First Real Algae Problem

[PatMayo]

The tank has been up about 142 days now. Coralline is growing out the gazoo but I am now getting some brown hair algae on the rock. Not green this is brown. I am also getting quite a bit of some type of macro algae that is growing on the rock. This macro algae is a large flat type leaf.

I have good flow about 26 X my total gallanage. I feed the 2 fish I have in the tank every other day and I also feed about 3 times a week with DT's. I use RO/DI water only.

I have no other type of algae in the tank. But a little in the overflow that I clean out about once every month or so. I also have a little in the sump.

I have a salifert phospate kit but it reads zero. I feed a pellet food and a little bit of flake. In addition I feed once in a while a frozen food that is rinsed very well so I don't get the juices in the tank.

I also have a large bundle of cheato in the sump. It grows well.

I have a phosbane reactor but have not been running it for the last 2 weeks.

You can see the tank here.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...5&pagenumber=7

My parameters are,
ph 8.24
Calcium 420
Alkalinity about 2.86 Meq/l
magnesium is 1250.
temp 82
phosphate test kit test zero.

What suggestions do you experts have out there for me to try to get a handle on this?

Regards,

Pat

[bertoni]

A picture might be interesting. Perhaps the brown growth could be an encrusting gorgonian. How much of the leafy alga is there?

[PatMayo]

I will try to get some pictures today Jonathan. There are probably 100 leave type structures on 1 rock and now it seems to be going to another rock. The leaves wave very nicely in the water flow. I think they would normally be green but I think I am getting some calcium pricipitate on them so they appear white.

The brown algae type stuff looks like hair algae with the hairs spaced apart much more than normal green hair algae and they look coarse not smooth. They are kind of rough looking.

Anyway, as soon as the light kicks on I will try to grab a photo or two and see if they will help you to identify and devise a treatment plan.

Regards.

Pat

[PatMayo]

Jonathan the first pictues are the bad algae. I think I need to come up with a way to get rid of it. I will also show what I think is the good macro type algae. I am not so concerned with that, at least I don't think I shuold be, it's the brown hair type I am concerned about. Can you help Jonathan?

First Picture is the bad stuff.



This next one is also what I think is bad.



These next photos are what I think is good macro algae growing out of the rock. Is this stuff ok?



This is another view of what I think is ok.




Any help is appreciated.

Regards,

Pat

[bertoni]

Well, they both look like algae. I think the second one is interesting, and I'd take the gamble and leave it in the tank, although I've had both good and bad experiences that way.

The first one is ugly, so I'd try to get rid of it. Is there any hope of doing some hand-pruning? Also, a kalk paste treatment might wipe out parts of it. Unfortunately, some algae are very successful at being invasive in our tanks.

[PatMayo]

Thanks for the advice Jonathan. I doubt I can hand prune the "ugly stuff". It's too small. Could I use Mrs.Wages lime to make a kalkwasser paste or does it need to be actual Kalkwasser powder to make the paste?

I have a tooth brush that I could scrub it off with but I am afraid that doing it that way will only spread it.

I think I can get the rocks out of the tank and give em a quick scrubbing in some fresh saltwater. That might be the eaisest way.

What about the Mrs. Wages, will that work or do I need kalkwasser powder.

Another thought, what about Joe's Juice? I wonder if that might work?

Regards,

Pat

[sarduci]

Mrs. Wangs is basically kalk. People use it all of the time in high calcium use tanks with no ill effects. Using too much at one time can raise your PH.

[chip721]

I've been watching your 90g tank thread from the beginning. You've done an excellent job. I've paid particular attention to your sucessful efforts because I'm currently in the process of upgrading from a sumpless 29g to a RR 90g. I've gained tons of useful information from your journal and pictures. With your obvious patience, I'm sure you'll get a handle on what ever is fueling this nuisance algae.

Now I have a slightly off track question if you don't mind please. What in your tank are you feeding 3x weekly with DT's? I thought filter feeders such as clams, featherdusters, sponges, etc. benefit most from phyto. What's consuming it in your present system? Pods uptake? I'm not implying this is connected to your bad algae. I'm just tying to understand the purpose of adding phyto. Keep up the good work and please keep posting photos. It's fun watching your system grow. Thanks - chip

[PatMayo]

I use it to feed the pods and ?????. It could be fueling the algae for all I know. I am tempted to stop all dt's and just feed the fish.

Jonathan, you have been in this game awhile. Is it necessary for me to use this. I was mainly doing it for the pods and whatever else could use it. I don't intend to have any pod eating fish, I have decided to just add a school of chromis (4 or 5) and that's it. The rest of the tank will be corals. I was under the impression that pods etc were good for the tank and in order to maintain them you need to feed them.

But if this is unnecessary maybe I can stop and it would help with the "ugly" algae.

I am told that Xenia use the light for food not dt's. But I know have the other corals in the tank, but quite frankly I am not sure how to feed what I have. (Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black.)

I gotta do more research and get a good coral book.

Chip, I hope that answers your question. All it did is give me more questions. I'll keep working it and see what happens. I'm going to hold off for the next month or so and see how these things do. If I can keep them going well and get the ugly algae under control then I will try some more. Actually, billfish is sending me some corals on Tuesday I'll have them on Wednesday. Then I will be holding off for a couple of months so I can re-group.

Anyway, thanks Chip, if you can some good info for me please pass it on. I'll do what I can to help you and whoever else as well.

Regards,

Pat

[bertoni]

Feeding phytoplankton isn't necessary, and it could be fueling the growth of the pest algae. Xenia feed on dissolved nutrients, so the phytoplankton could be feeding them indirectly.

Pickling lime would be fine for a kalk paste. It's really the same stuff as kalk.

[chip721]

Pat when I saw your first 2 photo's of "bad" algae, it looked eerily similar to something I've been fighting lately as well. I'm also not sure of a name, but mine started out short and green, turned deep purple, then grew to a 3/4" blade-like piece of coarse grass. My exposed rock was covered with it. Mine was so bad, I got aggravated enough to go in with gloves and pliers to remove some of it! I couldn't believe how deeply it was embedded into the rock.

It could be coincidental, but in conjunction with this outbreak, I was "cultivating" pods in a separate 10g tank to replenish my sumpless 54g. The culture went fairly well. I scooped them directly from the phytoplankton "saturated" culture, turned off my skimmer for a couple hours, then fed the tank ~ 3x weekly. I could readily see them at night in my tank again. But I have another confession. I was guilty of ...overfeeding too .

Notice the rock in the center of the photo. After about a month, I feel like I'm finally getting it under control as it's thinned out considerably and I can actually see my rock again. Beyond my extreme plier pulling method (not recommended), I basically took a 3 step approach to the problem.

1. Reduced feeding.
2. Reduced / stopped adding phyto.
3. Started using GFO.

Again, I'm not suggesting phyto is the source of your bad algae. But in conjunction with some of my other lackluster habits, I think it was a contributor to my problem. Good luck and keep us posted with your progress. chip

[PatMayo]

Jonathan-Chip

Thanks for advice. DT's is off now. I don't want this to get out of hand. If I don't take quick action it will. I am going to go to "good" food only, no flake or pellets.

As well I will watch the feeding amount and stop the DT's. I keep RC up to speed on the progress.

Regards,

Pat