10g Reef Problems

[telamont]

I have about a 2 yr old 10 gallong reef tank. It has a HOB filter running carbon and a small powerhead. There is a heater too.

The amount of LR in the system is probably close to 10 lbs including the 1 inch sandbed.

I have many coral and 4 fish. A few snails and a harlequin and a few crabs too. An urchin as well but I think he will be taken out. I do water changes once weekly and change carbon every week or so as well.

Of the areas on the LR that are not covered with coral I have an outbreak of bryopsis. Weekly I manually remove as much as I can and then do my water change.

Is there anything more I can do to prevent the briopsis from taking over? I thought the urchin might help but it isn't. Should I remove some livestock? I know there is a MG dosing you can perform but my tank is only 10g and I wanted to try and avoid doing that. Ive just been trying to battle it with manual removal and hoping the coral grows on all the rocks instead. If anyone has any ideas I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

[willyboy]

You didn't say what fish you have but 4 is a lot for a 10g unless they are all small gobies.

[oshanickreef]

I had the same problem in my 14 g biocube. I had two fish, a few snails, and a cleaner shrimp and i thought that was overstocking... My solution was a bigger tank. I would definitely consider less livestock... a few cleaners and maybe 2 fish in a 10 g. What type of fish do you have? and how big?

[Reefmedic79]

Answer the following questions for more help.

What are your water parameters?
Are you using RO/DI water?
Do you have any snails?
How often do you feed the tank?
What type of lighting do you have? Old bulbs can increase algae growth.

Increasing magnesium is a fairly simple way to halt the growth of bryopsis.

[telamont]

all the fish are small.
scooter blenny
green goby
clown fish
neon goby

Ill have to check water parameters when im home :/
Not using RODI but when the waters mixed with salt it is clean.
There may be 2 stomatella snails, and 1 nassarius and maybe 1 other.
Feed the tank maybe once a day and not much when I do.
Lighting is a DIY LED fixture from rapid.

Should I just increase MG on the tank? It is possible on that small a system?

[oshanickreef]

is the LED mod you did a dimmable kit or is it just one setting? I had the RapidLED DIY and it was so bright the algae growth was crazy

[TankStudy]

I had a small bryopsis problem before and I can tell you, it can thrive on very little nutrients. If it is located on one piece of rock or area, I would recommend removing it out of the tank. I have lost quite a few frags with them being covered in bryopsis.

[telamont]

The light is one setting. I cant remove the rocks because coral is covered on them also. Its a tough battle always weeding this stuff. I think I'll either have to keep battling it until the coral overgrows all the rocks or just try the Mg dosing.

Does anyone have experience dosing Mg in a small tank to remove bryopsis?

[Reefmedic79]

Originally Posted by telamont

all the fish are small.
scooter blenny
green goby
clown fish
neon goby

Ill have to check water parameters when im home :/
Not using RODI but when the waters mixed with salt it is clean.
There may be 2 stomatella snails, and 1 nassarius and maybe 1 other.
Feed the tank maybe once a day and not much when I do.
Lighting is a DIY LED fixture from rapid.

Should I just increase MG on the tank? It is possible on that small a system?

Probably on of the primary reason for nuisance algae growth, an RO/DI pulls out dissolved solids that are not visible to the eye, regardless of it looking clean when mixed with salt.

The addition of more algae eaters can help as well. 2-3 Nerites, and maybe a dozen or more dwarf ceriths. reefcleaners.org is where I got mine and they sell them in pre-packaged kits.

Raising the Mag in your tank is very possible, but knowing what your current levels are is important before starting. Knowing your ALK and calcium levels are needed as well.

[Reeferz412]

Buy hydrogen peroxide and make a 50/50 solution in a container. Get the rocks and dump them in the solution. Your corals can take the hit but the bryopsis will die. Remove the bryopsis in the container manually. Any short stalks left will die. It may take a few tries because it is resilient but they hate the stuff.

[telamont]

Which tests do you recommend for Calc Alk and Mg?

[telamont]

Whoa Reeferz I never head that. Thanks! 50/50 hydrogen peroxide and tank water? All corals can take a dip of this? Would you dip the rocks then put it back in the main tank and then remove the algae? This actually seems tough it would seem like I'd transfer hydrogen peroxide into my main tank. Is that bad for the system or the livestock?

[oshanickreef]

dont dump hydrogen peroxide in the main system... after you do the 50/50 solution dip the rocks in RO salt mix to wash them off. then put them back in your tank

[phxreefer]

^ This will get rid of the algae, but it will be back. Your tank is likely overstocked or under serviced. The fact that is still growing is proof of that. I would consider lightening the bio load and increasing service level until you have a handle on nutrient export.

After that you could start to push the limit on livestock loading . When you reach that point you will know how to handle the system and know when too much is too much.

[phxreefer]

One more thing i forgot to mention. The guys above are corect in that the water you use could play a large roll in algae growth. If you do not want to get your own RO/DI system buy it from a known good source. Meaning a LFS that routinly tests their water for 0 TDS.
GL

[telamont]

thanks i think ill do that

[Reeferz412]

Others are correct, it's just a quick fix to something that can thrive off low nutrients. So it is pretty difficult to "find the root of the problem" and kill off bryopsis. I used the 50/50 method to kill the stuff off a frag I got from an LFS and it spread on one of my rocks. I tried the syringe method in my tank and it did not work well, so I used the seperate container dip method which worked great. I could see the bryopsis fizzing away. Now if you had an hair algae problem then you should start looking for other problems causing it.

[Russell F]

I did the Mg method, but as stated higher up it will come back if the problem is not resolved. After mine went away it came back once the mg got low again. So i started trying to figure out what was going on. I did a heavy cleaning, went from once a month to weekly water changes, replaced my RO membrane, cleaned the skimmer, cut the light cycle down to 4hours a day, and dosed MG again. Once it turned brown and started breaking up i siphoned it out. I went a week or so and made sure it was gone, then i did a massive water change, and slowly starting increasing the photo period. I battled it for nearly 3 months before i finally got it to go away. It takes persistance.