Needing Some Help

petere1989 · 09/12/2013, 08:17 PM

I have a 90 gallon tank with coral and fish, and a 10-15ish gallon sump. I have a protein skimmer and am running carbon and dose the proper amounts. I have a grasp on what I am doing but recently i've been confused over some algae problems.
I had cyno, so I treated it with chemiclean, and my skimmer was useless for about a week. I did a water change, about 12 gallons, as directed after 48 hours, there was some algae in my sump, and i was going to get it out the following day. well, the next day comes around and the algaes gone. Wasn't sure where it went, but it was gone. Then I started seeing signs of algae. I don't want to say hair algae because its not green. The algae is brown and stringy and I believe it has some bubble algae in it. I'm assuming the nutrients from killing off the cyno algae caused this to happen. Also, my phosphate level rose up because of the nutrients in the water. I have always had phosphates at 0.05 and under. I do not use GFO. i use brightwell aquatics phosban and it has worked pretty good on my tank. My tanks been perfectly clean and doing perfect for the 8 months its been up.

Now, my LFS has ran out of phosban for a few weeks, so i was forced to switch to gfo. Now the tanks got brown everywhere, and the algae is at its worst. Phosphates are at 0.09. I know i'm not running gfo properly (its not tumbleing, my pump for it isn't powerful enough, i have the dual reactor from BRS) its just sitting there the pump doing 350gph through gfo then carbon. I don't really know how to get rid of this algae. I was going to change out the gfo for the phosban when my LFS gets it in stock again, he said friday.

My question is, when the phosphate level is at 0.00, will the algae start to disappear on its own? or how do you get rid of all the algae, the tank looks terrible right now and i'm at a loss at what to do. I do know that fixing the phosphate level will help but i do not know how the algae gets out of the tank.

I dont know if it means anything but i'm switching salts currently also to bio-sea marine mix and also i'm going to be getting LED lights pretty soon to replace my 4 T5 Lights.

maddmaxx · 09/12/2013, 08:45 PM

this sounds like a new system goin thru the normal new tank syndrome... you really don't want exact 0 phos, but close to it. and usually any algae will start to die off if there is no nutrients feeding it. Do you have a fuge section in your sump? if the aglae is big enough to manually remove, I would do that with the bigger chunks. the smaller stuff work on during a water change.. how much are you feeding, poss could be over feeding

maddmaxx · 09/12/2013, 08:46 PM

are you using tap water or RO/DI water for top off and water changes....?

petere1989 · 09/12/2013, 11:03 PM

I've cut back feeding every other day and i feed rinsed frozen food. I do it in small amounts so it gets eaten before adding more. Also, im using a 5 stage ro/di and the tds is 000. I check the tds at the beginning of filling my buckets and when they are full to double check. The tanks 9 months old, so new tank syndrome, maybe but there has to be something i'm doing.

thegrun · 09/13/2013, 10:33 AM

In answer to your question once you get your phosphates under control the algae will start to die and recede. Be aware however that as it dies it releases the its trapped nitrates and phosphates back into the water and you can end up right back where you started. I would try to manually remove as much of the algae as possible to reduce the reintroduction of nitrates and phosphates and be ready to replace your GFO on a weekly basis since it is going to be used up quickly until most of the algae is gone. After that you should be able to space out your GFO replacements to once every three or four weeks.

petere1989 · 09/13/2013, 08:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thegrun

In answer to your question once you get your phosphates under control the algae will start to die and recede. Be aware however that as it dies it releases the its trapped nitrates and phosphates back into the water and you can end up right back where you started. I would try to manually remove as much of the algae as possible to reduce the reintroduction of nitrates and phosphates and be ready to replace your GFO on a weekly basis since it is going to be used up quickly until most of the algae is gone. After that you should be able to space out your GFO replacements to once every three or four weeks.

ok sounds like a good plan! thanks. I didn't realize that I'd have to replace it that often. If i am used to using phosban from brightwell aquatics, would you maybe recommend using gfo since i'll be changing it so much until everything gets back to normal again?

09/12/2013, 08:17 PM	#1
petere1989 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: Peoria, Illinois Posts: 949	Needing Some Help I have a 90 gallon tank with coral and fish, and a 10-15ish gallon sump. I have a protein skimmer and am running carbon and dose the proper amounts. I have a grasp on what I am doing but recently i've been confused over some algae problems. I had cyno, so I treated it with chemiclean, and my skimmer was useless for about a week. I did a water change, about 12 gallons, as directed after 48 hours, there was some algae in my sump, and i was going to get it out the following day. well, the next day comes around and the algaes gone. Wasn't sure where it went, but it was gone. Then I started seeing signs of algae. I don't want to say hair algae because its not green. The algae is brown and stringy and I believe it has some bubble algae in it. I'm assuming the nutrients from killing off the cyno algae caused this to happen. Also, my phosphate level rose up because of the nutrients in the water. I have always had phosphates at 0.05 and under. I do not use GFO. i use brightwell aquatics phosban and it has worked pretty good on my tank. My tanks been perfectly clean and doing perfect for the 8 months its been up. Now, my LFS has ran out of phosban for a few weeks, so i was forced to switch to gfo. Now the tanks got brown everywhere, and the algae is at its worst. Phosphates are at 0.09. I know i'm not running gfo properly (its not tumbleing, my pump for it isn't powerful enough, i have the dual reactor from BRS) its just sitting there the pump doing 350gph through gfo then carbon. I don't really know how to get rid of this algae. I was going to change out the gfo for the phosban when my LFS gets it in stock again, he said friday. My question is, when the phosphate level is at 0.00, will the algae start to disappear on its own? or how do you get rid of all the algae, the tank looks terrible right now and i'm at a loss at what to do. I do know that fixing the phosphate level will help but i do not know how the algae gets out of the tank. I dont know if it means anything but i'm switching salts currently also to bio-sea marine mix and also i'm going to be getting LED lights pretty soon to replace my 4 T5 Lights.

09/12/2013, 08:45 PM	#2
maddmaxx Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Jersey Shore Posts: 3,003	this sounds like a new system goin thru the normal new tank syndrome... you really don't want exact 0 phos, but close to it. and usually any algae will start to die off if there is no nutrients feeding it. Do you have a fuge section in your sump? if the aglae is big enough to manually remove, I would do that with the bigger chunks. the smaller stuff work on during a water change.. how much are you feeding, poss could be over feeding __________________ One Life One Shot Current Tank Info: 40B Mixed reef

09/12/2013, 08:46 PM	#3
maddmaxx Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Jersey Shore Posts: 3,003	are you using tap water or RO/DI water for top off and water changes....? __________________ One Life One Shot Current Tank Info: 40B Mixed reef

09/12/2013, 11:03 PM	#4
petere1989 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: Peoria, Illinois Posts: 949	I've cut back feeding every other day and i feed rinsed frozen food. I do it in small amounts so it gets eaten before adding more. Also, im using a 5 stage ro/di and the tds is 000. I check the tds at the beginning of filling my buckets and when they are full to double check. The tanks 9 months old, so new tank syndrome, maybe but there has to be something i'm doing.

09/13/2013, 10:33 AM	#5
thegrun Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Garden Grove, Ca Posts: 17,023	In answer to your question once you get your phosphates under control the algae will start to die and recede. Be aware however that as it dies it releases the its trapped nitrates and phosphates back into the water and you can end up right back where you started. I would try to manually remove as much of the algae as possible to reduce the reintroduction of nitrates and phosphates and be ready to replace your GFO on a weekly basis since it is going to be used up quickly until most of the algae is gone. After that you should be able to space out your GFO replacements to once every three or four weeks.