Please help...

[gijoe83]

Hello. Long time lurker, first time poster. I have a 55g tank that currently holds a clown fish, a firefish, a watchman goby a pistol shrimp, a peppermint shrimp and 3 hermit crabs. My tank has been up and running for about a year and a half.
Over the last 6-8 months I have had an insane algea break out. I have searched the internet high and low and cant find anything that resembles what is in my tank. It is incredibly fast growing. I can clean all the glass, scrub the rocks and it will be back less than a week. in the matter of 3 to 4 days in can grow up to an inch and it completely covers every lit surface. Here are some pics, it looks terrible because I havent gotten in there in 3 to 4 days.
A little about my set up. It is a 55g with about 80lbs of rock. about 30 lbs was live and teh rest base rock that was seeded when the tank was set up about a year and a half ago. I use a 6 bulb t5 unit and just installed fresh bulbs about a month ago. I use an aqua c remora hang on tank skimmer. I dont have a sump or a refugium. I fear that may be my problem, not a lot of nutrient export. about a week ago i picked up a two little fishes phosphate reactor and started using it. I think it is too soon to see if it helps.
My perameters in the tank are all normal, ammonia is at 0, nitrate 0, nitrite 0, ph 8.2, the only thing is the phosphate is reading .5 as far as i can tell. Also I use my own ro/di water mixed with seachem reef salt.

[gijoe83]

I was hoping someone could at least tell me if this type of algae is common or not? As I have not been able to find anything that looks like it in pictures. Thanks!

[almostazoo]

did it start after you did the bulbs? I searched all over to see some ref of pink/tan/brown algea, most pink is comon in pools but has been known to happen in marine tanks.

[phenom5]

Not really sure what kind of algae that is to be honest. Doesn't look like much fun to deal with thought.

Your phosphates are high. You really want to shoot for under 0.03. Hobby grade test kits generally aren't accurate down to the levels we'd like them to be for reef tanks. I'd look into a Hanna PO4 checker. With high PO4 you'll probably exhaust the media in your TLF reactor pretty quickly. You want to test the water coming out of the reactor, as soon as you start seeing your PO4 start to move up it's time to replace your media.

It's pretty common to get a nitrate reading of 0 with algae because all of your NO3 is being consumed by the algae.

How often do you do water changes?
Is the TDS of your RO/DI 0?
How much flow do you have in the tank?

I would say working on reducing the nutrients with GFO (phosban), and increased water changes (with good source water), manual removal of the algae, along with potentially upgrading your skimmer would be a good start.

[irieef]

looks like dinoflagellate..how much flow do u have in there? looks pretty stagnant..if so, get more flow going and keep up with your water changes..make sure u keep the pump on your skimmer clean too..

[gijoe83]

Thank you for the replies! I am using RO/DI water from my own cold water line in my house. I do a 15g water change once per week. I have 2 koralia 2's, one on each end. I have been contemplating upgrading them soon though. And I do not have a TDS meter to check my RO water. I will have one on the way soon though. I will also look into upgrading the skimmer. I was hoping to upgrade the skimmer when i got my overflow/sump setup working.

@almostazoo - I had this problem long before the bulbs were changed. I changed the bulbs in an attempt to help with the problem.

[jp634]

increase your cleaning crew (snails) order for a 100 gal to 125 gal tank. do a 10%water change weekly. and get some algafix for marine tanks you can order it from dr.foster & smith. cut back on your feeding we all feed our tanks to much. also check your mag level keep it high and it will reduce algae growth and not hurt your tank mine will read close to 1800 all the time.

[phenom5]

Doesn't really look like Dinos to me (doesn't mean it isn't...).

Getting a TDS meter should be #1 priority. If your filters/ membranes are shot, and you've got TDS in your water, your water changes won't necessarily help. Your doing a pretty good amount of water changes, and you still have issues, so that's where I would look first.

I would definitely wait until you can upgrade to an in-sump skimmer. In-sump skimmers are generally better than HOBs.

Might look into upping your flow. You're not terribly low in terms of flow, but a little bump up wouldn't hurt.

[gijoe83]

I will take the TDS meter advice and order one as soon as i get off work tonight. I will also look into adding lots of snails to my cleaning crew. Thanks everyone!

[Sk8r]

Well, if it's any comfort, my lfs [expert reefer] owner had this turn up in the 600 g tank he runs in-store, and it stayed for a while, then gradually went away. it looks more like a slime mold than algae, but it went away, finally.

I've tried googling every angle I can think of, and when I asked my lfs guy what it was, he didn't know, but it left.

My best advice is try to perfect your water in every aspect---I've got some good params listed in my sig---and keep skimming, and sooner or later you'll outlast it. MicroAlgaes look like heck but don't really seem to do much damage. It's the macros that can do you in.

[saltjohnswharf]

Originally Posted by gijoe83

I have 2 koralia 2's, one on each end.

Not enough flow. Aim to turn the tank volume 25 times an hour. At least 1375 GPH. 2 - Tunze 6025's will do the trick for ya.

[gijoe83]

is there a limit on how much flow you want? if i remember correctly, I decided on the 2 koralia 2's because i was factoring in flow from a return as well. I never ended up with a sump so i stuck with the koralias. Im wondering if it would be ok to add the tunze 6025 with the koralias or if that is too much flow?

[saltjohnswharf]

Well the K2's get you almost there... Add one 6025 and see how that works for you. Then you can compare the quality of the K2 to the German made Tunze.

There is a limit on how much flow you want. You're not there yet. In a FOWLR turn the volume 25 times an hour. In FO you could cut it back a bit. For a soft coral reef try for 40 times. For SPS you can go as high as 60. It depends on the tank volume, the dimensions, aquascaping, etc. A 55 is the hardest to do. Being long and narrow. Nevermind calculating in a filter. When I had a 55 I used 4 - K2's. One in each corner of the tank. It was ugly but functional.

[wbdevers]

My first guess would be some sort of fungal or bacterial growth. You could always get a fungicide/bactericide, move a wad of the stuff to another tank, and test there. I would have to say it's not cyano, dino's or algae due to the color. At my job, whenever we see sick fish or "fresh" dead they will often have a "fluffy" matting on them--usually fungal or bacterial.