Algae breakout - suggestions

[sleepydoc]

I'm dealing with an algae bloom and trying to figure out the best way to attack it. I had the obligatory GHA bloom after the tank was started a few years ago, got a bunch of banded trochus snails that took care of it and have kept it in check until a few months ago.

Now I'm dealing with some major growth (the pictures below are after I thinned it out by hand.) As near as I can tell I've got at least 3 or 4 different species. I thought the green patches were green hair algae at first, but the snails didn't seem to touch it and it seems to grow primarily under and on the sides of the rocks; the top surfaces are largely clean. It's also interspersed with the pinkish algae in the last pic. I'm wondering (hoping not) if the green stuff may be bryopsis and the pinkish stuff maybe calothrix? There also seems to be a good layer on the half of the sand bed that my diamond goby refuses to forage in. Many of the snails have a good tuft of brown hair on them and I also had some turf algae growing on my clam that I took of fairly easily.

I've just added a GFO reactor to try and scavenge any phosphate that may be contributing.

I had thought I'd get some ceriths, neuritis, chitons and possibly some emerald crabs, but figured I'd bounce off of people here, first. Any suggestions are appreciated!

Tank info:
120 gallon, established 2 years. Fish: Kole tang, royal gramma, Percula clown pair, fire fish, diamond goby. Coral banded shrimp, 15-20 banded trochus snails.

Feeding schedule: a pinch of New Life Spectrum pellets, ½ cube of PE Mysis every other day, 1-2 square inches of Nori 2-3x/week.

Labs: KH 9.0, Mg 1350, Ca 390, NH4 0, NO2 0.01 ppm, NO3 0.1 ppm, PO4 0, SG 1.023 (in process of raising - had a poorly calibrated refractometer)

[TheCatsWrasse]

there can be acouple things causing the algae from dirty water to lack of cuc to inadequate flow to your lights being old thoes are pretty much the base of the triangle is it over feeding? there are some things im sure u can rule out so go from there your best bet tho is to manualy remove as much as possible grab a turky baster and blow on the rocks this should remove some elements its using to fuel growth do a water change and you can do a lights out for 3 days (noooo light into the tank for 3 days) that will put a dent in the problem but u gotta find where it stems from first

[TheCatsWrasse]

sorry got lazy and stopped reading id check the flow and lights the gfo will help toss some carbon in the reactor too if u wanna to keep things in check

[brandon429]

Your tank is mega ideal for our method there's probably no better or faster way for such a correction

Post your pics in my thread if you like, we will fix in a week

Nanos forum, pest algae challenge thread

your algae is probably easy to beat ; )

[sleepydoc]

Sorry - work took over and haven't had time to reply.

Trying to figure out where it stems from. I don't think it's over feeding; my feeding schedule is pretty conservative. I've added GFO to scavenge any phosphate that's left. My nitrites and nitrates are technically not zero, but as close as you can get; both barely detectable using the salifert high-sensitivity method. (0.01 ppm NO2 and 0.1 ppm NO3). As for flow, my return pump is about 600 (actual) gph and I have 2 Koralia 1150 power heads.

Planning on augmenting my CUC, just trying to definitively ID the algae first so I can properly tailor it.

I've done a couple manual removals. The first time I probably got a liter of algae in the bucket. Done a couple more cleanups since then; hard to get it all without removing the rocks and scrubbing, which I can't do right now. Will probably try lights-out next week, but that's just a temporizing measure if the other factors aren't controlled.

Brandon - Thanks for the suggestion. I'll try to get over and read the thread tonight or tomorrow. Does anyone have an idea what the pinkish algae is?

[brandon429]

I have no idea what it is but plantbrain would know try a direct pm. I def want this thread after pic in my thread, there are hundreds of sets in there now. Yours will be a shocking outcome, peroxide cuts through mixed algal communities like a buzz saw

All bacteria intact, no recycle. Take out any sample rock from the tank
Use a new bottle for highest strength

Douse in peroxide right on the target area don't hand remove any

Let sit cooking 3 mins. Rinse off really well put back in tank. 5 days post follow up pic, totally clean you will love it and I'll get killer after pics for the thread, to link. I'm tellin ya it beats the slow torturous wait for nutrient starvation. Get instant fix use nutrient control to fight the guaranteed regrowth.

This rock is fully eutrophic and its not unnatural to a lot of natural reef settings. I dove all over Cayman Islands in 96 and saw this mix and bigger mixes of total macroalgae infestation. Mostly a balance, your tank is just currently selecting for the algal portion so I say force it back to primary producer nondominant and use repeat methods to burn out the regrowth until the mass dies off.

Pics from middle of this page:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...082359&page=58

You can treat in tank, its in the thread but why not spend two hours and change the look of your tank 90% in five days. Then you will prob retreat spots as needed, fixing this much invasion takes repeats...but watch what a test rock does. It'll make you want to go through what you can up top at least.

hope to see you and one test rock should hook you, and not be a huge risky trial to run.

[brandon429]

Some people wait and use fish and can say they attained an all natural grazer balance. Some use turf scrubbers to outcompete


Doesn't matter, choose your sword and wield it. The after pics, the delivery, is what res publica wants. The best posts have the payout shot man. Merely a detailed before and 5 day untouched peroxide high res pic of a single test rock, this well massed in algae, from your tank would be post gold. The rock at worst might take an extra day or two but the algae just falls off.

[shifty51008]

It is gotta be from the water, lights being to old isnt gonna cause alage if your water is good.

I would say your on the right track running the gfo, but you may have to change it every couple days as it will be used up very fast. I would get a few turbo snails also, they will go to town on that stuff.

[elviraveloz]

I tried what Brandon suggested with peroxide and it worked like magic. I pulled most of the rocks because I have around four hundred pounds of LR and it was impossible to treat all of them. Right know I only have a couple of them with hair algae, to bad I don't have pictures.

[living_waters]

i dumped a mini army of emerald crabs in my tank did the job.......

[sleepydoc]

I've been reading about peroxide and think I'll give it a try. Trying to figure out the exact procedures, though. The algae is too wide spread to do just a spot treatment, and the rocks are rather large, so it would take a lot of peroxide to dip them. I'm thinking I'll try spraying them. I have several rocks that serve as base pieces that are quite large, so dipping them is definitely out.

Fortunately, I don't have too much in the way of corals yet, so that shouldn't be a big issue. Definitely need to beef up the cleanup crew, too. I'm thinking some emerald crabs, several ceriths to get down in the sand, and probably some chitons as well. I'll try to post pics of the progress.

[brandon429]

If I miss your after shot pls pm me so I can see it~

No dip needed, you just open the cap and pour out of the bottle right on the targets. Let sit 5 minutes if you want, neither the air nor the peroxide will recycle your rock. Wet it up good, rinse, post pics 5 days later watch

Sure there will be follow up work, this is eutrophication reversal. It will die well though.

[brandon429]

All the nutrient control work and cuc work is for afterwards, for prevention of regrowth... if that is possible. clear the forest first. Spend a good 8 bucks on peroxide bottles and leave them empty at the party

The most ideal payout for your efforts will be found in taking the time to remove and externally treat each rock. Removing detritus clouds underneath etc

Rescape in a way that anticipates round two