Need help - algae

[Zack857]

Hey guys, I'm new to keeping saltwater and am experiencing a algae outbreak of an algae I'm not familiar with, I've kept a lot of freshwater and successfully keeping saltwater at the moment.

My tank: Fluval Evo 13.5, stock filter media and mechanical filtration, no anti-phosphate remover (phos-guard etc.).

The problem here is I'm out of town and have my father watching over my fish tank and doing water changes while I'm gone, but I go back and forth between his house for the summer. So I'm back here and the algae (in 2 weeks) has gone completely out of control, I cleaned it like crazy before I left (Took the rock out and cleaned it brushing off as much algae as I could (kept it wet), scraped the algae off the walls with a razor, and siphoned out 80% of the water and added back RO water from my personal RO system) and it was spotless and he did a water change about 2 weeks after I left only removing 25% and brushing the walls because in two weeks I was going to return, now in the two weeks after that water change the algae is insane!

Any help would be awesome, I've had algae in the past and it was just a carpet of little strands but now this has turned my rock into a slimy blob with red/green algae everywhere (see pics)

Thanks in advanced!









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[Zack857]

P.S. - If better pictures are needed I can take them, these were just quick ones.


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[Zack857]

P.P.S - I'm dosing my tank with 1.5ml of Reef Fusion 1/2 every night. Don't know if that changes much but... yeah.


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[Barro777]

I'm no expert, but IMO that looks like cyano to me. Turn off the lights and cover the tank with a blanket for a one-week blackout. Also, what is your water source? Get yourself a good RODI unit if you don't have one. Take steps to reduce nitrates, phosphates and other nutrients as much as you can. Step up water changes and circulation. Good luck!

[Diana A]

Siphon what you can out during a water change...
Turn off lights for 3 days (corals will not be harmed by 3 days of no lights)
After that siphon whatever is left..

What are your nitrate/phosphate test results?

This is common on a new tank and will pass on its own provided you keep up with proper maintenance..


You are at the end of the cycle - not Ammonia to Nitrate for a fish-cycle, but Nitrate to N Gas for a reef cycle. Any tank with sand and some rock will be able to turn any amount of nitrate into N gas quite effectively once the bacterial base is established. Just wait it out a few more months. Anything that you do to inhibit the cyano will just stall things. If you used dry/dead rock, this is contributing to this and also just needs time to settle down.

It can take a year, or more, for a tank to be able to process N on it own... and to some degree P by binding and unbinding with the aragonite. Just keep up your routine water changes and you should see some settling in a few more months.

[Zack857]

I did my WC yesterday and scrubbed the rock cleaning off most the algae, then filling it back up with RO water from my machine. My parameters are perfect via my test kit and my LFS, phosphates aren't high either. Salinity is a smidge low but not low enough to worry about, barely anything.


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[Zack857]

Originally Posted by Zack857

I did my WC yesterday and scrubbed the rock cleaning off most the algae, then filling it back up with RO water from my machine. My parameters were perfect even before the water change via my test kit and my LFS, phosphates aren't high either. Salinity is a smidge low but not low enough to worry about, barely anything.


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[Zack857]

I meant my parameters were perfect prior to my water change* some reason I can't edit my post


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