Algae Infestation and Reset Advice

Surf985 · Aug 27, 2022

I've successfully kept my tank for several years now and have made it through various outbreaks (dinos, bubble algae, etc.). Those all resolved fairly simply, at least until recently.

A few months ago, I got a massive algae outbreak seemingly out of the blue. It happened about the time I added a few thin pieces of dryrock to act as flatter shelf surfaces for my corals. When I say massive, I mean that I'm literally - on a daily basis - scooping hanfduls of the stuff off the surface, and I can't keep up with hand pulling it off the rocks anymore.

I carefully broke the tank down about 2 months ago and scrubbed what rockwork and corals I could. I had some coral loss (xenia, of all things), but I figured a reset would help my clean up crew catch back up.

It didn't. With 75 gallons of straight algae, my parameters look great. I've cut feeding way back. I don't have mystery attendants (kids) throwing stuff in there. No dead fish that I can find, either lol. I'm baffled, because I'm not sure what could possibly be feeding this stuff beyond light (viparspecra blackbox leds, mostly on blues).

Anyhow. I'm really at the point of something drastic, like a peroxide dose that risks irritating a 'nem or two, or a total tear down, baking the rocks in the sun, and rebuilding from a pest free start. That means potentially killing a few corals, like mushrooms that are encrusted, so I'm hesitant.

Any last ditch advice? Or should I just tear down, use it as an excuse to get a bigger tank, and start over with new rockwork?

Reef. · Aug 27, 2022

Are you using gfo? If not what other methods have you tried apart from scrubbing?

ilyad · Aug 27, 2022

You can always get a ton of herbivores. Overstock on snails that eat whatever algae you have, and pick up a voracious fish that eats lots of algae. Fox faces are known to be massive eaters of that. You wont be able to keep it permanently in your tank, but get a young one, let it mow everything down and then rehome it to another tank with algae problems.

The OG method of ridding of algae is always reduce feeding (if feeding a lot) and get herbivores. Never fails to work

Surf985 · Aug 28, 2022

ilyad said:
You can always get a ton of herbivores. Overstock on snails that eat whatever algae you have, and pick up a voracious fish that eats lots of algae. Fox faces are known to be massive eaters of that. You wont be able to keep it permanently in your tank, but get a young one, let it mow everything down and then rehome it to another tank with algae problems.

The OG method of ridding of algae is always reduce feeding (if feeding a lot) and get herbivores. Never fails to work

That's what's got me stumped on this one. I have a fox face - it eliminated the bubble algae, and eats most algae like mad. I have an urchin that, typically, obliterates algae. The snails are mostly just victim to the one hermit or their own inability to stay upright while i'm at the office during the day. The emerald crabs did nothing. It seems to out multiply even my most determined eaters.

I do have a question for anyone with experience: does GHA typically float? While this stuff is long, fibrous, and green, that's the one bit that's throwing me off. While it's infested the rockwork, it also collects at the top of the tank. I've never seen that before.

Lavey29 · Aug 28, 2022

So you added rock that had no biodiversity or microfauna on it and it triggered an algae outbreak.

What are your current parameters? What type of algae?