What is this algae

[Shawn Mathias]

How do I get rid of this stuff. Using ro/di water and tank is 4 yrs old. Algae all over rocks. I clean tank every 3 weeks and then it comes right back after about a week.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Holy Aptasia! When's the last time you changed out your RO/DI filters and resin? And how much are you feeding? And what is your light cycle? The algea is getting nutrients somewhere so the first step would be identifying where the excess nutrients are coming from.

 

[S-t-r-e-t-c-h]

Definitely hair algae, cyano & a ton of aiptasia. Need some nitrate and phosphate measurements to help, but they're probably on the high side.

 

[Mopartech]

Like suggested above. We need some measurements to get a good picture of where your tank is sitting at this moment. But going off of your picture it looks like your nitrates and phosphates are high. I would start by taking a old toothbrush and start removing as much algae from the live rock. Then do major water change about 25-30%. Also take a turkey baster and clean any detritus from the rocks. Clean any filter socks and make sure your skimmer is working properly. Then I would rethink the amount of food you're feeding. It will take time to get your algae under control. Then you have to take care of the aiptasia you have growing. Or you can go with the chemical route and use nopox and phosphate rx to bring your nitrate and phosphates down but be careful not to overdose. Personally I would not use any chemicals and try to bring down the nitrates and phosphates naturally.

 

[Shawn Mathias]

My tank is 48 gallons and I have a marineland reef led, a coralife skimmer, hang on back filter for media and carbon. I just checked my nitrates 40ppm and phosphates at .5 to 1 ppm. My ro/di water has 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates. I last changed my ro/di filters not that long ago. I have 2 clown fish, 2 yellow tailed damsels, royal gamma, spotted goby, banded coral shrimp, hatian anemone, and a carpet anemone. Then some hermits and snails. I feed half a cube of Emerald Entree in the morning and then a pinch of flake at night.

 

[teller]

I think you should consider a proper nutrients export method : macro algae, ats, carbon dosing, biopellets, etc.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I would scrub the heck out of that tank, dose dr tims waste away and do a lot of water changes for the Mecca couple months.

Defiantly test the tds of the rodi. Although there's no no3 or po4 , it won't test for cloramines If they're getting through. Those will kill your bio filter.

 

[Shawn Mathias]

I did a water change and scrubed the heck out of the rocks. Now I started dosing nopox, will see how this works. Thanks for the replys