algae everywhere

[Stadler]

Hi everyone,

I’m dealing with a pretty bad algae outbreak in my Reefer 170 and I’m not completely sure what I’m looking at.

It’s covering a lot of the rocks, parts of the sand, and even some equipment. Some of it looks like green hair or turf algae, but there are also brown/golden slimy areas with bubbles trapped in them, so I’m wondering if dinos or cyano could also be mixed in.

My latest ATI ICP results were:

• Salinity: 35.25 PSU
• KH: 8.13
• Calcium: 394.9
• Magnesium: 1332
• Nitrate: 25.11 ppm
• Phosphate: 0.19 ppm
  
  
  Any advice on lighting, flow, clean-up crew or next steps would be appreciated.

 

[Kooma]

How often are you doing water changes?

What are you doing to remove dissolved organic compounds?

I can say from my own system, nitrate and phosphate alone won’t drive algae growth, my system is over 100 nitrate and over 1.00ppm phosphate, and have zero algae growth.

I’d start with the DOC and go from there.

 

[Stadler]

How often are you doing water changes?

What are you doing to remove dissolved organic compounds?

I can say from my own system, nitrate and phosphate alone won’t drive algae growth, my system is over 100 nitrate and over 1.00ppm phosphate, and have zero algae growth.

I’d start with the DOC and go from there.

Water change once a week. I have the red sea skimmer 300 and reef mat250

 

[EnterName]

First of all, I'm sorry this is happening to you, let's hope we can figure out how to fix this

It might be easier for others to help you if you answer the following questions:

1. How old is your tank and has it already gone through "the ugly phase"?
2. For how long have you been struggling with this issue?
3. What have you already tried to get rid of it?
4. Where do you get your water from? Do you use your own RO/DI unit or do you get it from a store?
5. Can you post screenshots from the complete ICP results?

The brown slime could be Dinoflagellates. The green slime might be a green Cyano species or simply green hair algae (or both), but maybe it isn't too important right now what exactly is growing in your tank.

While nitrate and phosphate alone don't necessarily have to cause this, it's astonishing that the nutrient levels are still elevated after so much growth, and I would try to reduce nutrients before considering any other options.

I would start with manual removal and larger water changes. This will get rid of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and nitrate. Phosphate will probably stay a bit longer, as substrate and rocks act as a buffer.

Before you start, you might want to make sure the water and salt mix you are using aren't the actual source of the issue. I would start by measuring nitrate and phosphate on freshly mixed saltwater. Both should be undetectable. Maybe you want to test your RO/DI with a TDS or conductivity meter, as well. You should see 0 ppm TDS or below 1 μS/cm conductivity. If you don't have such a device, your LFS should have one.

Edit: wording

 

[CHSUB]

Here again of the foolishness of not blaming nutrients for algae. Tank is filthy and maintenance is subpar. The results are algae and the report card is inorganic nutrients no3, po4!

Op, clean the tank; results will be less algae and lower nutrients.

 

[Bear22]

Assess your livestock feeding practices. That is the source of the nutrients (assuming that you have zero or darn near zero TDS in terms of water quality).

Second, assess your lighting period, is it too much for too long (duration)?

Nutrients = the fuel

Lighting = the gas pedal

Consider introducing/establishing a competing biome (MicroBacter 7, PNS ProBio are examples).

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Can you give more details on what you've done so far, how long has this been going on? The algae is covering the powerhead and even the wire, it gives the impression its not been cleaned in some time.

Your nutrients are kind of high, and with that much algae it means the nutrients are actually much higher than showing on the test. Can you advise your filtration, how many fish do you have, how often do you feed?

 

[Stadler]

First of all, I'm sorry this is happening to you, let's hope we can figure out how to fix this

It might be easier for others to help you if you answer the following questions:

1. How old is your tank and has it already gone through "the ugly phase"?
2. For how long have you been struggling with this issue?
3. What have you already tried to get rid of it?
4. Where do you get your water from? Do you use your own RO/DI unit or do you get it from a store?
5. Can you post screenshots from the complete ICP results?

The brown slime could be Dinoflagellates. The green slime might be a green Cyano species or simply green hair algae (or both), but maybe it isn't too important right now what exactly is growing in your tank.

While nitrate and phosphate alone don't necessarily have to cause this, it's astonishing that the nutrient levels are still elevated after so much growth, and I would try to reduce nutrients before considering any other options.

I would start with manual removal and larger water changes. This will get rid of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and nitrate. Phosphate will probably stay a bit longer, as substrate and rocks act as a buffer.

Before you start, you might want to make sure the water and salt mix you are using aren't the actual source of the issue. I would start by measuring nitrate and phosphate on freshly mixed saltwater. Both should be undetectable. Maybe you want to test your RO/DI with a TDS or conductivity meter, as well. You should see 0 ppm TDS or below 1 μS/cm conductivity. If you don't have such a device, your LFS should have one.

Edit: wording

I have also ICP the RO and nothing detected, zero TDS using the pen or in line TDS meter

1- A year give or take
2-2/3 months
3-Tried less light, less feeding, flux rx and phosphate rx.
4-Make my own water, have been using Red Sea Bluck Bucket, but will change to the Nyos pure for my next batch.
5-

 

[Stadler]

rients for algae. Tank is

Here again of the foolishness of not blaming nutrients for algae. Tank is filthy and maintenance is subpar. The results are algae and the report card is inorganic nutrients no3, po4!

Op, clean the tank; results will be less algae and lower nutrients.

Mate, i removed all the algae and cleaned the whole tank, including sump 2 weeks ago, but it is back again, hence why I'm looking for help.

 

[Stadler]

Can you give more details on what you've done so far, how long has this been going on? The algae is covering the powerhead and even the wire, it gives the impression its not been cleaned in some time.

Your nutrients are kind of high, and with that much algae it means the nutrients are actually much higher than showing on the test. Can you advise your filtration, how many fish do you have, how often do you feed?

Trust me, I fully cleanned 2 weeks ago, including the wire, but this is back again. reefmat 250 and redsea skimmer 300. only feed once a day, some days pellets and frozen on other days. 6 fishes.

 

[CHSUB]

Mate, i removed all the algae and cleaned the whole tank, including sump 2 weeks ago, but it is back again, hence why I'm looking for help.

I clean my tank weekly, if not more. Aquariums are a stew of nutrients and intense lighting which is exactly what algae needs.

Here is the results of my advice…you be the judge.

 

[reeftimer]

Gotta clean ur tank weekly

 

[EnterName]

rients for algae. Tank is

Here again of the foolishness of not blaming nutrients for algae. Tank is filthy and maintenance is subpar. The results are algae and the report card is inorganic nutrients no3, po4!

Op, clean the tank; results will be less algae and lower nutrients.

Mate, i removed all the algae and cleaned the whole tank, including sump 2 weeks ago, but it is back again, hence why I'm looking for help.

I understand your frustration and I think it could have been formulated nicer, but you unfortunately will need to repeat the cleaning process until nutrient levels are normalizing and probably a bit more as this growth "tricks" the test kits by binding lots of the available nutrients in biomass.

I would avoid nitrate removers as you probably don't want to be carbon dosing right now. It will fuel the bad stuff, and we don't know if there is already far too much dissolved organic carbon.

Phosphate adsorbers are fine, but read the instructions carefully or you risk dropping phosphate too fast which some corals really hate.

I know it's annoying, but the residual ICP test doesn't look like there is another reason for this outbreak.

 

[Stadler]

I clean my tank weekly, if not more. Aquariums are a stew of nutrients and intense lighting which is exactly what algae needs.

Here is the results of my advice…you be the judge.

I do water change weekly, just haven't had time to clean last week, will get it done this weekend.

Gotta clean ur tank weekly

I know, and I usually do, but going trhough a divorce , too much to deal atm, so only been able to do quick water changes for the last 2 weeks.

 

[Dom]

Here again of the foolishness of not blaming nutrients for algae.

Ouch.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Trust me, I fully cleanned 2 weeks ago, including the wire, but this is back again. reefmat 250 and redsea skimmer 300. only feed once a day, some days pellets and frozen on other days. 6 fishes.

You're going to get a lot of different advice here so I feel for you. Just me personally, my next step would be to increase the flow as much as possible without blowing sand around, and I would do about 25% water changes daily for 4 or 5 days. Clean the filters and maintain a low nutrient system, 25 nitrates is much too high IMO and the doc's are probably very high. Turkey baste the rocks during water changes to suck up the detritus. Also stick the syphon hose into the sand and pinching it to only suck up the black cloud and leave the sand. Feed only frozen and rinse the food in rodi water before feeding. All these things will knock a lot of it back and then I would re-evaluate. Good luck

 

[slingfox]

It looks like you may have Dino’s mixed in with the green hair algae. That is a painful combo to deal with. Since you don’t have much coral you may want to turn down the intensity of the lighting until things get under control.

How much do you feed during the once a day feeding? It is possible you are still feeding too much if that one feeding is pellets/flakes as you are putting in too much.

What kind to CUC do you have?

What kind of dry rock did you use?

Do you have UV available to battle the Dino’s?

For now it seems like you should do a decennial clean-up of the display and adjust things like feeding , lighting, and CUC and see if the situation improves. Getting a UV could also be helpful.