank to my upgrade months ago. I thought it’s not much and I got now a bigger tank so it should be ok... boy! Several months later I’m on combat mode!

About a month ago I had this algae problem. I did a deep scrub with toothbrush on all rocks and back glass. I added 20 Cerith, 20 Nassarius, 20 Astraea and 20 Nerite snails to the tank. my tank is 6'x2'x2' with 160 gallons in the display and the sump. I am running 4 XR15 G5 Pros on the AB+ setting on 33% power for about 6 hours a day. the tank is 7 months old with 12 small fish.

After the deep cleaning the only problem was my Nitrates and Phosphate were both 0. So i turned off the skimmer and dosed NeoPhos a couple of times to get the phosphates up to 0.03. Then work got in the way of me keeping up on everything.

My numbers as of Saturday with salifert kits
Temp 78.5
Salinity 1.26
Anmonia 0.0
Nitrite 0.0
Nitrate 5
PH 8.2
ALK 7
Calcium 450
Phos .03
Mag 1290

on Saturday I turned the skimmer back on, I thought I would run it for a day or so. I turned it off Sunday night.

Today I checked the Phosphate and it was back to 0, So I did another dose of NeoPhos.

Any help would be appreciated.

don’t look like you got any corals? I’d leave lights out for a month! And obviously continue the water changes as it dies it will release nutrients into tank! If you got corals put them else where in the meantime. Or just get a sea hare. Also I’d slap some gfo!