Where did my algae go?

[roblox84]

I was battling hair algae and cyano in my jbj 28 cube for a little over a year and nothing seemed to have helped. I ran GFO religiously, barely fed the tank, scrubbed the algae and did weekly water changes which only seemed to help the algae grow.

Eventually I gave up and didn't want to mess with my tank anymore but also didn't want to get rid of it so I turned the Ai Prime down to about 50 percent, stopped water changes and started using tap water for my top off for the past year.

Just recently all the algae is just about gone and the sand bed is as clean as ever. Unfortunately only my frogs pawn survived and the other corals were suffocated by the algae. Obviously not looking at a mess of a tank anymore my ambition is renewed and I would like to start over with coral but I would like to make sure I don't repeat whatever caused the massive algae blooms in the first place.

Can anyone guess as to what might have changed in my tank that made the algae dissappear? Could it have been something as simple as running the ai prime to bright? Or was I constantly making the parameters out of whack by doing weekly 5g water changes and adding elements that fueled the algae? Or does tap water contain chemicals to not allow algae to flourish? Any help is appreciated.

 

[BestMomEver]

You got me. Or maybe you just happened to pass through an ugly stage and come out the other side.

 

[roblox84]

It got me too. It seems as though doing the complete opposite of what was recommended worked best.

Hopefully you are right and that was just the ugly stage because I really don't want to lose a bunch of corals again the second time around.

 

[McFly]

Ugly stage always ends eventually, just most give up before then. I'd stop using tap water and just keep going now that your in the clear. I have a rock thats 4 years old that can't grow algae (aside from Coralline) however other newer rocks enjoy growing the finest GHA known to reefers. It will stop eventually, all part of the maturation process.

 

[roblox84]

Yeah I did a water change today and went back to using RO/DI and got rid of the tap water in my ATO container as well. I'll wait a few weeks to see how it goes with the new RO water then I'll add a coral or two.

If I start seeing new algae start popping up in the next few days I figure it will have to be the salt mix (instant ocean) that was introducing something into the water.

 

[roblox84]

So not even a few days after the water change algae is popping up again. I've included a picture of this algae. It's a shorter, fuzzy, brownish algae.

I've tried many different salt mixes over the years and none seem to be any different. The only two things I can think of are new minerals being added after water changes which are feeding the algae or for whatever reason I have bad RO water which is worse than my tap water.