Losing battle against algae

[Tswifty]

I upped the lighting on my 55g tank... about 2 weeks ago.

I had a serious outbreak of some kind of green algae. I removed the rocks, scrubbed them, and put everything back.

However since then, I get these outbreaks about every 3 days... I can't get rid of it!!!

I'm beginning to worry about my corals now... how do I get rid of this stuff???

I just added a large clump of caulerpa to my refugium to hopefully help... but what else can I do?

[Tswifty]

Here's the fuge with the caulerpa I added:

[Michael]

whats your phosphate and nitrate readings, i presume they are 0 as the algae is probably using them up, ive had spouts but keep changing the water and it soon clears, there may be a possibility your make up water has trates, just a thought

[Tswifty]

here's the other thread that is getting more traffic... I learned that it's Bryopsis... apparently a royal PITA to get rid of.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...readid=1376900

My numbers are (as of last night):
Nitrate: <1
Phosphate: 0.125
Calcium: 400
dKH: 14
Magnesium: 1410

[Michael]

i have never been able to get my dkh to 14, sorry to be off thread by how do you get them up there? mine are usually about 7.5 i have had at 9 but it settles at about 7.5 again

[rbursek]

Baked baking soda raises alk and ph, unbaked will raise alk and drop ph.

[Tswifty]

I don't want it that high... it spiked big time, and I am actually in the process of trying to figure out why and how?

To raise dkh I add Kent Pro Buffer... On right.

[sabbath]

What worked for me is.

-Run a GFO in a reactor. Change it once a week until it starts to die off.

-Make sure your RO/DI TDS is 0-1

[Michael]

Originally posted by rbursek
Baked baking soda raises alk and ph, unbaked will raise alk and drop ph.

thanks very much rburesk, sorry tswifty8 did not mean to post off thread on your thread, my apoligies

[Tswifty]

Originally posted by mikeydj
thanks very much rburesk, sorry tswifty8 did not mean to post off thread on your thread, my apoligies

No worries

[RyanMKintz]

keep up with the water changes and vac out as uch as possibe scrub it off with a tooth brush

[RyanMKintz]

keep up with the water changes and vac out as much as possibe scrub it off with a tooth brush

[Tswifty]

Yep... doing a 15g change here in a little.

Going to scrape and vac...

Also remove all the corals with the algae on them, and scrub the rocks and frag discs in a bucket of tank water. Then put them back in the tank.

[captainobvious]

Are you using RODI water for your changes? How often and much are you feeding? You can try scrubbing the rocks, killing the lights for a couple days and do a 10% water change each day. Also, do you have any kind of clean up crew or algae eating fish? A tang and a lawnmower blenny /Diamond goby might help out as well.

[Tswifty]

RO/DI water... just added 3 chromis 2 days ago... and have fed extremely light twice... Nothing fed before then.

Nitrates are almost undetectable.

I can't kill the lights because there are lots of coral frags in the tank.

It's primarily a prop tank, so there are only a few small hermit crabs in the tank.

I think I'm going to add a rabbitfish, if I don't see any improvement in a week from upping the Mag level.

[seapug]

Plain baking soda works fine as a Alkalinity booster. It won't affect pH when used in moderation.

That said, Alkalinity won't kill that Bryopsis. Raising your Magnesium level with Tech M and hooking up a PhosBan reactor with GFO media is a method that has worked for many, including me. I will never set up another tank without a PhosBan reactor and GFO. IMO, they are just as important as protein skimmers.

[Tswifty]

I have a new phosban reactor in my closet and phosban media... I just need to pick up a pump and some tubing for it tomorrow.

The jump in dKH wasn't intentional... I'm going to try boosting Mag.

what is GFO media... is that phosban?

[seapug]

yeah, PhosBan is the TLF brand name for GFO (granular ferric oxide). Hook it up. It'll permanently solve your problem in a few weeks, if not sooner.

[Tswifty]

I'm unhooking my carbon and hooking it up tonight... I was tearing this stuff out by the fist fulls... One of my chromis actually was stuck to the wall in it... It's all over my frags, my rocks, my walls... In 4 years of doing this I've never experienced anything like this.

[captainobvious]

There are cloudy days in the ocean as well. I think your corals should be fine with a day or two of darkness. Maybe do that at the same time you get your Phosban cranking...

[Tswifty]

Phosban reactor is loaded and running now

[Michael]

pleased to hear that tswifty8, hope all goes well, i have been following your thread and hope you will let us know how it goes, it may well help others with the outcome which i suspect will be success quite quickly

[Tswifty]

Here's some before/after pics from this morning after last nights, late night, scrubbing/cleaning expedition:

[Tswifty]

...and here's what I syphoned out:

[Tswifty]

Originally posted by mikeydj
pleased to hear that tswifty8, hope all goes well, i have been following your thread and hope you will let us know how it goes, it may well help others with the outcome which i suspect will be success quite quickly

Thanks Mike.

I definatley located the frag that this junk came in on... As soon as I had the outbreak and realized it wasn't hair algae, I was 99% sure who the culprit was.

It came in on a Zoo frag, I remember when I added it I saw this junk on it, but didn't think it was a big deal. Big mistake... lesson definately learned now, and my initial inspections of new purchases just had another item added to the checklist.