Algae ID

[JamesP]

The last few weeks I have had algae popping up and im just trying to get a general ID of it. I started running gfo and cut back on feedings and Im considering running flucozanole for a few weeks, but Im not very experienced in algae ID so I wanted some opinions. I have a brown thicker algae that seems to form bubbles on it and a green hair looking algae with tons of little white dots that look like copepods crawling in it. Nitrates are 0.25 red sea and phosphates are 0 since adding gfo with hanna.

If i clean it up manually nitrates go up a little so i am guessing it is consuming my nutrients giving a false sense of low levels. I feed a small piece of nori daily and one frozen cube with selcon. Was thinking about cutting the frozen cube back to every other day. No anthias or anything that would need lots of frequent feedings.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

To me it looks like a turf algae but has some brown slime and cyano growing in it.
At that point of infestation I would recommend Vibrant rather than Fluconazole. The flucon just wont be effective enough.

The vibrant will likely drop your nutrients so you may want to pull the gfo when you dose it.

 

[JamesP]

Thanks I was considering that as well. I actually have zero clean up crew right now too which im sure doesnt help. When i nuked the dt with cupramine to treat ich and aiptasia due to not quarantining when i first started, it did a great job of fixing those issues but the tank just got super nasty from the invert dieoff from copper.

I pulled the corals and fallowed them in a seperate tank during copper but i couldnt get the snails and worms out so water got nasty when they died. I pulled the rocks apart after removing cupramine and scrubbed off the funk, but it just grows back as you see. Been getting worse lately. It will be months before I can get any new snails in the dt because they need to be quatantined so here i am with no cuc and algae everywhere.

I think vibrant is what i need and i will feed frozen every other day instead of daily to reduce nutrients going in. Im dosing vodka as well and skimming with vertex alpha 200. Doing 1% daily auto water change and 6% water change every 2 weeks when vacuuming substrate. Stirring things up every 2 weeks on rocks and roller mat is cleaning particulate 24x7 and does a great job when i stir it up cleaning the suspended matter.

I should have quarantined from day 1, now im dealing with after effects of nuking tank after 2 years and starting over.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Thanks I was considering that as well. I actually have zero clean up crew right now too which im sure doesnt help. When i nuked the dt with cupramine to treat ich and aiptasia due to not quarantining when i first started, it did a great job of fixing those issues but the tank just got super nasty from the invert dieoff from copper.

I pulled the corals and fallowed them in a seperate tank during copper but i couldnt get the snails and worms out so water got nasty when they died. I pulled the rocks apart after removing cupramine and scrubbed off the funk, but it just grows back as you see. Been getting worse lately. It will be months before I can get any new snails in the dt because they need to be quatantined so here i am with no cuc and algae everywhere.

I think vibrant is what i need and i will feed frozen every other day instead of daily to reduce nutrients going in. Im dosing vodka as well and skimming with vertex alpha 200. Doing 1% daily auto water change and 6% water change every 2 weeks when vacuuming substrate. Stirring things up every 2 weeks on rocks and roller mat is cleaning particulate 24x7 and does a great job when i stir it up cleaning the suspended matter.

I should have quarantined from day 1, now im dealing with after effects of nuking tank after 2 years and starting over.

If theres nothing in there have you considered taking the rock out and scrubbing and using peroxide?

 

[JamesP]

There are only 3 corals and 9 fish right now and I could do that pretty easily in a day. I did it around easter and the rock was nice and white afterwards, but quickly got to this point again. Phosphate was high at that time though around 0.20 but that is no longer an issue. Maybe it is time to do it again now that nutrients are under control.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

There are only 3 corals and 9 fish right now and I could do that pretty easily in a day. I did it around easter and the rock was nice and white afterwards, but quickly got to this point again. Phosphate was high at that time though around 0.20 but that is no longer an issue. Maybe it is time to do it again now that nutrients are under control.

Might be worth it. Its possible you have a nasty strain of something that wont leave. But similar to my bryopsis problem I best it down by hand several times, and when I finally went for the "nuclear option" it was a lot less stress on the system and me.

FWIW, After you scrub the rock, 24hrs later test the po4 and youll get a more true reading of whats in the tank bound to rock and sand. Big algae acts just like GFO and strips it from the WC giving a false reading so to speak, because its pulling it out of the water so fast.

 

[JamesP]

What is the method you used with peroxide out of the tank? I scrubbed my rocks in a bucket with salt water then just dumped peroxide all over to get stuff in crevices. Wasnt perfect, but i wasn't sure if there is a water peroxide ratio i could mix and soak in or if pouring it all over rocks after scrubbing was good enough.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

What is the method you used with peroxide out of the tank? I scrubbed my rocks in a bucket with salt water then just dumped peroxide all over to vet stuff in crevices. Wasnt perfect, but i wasn't sure if there is a water peroxide ratio i could mix and soak in or if pouring it all over rocks after scrubbing was good enough.

I try to never go over a 10 to 1 ratio in the mix. Basic process was to put the rock in the bucket add peroxide in and scrub, then rinse in tap water and put them back in another 5g of tank water.
Its a bit lazy but I timed it by doing it on a water change day. and had 10g of tank water to play with. so, 5g peroxide bucket, 5g tapwater rinse, 5g saltwater rinse.

 

[JamesP]

Ok so i decided to man up and rip it apart and scrub the rocks and peroxide dip them. Didnt plan on this when I woke up this morning, but I know its the right thing to do in my case. Im doing them half at a time so the fish can hide in the other half while i scrub.

Its 91 out today. This sucks lol.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Ok so i decided to man up and rip it apart and scrub the rocks and peroxide dip them. Didnt plan on this when I woke up this morning, but I know its the right thing to do in my case. Im doing them half at a time so the fish can hide in the other half while i scrub.

Its 91 out today. This sucks lol.

At least its not snowing!

Good job!

 

[JamesP]

Thanks, I just needed someone to tell me to get off my butt and do it. I knew it needed to be done, but chemical treatment sounded so much easier. It still may come to it if it comes back, but at least i can say i tried if so.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Thanks, I just needed someone to tell me to get off my butt and do it. I knew it needed to be done, but chemical treatment sounded so much easier. It still may come to it if it comes back, but at least i can say i tried if so.

Hahaha. Typical man splain. I like the scrubbing. Feels more like killing with fire.
But keep an eye on it an maybe look at the vibrant to finish it off.

Kinda funny IMO. It takes me like a couple hours to smash through my tank but some folks are totally OK half nuking theirs for months with a chem.

 

[JamesP]

So im super slow. Big difference between the two sides. About to do the other side next. Water is all cloudy from me messing with the sand so much.

 

[USMC 4 LIFE]

Looks really good so far!

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Saweeet!

 

[JamesP]

9 hours later, just finished deep clean of dt. Im thinking ill get some vibrant Friday to make sure its 100% knocked out but it looks like a whole new tank at this point. Changed out carbon and gfo for fresh media while i was at it. I feel better now though and it was the right choice i think. So much for needing an algae id lol.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

So much for needing an algae id lol.

Um, yea I don't want to go there but yea...Hahahaha

Good work. If you have some bottled bacteria, I like to drop it in just in case of , well just in case...

 

[JamesP]

Yeah good call, dosing up now with Microbacter7. I have a big ceramic media block in the sump too which is rated for my whole tank volume in case those rocks dont have much of a bio filter in them at this point which i think is pretty likely. Ill be keeping any eye on ammonia this week too.

 

[JamesP]

Its been about 24 hours and i tested 0.25 nitrate with red sea and 0.03 phosphate with hanna. Forgot to actually turn the carbon reactor on after changing and flushing it yesterday oops. There is a small amount of gfo mixed in the carbon as well. I dont usually run gfo, but i was going to until i get some vibrant in there to make sure the algae cant bounce back if the rocks or sand are leeching phosphate. Water was a little cloudy today. Maybe bacteria from vodka has more to eat at right now so i got a mini bloom? Ammonia is 0 with ammonia alert. Everything is good so far I guess.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Sweet.
Your dosing vodka ? Not sure you need it.
The gfo will def pull out some heavy metals. I think cuprisorb is the same thing. Not worried about po4 really.