2 months in and weird algae and smell

[ericdm]

i Have a 160 gallon reef tank that is about 2 months old now. I have about 85 lbs of dry rock and about 50 lbs fiji live rock with about 120 lbs of carabean pink live sand. I have a glass holes 1500 gph kit that flows into a 100 micron filter sock then into a compartment where my mag 9.5 feeds my aqua c ev180 skimmer then through the bubble trap and returned via my mag 18 return pump which is dialed back to about 65-70%

My lighting is a ATI sunpower 6x80w system with 4 blue plus and 2 aqua blue special

MY PROBLEM:

Within the last two weeks i have gotten this very rich and bright green algae on all of my rocks it is not hair algae and is not slimy when the lights r off it literally looks like you painted the rocks this green color it is hard to scrap off of the rocks. My snails and hermits seems to be eating it along with my blue hippo tang yellow tang and flame angel all of which are under 2" but they can not remove it from the rocks it is like one with the rocks. Also this developed after my very short brown diatom stage happened and now i again have some diatoms on my sand along with this crazy algae.

also soon after this algae appeared my basement began to smell and i can tell its comming from the algae outbreak my water in my sump smells and my skimmer and filter socks are both covered in this bright green stuff again it is not hairy or slimy it looks as though it is painted on the rocks. I have cut my lighting down to 2x blue plus for 8 hours a day.\

Any help i am at a loss i dont have any test kits i bring my water in weekly and have the lfs test for the esentials although i dont believe they test for phosphates which is what i will have them test this week. I am thinking about adding a media reactor with nitrate/phosphate remover. I am at a loss and not sure if this will even help of if this is just normal for a young tank even though my previous 40 gal and 75 gal reefs never had this type of algae.

Thank you

[ericdm]

also i do use ro/di water and my last filter is set up with active carbon. My temp is 78.5-80.3 degrees and my current in my tank currently is provided by my mag 18 return pump and a korilla 550 my mag 18 is at about 70% because it outflows my overflow so i have about 1900-2000 gph flowing through my tank

[Reefmedic79]

What does it smell like? I would also remove the filter socks as they aren't that necessary and will only hold on to waste and such.

The green algea is just the first algea to grow on your rock before coralline starts to grow on it. I wouldn't worry about it unless your CUC can't keep up with it.

With your RO/DI you need to be running carbon before the RO membrane if you aren't already. Outside of that there is no reason to have carbon as a finishing filter on your RO/DI.

[ericdm]

ok so if i have no filter sock what am i using to remove particles and floating waste in the water? also my cuc looks to be eating the stuff but when a snail passes over a spot the dark green is still encrusted on the rock they are not removing anything from the rock and it covers about 90% of my rock now. Also the smell is hard to describe it is a mix betwenn the gunk smell of what the skimmer takes out and that of the ocean on a hot day ive read somewhere that during the curing stages of live rock it will smell and i had zero smells of any kind before this crazy algae so im attributing the smell to the algae. I also notices thousands of little dots all over my glass not so much on my rocks which looks like it could be the start of coraline algae but hard to tell the color of the dots if its a light brown or light purple either way the dots dont come off of the glass when i scrape it.

Thank you

[ericdm]

any advice or experience with this will be greatly appreciated thank you to all in advance

[Dustin1300]

Can you get pictures and test parameters?

Algae is fed by Nitrate and Phosphate mainly. Ways to control phosphate is:

- Run GFO
- Grow Macroalgae (Chaeto is my choice) in fuge
- Algae Turf Scrubber

Nitrate:

- Water changes
- DSB in fuge
- Macroalgae
- Algae Turf Scrubber

As for the smell, I'd recommend a reactor with Carbon in it. My current system is 300+ gallons and I use 5 cups of lignite carbon in a GEO reactor monthly to help polish the water and rid it of any bad smell.

[ericdm]

I will try and get paramrters and pics up later this week but i was looking into getting a media reactor with gfo/carbon to help everything

[bellis31]

For a new tank the green algae your seeing as described is early stages of coraline algae. It normally starts green on dead rock and then you will get patches of pink, blue, or purple over time. As for the smell mine did the same a couple months in, just run a carbon reactor to absorb the yuk and this would also be a good time to begin GFO to keep nutrients under control after your cycle.

Oh and water changes weekly or bi-weekly..

[ericdm]

Thx for the advice im hoping it will turn to coraline because its encrusted about 90% off all my rock qnd i will soon be adding a gfo/carbon media reactor to help balance the system

[Reefmedic79]

Your skimmer is your mechanical filter that will pull out the particles and solids in the water.

As I mentioned in my first response I think the algea growing is just your rock beginning to grow coralline, your CUC will not be able to completely remove it from the rock they will just prevent it from overgrowth.

+1 to the use of carbon to clear up the oder. It's natural to get a ocean like smell from our tanks and even from the skimmer if you stilll get a bad smell you may need to clean your skimmer cup more often.

[xCry0x]

Get a carbon reactor, carbon helps remove the nasty out of water.