Water change/algae, what?

[Brinkfish312]

Soooo, even though our system is relatively new (about 4 mos) and have kept elements/levels within appropriate levels very easily and have gone through a rash of syndromes , i.e. Bryopsis, Dino's, regular algae, ich... Etc. All of these have been dealt with and under control up to this point.
So my question is does anyone else notice a splurge of algae growth the day of/day after doing a water change? Is there something about putting clean, fresh, saltwater that these microbes just can't live without? We've started doing an automatic day of blackout the day after a water change and it seems to help. Is there any advice for this? Thanks for the help!

 

[brandon429]

its helpful to see algae growth as not tied to any water table ideal you could reach, cuz some reach that balance and still have the algae we need a better plan

in this case, pouring in new water makes a blast of current down (its usually mixed current right, not all blasting down at your sandbed level) and it upwells all the nutrients in the top layer of the sandbed (assuming there is one, its still the majority and is the sink for future algae battles anyway) and the algae that are already seeded in the live rock take short advantage of the new nutrients. thats one possibility.

in the end, you can either choose to accept the algae presence and work around it with the usual, long term measures or just kill it all two days ago and anyone who looks at your tank sees no algae, regardless of the water quality. thats what I do. I watch other people farm algae on purpose and it amazes me
B

if you start fixing tanks that are wrecked with algae online and collect the before and after pics in giant threads that run 5 years we see this:

-perfect balance tanks can have algae issues. bryopsis isn't even hardly affected by nutrient dealings post invasion as a fine example. Ive seen zeovit tanks come to my threads who were running half the ideal phosphate measures and still couldnt get GHA out of the system.

algae is natural in our tanks, its natural on the reefs and only fishes and grazers control it, even in pristine waters. take them away, you get real reefs algae wrecked and it had only to do with the loss of something, not that the water would register bad phosphates.

what we are told today in algae aquarium dealings doesnt work, it works just spotty enough for someone to be able to possibly run their own tanks using conventional methods but you'll never see those tactics being used in mass correction threads. what works for the documented masses is simply kill the algae and ask questions about it later.

nowadays you would be offered the option to bind phosphates better in your system, some GFO perhaps in the filter, to absorb any transient nutrient issues and lessen these flare ups. i wont use any gfo, but most would advise that route. what id advise is simply dont have algae because its a total option.

if I have a rock that gets bryopsis on it, the rock leaves my reef on sprig #1 and it doesnt come back. I took out the substrate it was on, not just the bryopsis, because I know if it gets seeded sometimes you cant win.

if I have a rock that gets GHA on it, it is killed yesterday and therefore barren in the former spot that once had GHA. in that time, 17,500 people had the same two spots and did nothing, thats the total trick to algae management as crazy as that sounds.

when algae shows up, you just kill it. you retro engineer your phosphate control when you see it pop up, but to remove algae, thats you.

preventatives should never be used as removers of algae, thats the ticket.

 

[Brinkfish312]

I get that... Mostly... Heh.
Yes, algae is natural and occurs in nature it thrives on a lot of the same nutrients as the "good" guys. It's just ugly and inhibits coral growth. That's one of my main ughs, is that it clusters around the bases and throughout the corals polyps, and I feel that may be ONE of the reasons a couple of them won't open all the way.
Our phos is .08, could prolly be better, but we also don't have any GFO like some use, we don't really "dose" anything, we just run carbon and a skimmer. We DID however use the H2O2 for the Dino's and it seemed that was the trick. Anytime we start to see the first little bubbles start to pop up on surfaces now, it's blackout time to get it before it takes hold.

We've gotten most of the little fuzzy, soft looking green algae off most places, just have some here and there, but hey, the snails need to eat too, right?
I was just curious about the correlation between clean water and BAM! But it makes sense.
So, we'll just keep our schedule of water change, day of blackout, heheh. Works for now [emoji4]

 

[Brinkfish312]

Thanks for the time and info!

 

[brandon429]

Hey thats neat you made any headway on invasive dinos I consider those in the top two most risky invaders we can get

The other is neomeris annulata just my opinion

I'm kind of frazzled you can see when it comes to algae advice. For each new tank low lying infestation what I really see is the endpoint threads where the keeper has such a eutrophic balance issue that the fight is longer to clean up than it was to prevent with heavy initial action and they are taking things down

Every tank ever lost had the initial inactivity in common so a balance somewhere in between how I roll and good water care ought to work lol

If its any help, peroxide is amazing at clearing out polyp restricting growth there must be 200 pics of it in our nano-reef.com peroxide thread alone. Not with tankwide doses, with spot applications. Usually when water is drained at water change time.

 

[Waters]

I also have the same issue with some cyano on the sand bed. The day of the water changes, it gets worse and slowing improves throughout the week......until I do the water change. I just assumed it is the introduction of nutrients and the disturbance of the sand bed (like brandon stated). Like you, I am unsure what I could be adding that would cause it though....there are 0 nitrates and phosphates in my replacement water.

 

[brandon429]

Cyano we have seen is almost always best controlled with nutrient management following assertive siphon removal. Of all the threads on harsh cyano invasions it was margarita snails and gfo that worked the best

People recommend increasing flow we know that, but hitting the system for phosphates really did work in most cases. Thats one of the invaders where direct kill w peroxide isn't indicated its better to starve cyano in my opinion

 

[Waters]

Cyano we have seen is almost always best controlled with nutrient management following assertive siphon removal. Of all the threads on harsh cyano invasions it was margarita snails and gfo that worked the best

People recommend increasing flow we know that, but hitting the system for phosphates really did work in most cases. Thats one of the invaders where direct kill w peroxide isn't indicated its better to starve cyano in my opinion

Yeah, it isn't a bad case at all....just a little here and there on my gravel/sand bed. I am already running GFO (as well as Chem-Pure Blue) and have snails as well as a ton of water flow. I test 0 for both Nitrates and Phosphates at all times. I am unsure as to why I have any at all at this point. I have started to skim on the wet side to pull more DOCs from the water.

 

[brandon429]

In my op its this


my tank too gets red cyano on the walls in spite of all I do to fight algae, when I let wchanges go a while lazily

green hair algae and cyano variants I consider to be constants, they cannot be obliterated from a tank only controlled. the potentiation remains for them to come in the tank at any time, so its fair to use nutrient restriction on these guys

but contrast that to:
invasive macro algae
or bubble valonia invasions
or invasive dinos
or bryopsis
or red gelidium

those simply must be imported, so we dont use nutrients to battle those as much as direct kills to simply get at the last remaining biomass then it can't come back until reimported. It is impossible for my 10 yr old tank to have any of these, impossible. im through stocking, its full. the obligate hitchhikers have been obliterated.

its down to GHA and cyano, they get in by aerosols depending on if you live near waterways (some radius of travel reported 200+ miles around niagara area for example see online studies) and they get in by standard contamination vectoring. you can easily repot a plant and not wash off hands and touch a tank and import any number of ubiquitous primary producers. i always thought that was a neat way to see algae battles, what can come back and what can't, when X biomass is truly managed.

Cyano can come back any ole time it pleases lol

 

[Brinkfish312]

We've only noticed the red/rust colored easily blown off dust algae when we administered Fuel for the corals. And that was only once a week, so we stopped even "feeding" them that stuff. It's the green hairy stuff that's driving me crazy!

 

[Dustyboots]

I'm going to get backlash... Try carbon dosing (vodka, vinegar, PoNox...) or API has a marine algaecide. Google it.

 

[Brinkfish312]

I've really been wanting to try that Fauna Marin Ultra Algea X, but you can't find it available anywhere.
It's honestly not that bad right now, just a few clumps here and there, but Ya know how it likes to explode out of nowhere sometimes. I'd like to find that stuff and try it next time the bomb goes off.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

FWIW, many different things can limit algae growth, including some trace elements such as iron.

If your tank is depleted in those, a water change can add some and possibly cause a burst of algae growth.

 

[mcbridepcm]

Algea is an essential part of every salt water environment. All you can do is control it to some extent. New tanks go through the ugly stages first, but with time and proper aquarium management there will be a shift or a hyacrcy were the good algea will dominate your aquarium .... but it has to go through its course.

 

[Dustyboots]

Nicely said Randy.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Nicely said Randy.

Thanks.

Happy Reefing!

 

[nano reef]

I read or saw youtubes that said if you get a big algae bloom after waterchange it means dino's. This just started happening to me and I change water every week to 10 days! I mean like acrazy coat that was like velvet on my wavemakers and someof the glass and a little on sand but after peroxiding my rocks along back wall I realized how much my other rocks that are directly under light are turning much darker so I assume its algae. I also heard that if phosphates and nitrates are zero than dinos happen very easy. Does this apply to cyano outbreaks as well. I just noticed tonight some red on glass but sandbed as brownish green. Nitrates are 3 and phos is 0.

Its not slimy and snot like like cyano though nor is it weblike and dosnt really look like pics I have seen of dinos. Looks like diatoms really.

I also get bubbles attched to the film algae on the glass but nowhere else. I also keep doin waterchanges to up alk because it keeps dropping after I added 30 frags in3 weeks time to a 6 month old coraless tank Problem is the alk drop is so inconsistent to be able to dial up a daily dose. It may go 5 days and not drop then drop 0.1 then next day 0.3. Its all over the place!

The bacteria i have been dosing also claim to lower phosphates and already zero inspite of dosing neophos. But supposly works for dinos and cyano both. If only I could get some phopates it may resolve on ots own, just keep doin what i am doing I guess Unless can be kiled by chemiclean as well. anyone of you guys can tell me what else works or if it sound like cyano or dinos. I also heard cyano. I realize this is a very old thread but came up when I googled : Algae bloom after water change!

Any advise to a newbie about to pull all of her hair out would be greatly apreciated! LOL.
I can attaché some pics I itook tomorrow when hubby shows me how! LOL

 

[ApoIsland]

I read or saw youtubes that said if you get a big algae bloom after waterchange it means dino's.

I frequently get a diatom bloom after my monthly water change but have never had dinos. Diatoms are no problem as they usually go away fairly quick on their own.

 

[vlangel]

If there are any ornamental macro algae that you like the looks of, ( like red titan, codium, ect...) you can try adding that. It often will compete with gha and bubble algae and will out compete dinos and cyano.